OT Old electricity bill

[Robin]

Thanks for that reminder [shivers] of life in the 1950s-60s. I wish the BBC would invite you to comment when they give David Willets a platform to claim simplistically that young people today can never hope to have things as good as the baby boomers did.

On a point of detail, I was especially sorry to learn that you did not have the pleasure of plugging the iron into the overhead light socket - or rather into the 3-way adapter alongside a light bulb and the TV. That meant you could iron with the flex out of the way; you were under the light; and no one could complain you were in the way if you watched TV while doing it :)

[Chris J Dixon]

AIUI, the latest caravan fridges have become so complex that, when running off gas, they still require the electric feed for the control side, so if your battery fails, you can't run the gas fridge. :-(

Chris

[Tim Streater]

The Old Electricty Bill. Hmmm. There's a TV programme there somewhere.

[Andrew]

All electrolux 'silent' fridges could be fitted with gas or kerosene kits for off-grid use. I had one for years.

All the houses on my estate (built between 1972 and 1978) had 3/4 inch gas from meter to a Tee juncion in the kitchen that fed a 1/2 inch gas point for a fridge, and the other Tee was a 1/2 inch run to the cooker.

Just before lockdown th Worthing BHF charity shop had some table top silent fridges that had come out of a London hotel refurb. Not made by electrolux though.

[Andrew]

Paying £5 a week rent is something todays young people won't be able to enjoy.

When I worked in London I shared a flat with two females and two cats. This was between 1974 and 1978 and the flat was on an unfurnished lease from the Church of england, in a fairly quiet backstreet in W9, just off Maida Vale. It cost me £26 a month in rent and share of bills. I was earning £1800 a year at the time. No chance of that happening today.

[Scribbles]

The figure I quoted was per month Andrew! And a rip-off at that price i.m.o.

In 1971, I was paying £5.25pw plus coin slot electricity meter charges for a manky bedsit in Southsea with shared bathroom. Rent worked out at around 2.5% per month of my annual pre-tax salary. Until quite recently, doing the same calculation on my daughter's income and outgoings showed her to be spending around 4.5% pm of her annual income on rent so the younger generation perhaps do have it tougher, although daughter's abode was a pleasant self contained flat so she was getting more for the money.

I don't have the figures but for MiL, when her sons were small, living on a widowed mother's allowance plus tiny income from a part time job, that paltry £5pm* would have been a much larger proportion of her income.

*I recall either Terry or his brother telling me that the rent hadn't changed in around 20 years.

[S Viemeister]

In the 60s, my flatmate and I paid £6 per month for a two-room flat in Edinburgh's west end (would cost a fortune today!). No bathroom, and a shared toilet on the landing, but we did have a kitchen sink (no hot water, so we used a couple of kettles), a gas cooker, and a fireplace in each room. One socket per room, and an overhead light in the kitchen/living room/dining room.