Food & Drink

1950s 1950

Bird's Custard Powder

The yellow tin that made proper custard out of cornflour, and has barely changed its packaging since.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1950s 1951

The Larder And The Meat Safe

A marble shelf, a mesh-fronted meat safe and a fly-proof gauze window. Refrigeration for people who did not have refrigeration.

🛋️ Around The House🍽️ Food & Drink

1950s 1951

The Wall's Stop Me And Buy One Tricycle

A man on a tricycle with a cold box on the front, ringing a bell along the seafront and through the estates.

🍽️ Food & Drink🏬 Shops & High Street

1950s 1952

Spam Fritters

Tinned meat in batter. A school dinner staple that divides every family gathering to this day.

🍽️ Food & Drink✏️ School

1950s 1954

Rationing Ending

Meat was the last thing to come off ration in July 1954, ending a system that had outlasted the war by nine years.

🍽️ Food & Drink🏬 Shops & High Street

1950s 1955

Corona Pop Man

A lorry, a crate of glass bottles in colours that do not exist in nature, and threepence back for every empty you returned.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1950s 1956

The Coffee Bar

Gaggia machines arrived from Italy and gave British teenagers the first indoor space that was theirs.

🍽️ Food & Drink🎵 Music

1950s 1959

Vesta Curry

Dehydrated curry, rehydrated on the hob, served with rice that came in the same packet and noodles you fried yourself.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1960s 1965

Milk Bottles On The Step

Daily doorstep delivery in glass pints, with a note in the empty for tomorrow's order.

🍽️ Food & Drink🛋️ Around The House

1960s 1966

Fray Bentos Pies

Steak and kidney in a shallow tin, oven-baked with the pastry rising over the rim. Nobody has ever opened one safely.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1960s 1968

The Party Seven

Watney's Party Seven: a giant can of beer opened with a screwdriver and a great deal of optimism.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1973

Angel Delight

Butterscotch or strawberry powder that turned half a pint of milk into a mousse in about ninety seconds.

🍽️ Food & Drink🍬 Sweets & Chocolate

1970s 1975

Findus Crispy Pancakes

Semicircles of breadcrumbed pancake filled with minced beef or cheese, and hot enough to cause actual injury.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1976

The Fondue Set

A wedding present that came out for one dinner party in 1976 and then lived at the back of a cupboard.

🛋️ Around The House🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1979

Pot Noodle

Dried noodles in a pot with a sachet of soy sauce, launched in Britain in 1979 and never off a student shelf since.

🍽️ Food & Drink

1970s 1979

The Sodastream

Carbonate your own tap water at home, then ruin it with concentrate that tasted almost but not quite like cola.

🍽️ Food & Drink📟 Tech & Gadgets

1980s 1985

Findus Crispy Pancake Adverts And The Freezer Centre

The freezer centre was a whole shop of frozen food, and going there meant a chest freezer in the garage.

🏬 Shops & High Street🍽️ Food & Drink

1990s 1998

Sunny Delight

A drink marketed with extraordinary aggression that briefly became the third best-selling soft drink in Britain, then collapsed.

🍽️ Food & Drink

2010s 2014

The Great British Bake Off On The BBC

A gentle competitive baking show that became the most watched programme on British television.

📺 Telly🍽️ Food & Drink

2010s 2015

The Rise Of The Meal Deal

A fixed-price lunch combination that became a national institution and a genuine economic indicator.

🍽️ Food & Drink🏬 Shops & High Street

2010s 2016

Deliveroo And The End Of Ringing The Takeaway

Food delivery apps replaced the paper menu drawer and the awkward phone call in about four years.

🍽️ Food & Drink📟 Tech & Gadgets