🎸 1960s

1960s 1960

Sooty And The XYLOPHONE

Harry Corbett's glove puppet, bought on Blackpool pier, who became one of the longest-running acts in British television.

📺 Telly🧸 Toys & Games

1960s 1960

Sweets By The Quarter

Jars on a shelf, brass scales, and a quarter of whatever you pointed at, twisted shut at the corners.

🍬 Sweets & Chocolate🏬 Shops & High Street

1960s 1960

The Anderson Shelter Turned Shed

Wartime shelters that outlived the war by decades and quietly became garden sheds all over Britain.

🛋️ Around The House

1960s 1961

The Mini

Issigonis turned the engine sideways, put the wheels at the corners, and changed small car design permanently.

🚗 Cars & Transport

1960s 1962

Airfix Kits

Polystyrene model kits sold in polythene bags on a card, cheap enough to buy with pocket money.

🧸 Toys & Games

1960s 1962

The Transistor Radio

Pocket sized, leather cased, powered by a PP3 battery, and held against one ear at low volume after lights out.

📟 Tech & Gadgets🎵 Music

1960s 1962

Vinyl Singles With A Pushed-Out Centre

British 45s came with a removable centre for jukeboxes, and everyone had a drawer full of the little plastic bits.

🎵 Music

1960s 1962

Woodbine And The Cigarette Machine

Cigarette vending machines bolted to shop fronts, with a drawer that clattered out and change taped inside the packet.

🏬 Shops & High Street

1960s 1963

Blue Peter Badges

Send in something good enough and a shield-shaped badge arrived in the post. Nothing else at that age came close.

📺 Telly✏️ School

1960s 1963

Sindy

Launched by Pedigree as the girl next door: flat shoes, duffle coat, and outfits your gran could knit.

🧸 Toys & Games

1960s 1964

Bus Conductors And Ticket Machines

A conductor upstairs and down with a leather satchel and a Setright machine that punched your ticket with a clunk.

🚗 Cars & Transport

1960s 1964

Radio Caroline

A ship anchored in international waters playing records all day, listened to under the bedclothes on a transistor radio.

🎵 Music📟 Tech & Gadgets

1960s 1964

Top Of The Pops

The chart show that decided what was in your ears for the following seven days, whether you liked it or not.

📺 Telly🎵 Music

1960s 1964

Trolls (The Original Ones)

A Danish woodcutter carved one for his daughter, and within five years they were on every school desk in Britain.

🧸 Toys & Games

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 1965

The Chopper's Ancestor: The Raleigh RSW16

Raleigh's answer to the Moulton: a shopper bike with 16-inch wheels and balloon tyres that rode like a sofa.

🚗 Cars & Transport🧸 Toys & Games

1960s 1965

The Spirograph

Toothed plastic wheels, a biro and a lot of pins, producing patterns that looked far more impressive than the effort involved.

🧸 Toys & Games✏️ School

1960s 1966

Action Man

Palitoy's licensed version of GI Joe, sold in Britain with a straight face and an enormous range of kit.

🧸 Toys & Games

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 1967

The Teasmade

Goblin's bedside contraption: clock, kettle, teapot and lamp, all in one slightly alarming unit.

🛋️ Around The House📟 Tech & Gadgets

1960s 1968

Green Cross Code Man

Public information films that terrified and instructed a generation in roughly equal measure.

📣 Adverts✏️ School

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

1960s 1968

The Twin-Tub Christmas Catalogue

Grattan, Kays, Littlewoods: a doorstop catalogue delivered in autumn, with the toy section thumbed to destruction by November.

🏬 Shops & High Street🛋️ Around The House

1960s 1969

Watching The Moon Landing On A Rented Telly

Britain stayed up for Apollo 11, most of it in front of a set that had been rented specially for the occasion.

📺 Telly📟 Tech & Gadgets