A 'period' classics pictures thread (Mk II)

[SiDon]

Bolton in 1980. Sorry it's low res. May surprise a few to see that Bolton has such architecture.

[daveenty]

SiDon said:

May surprise a few to see that Bolton has such architecture.

Not when they used to walk through that arch to get to "The Nevada" on a Saturday night.

Le Mans Crescent, so a rather fitting name for this thread/forum as well.

[P5BNij]

Sid's Dad said:

M3DGE said:

vixen1700 said:

More Facel Vegas meeting up in Banbury in the early '70s.



The car on the right fascinated a ten year old me when I saw this advert in the March 1977 Thoroughbred and Classic Cars magazine.
Wanted one ever since.

The name alone just blew me away.

Despite being loved at the time, only OGS 786 definitely made it through. Was taxed until 1/6/2020, I assume now laid up. Wierdly the record says 'first registered 2001' but I guess that means it was found as a wreck and the new owner persuaded DVLA to allocate the original plate. No record of any of the others other than the plate 2 GPJ, now on a Ford.

There was a garage that specialised in Facel Vegas along the road between Cropredy and Banbury in the early seventies. I used to go past it every day on the school bus. It was the highlight of the journey. Many of the Facels they had in were quite scruffy - they even had a manky Excellence in - but one, an electric blue Facel 11 registered SPY222 was in splendid condition.

Was the garage in Little Bourton, just north of Banbury as you come up the A423...? The garage there is long gone (new houses there now, inevitably) but I can remember a two tone green Riley Elf parked there for many years.

Meanwhile, Rome in the '50s....

[Turbobanana]

P5BNij said:

Meanwhile, Rome in the '50s....

What's the car behind the lady (the one that isn't a FIAT 600)?

[P5BNij]

I'm struggling with that one too, to me it looks more like something from Coventry than (say) Turin. Probably isn't though!

[Turbobanana]

Looks big compared to the 600 (mind you, most things are). American?

[nicanary]

I think it's a Fiat 1400.

[Turbobanana]

nicanary said:

I think it's a Fiat 1400.

Inclined to agree I think.

[Speed 3]

daveenty said:

SiDon said:

May surprise a few to see that Bolton has such architecture.

Not when they used to walk through that arch to get to "The Nevada" on a Saturday night.

Le Mans Crescent, so a rather fitting name for this thread/forum as well.

Scene for many a film or TV program. The revamped museum with all the Egyptian stuff is also mightily impressive. Le Mans obviously the twin town. There used to be a 24hr pedal car race in Leverhulme Park, not sure if its still done. British Aerospace Lostock invariably won with their access to light metals, unlike our school effort which was converted from a blackboard frame Think we still finished in the top 6 despite emergency welding at 3am.

When I was at school I did a history project and had access to some of the original town plans. LMC and the Town Hall are impressive enough but if they'd have completed the original plan there would have been an amazing boulevard running all the way through to the church, Paris style. I'd never realised until that point that the town hall and church were in a line opposite each other (unlike the road system we ended up with -Churchgate/Deansgate/Bradshawgate).

Another fact I only stumbled across in the last couple of years, when watching the whites away was that there's an almost identical copy of the town hall in Portsmouth (Guildhall)

Edited by Speed 3 on Thursday 14th January 12:23

[Turbobanana]

It's a great pic, very atmospheric. Taken from the bottom of Via dei Fori Imperiali which leads up to Piazza Venezia. There's building work going on there at the moment so much of it is covered with screens and hoardings. I believe they're building a new Metro stop in the vicinity.

The Colosseum was pretty much "in the way" until the 1930s when proper restoration and preservation began.

[RicksAlfas]

SiDon said:

May surprise a few to see that Bolton has such architecture.

Many old Northern towns do/did. They had such wealth 150 years ago.
Here's Huddersfield Railway Station. (1980s looking at the cars).

[Dapster]

RicksAlfas said:

SiDon said:

May surprise a few to see that Bolton has such architecture.

Many old Northern towns do/did. They had such wealth 150 years ago.
Here's Huddersfield Railway Station. (1980s looking at the cars).

White 3 series E30 on the left was launched in the UK in 1983 - I think that's the newest car I can see. Also what's on the right next to the Spitfire? Bentley Mulsanne? Wowzer!

[Keep it stiff]

Meanwhile, Rome in the '50s....


[/quote]

Will look nice when they finish it, picture must have been taken in the afternoon. not a builder in sight!

[soxboy]

Dapster said:

RicksAlfas said:

SiDon said:

May surprise a few to see that Bolton has such architecture.

Many old Northern towns do/did. They had such wealth 150 years ago.
Here's Huddersfield Railway Station. (1980s looking at the cars).

White 3 series E30 on the left was launched in the UK in 1983 - I think that's the newest car I can see. Also what's on the right next to the Spitfire? Bentley Mulsanne? Wowzer!

Aye lad, where there's muck there's brass!

Nice mk1 Prelude in centre of shot.

[P5BNij]

I don't think I've posted this one before, apologies if I have - deepest darkest Brum, 1967....

[RichB]

P5BNij said:

I don't think I've posted this one before, apologies if I have - deepest darkest Brum, 1967....

It's only when you look back at these photos and realise the grim reality of these places. Forget the images conjured up by Heartbeat and Poirot on the Bluebell Railway, this looks like somewhere you'd swap a some swag after a jewelry raid or hide a body in a pile of damp coal. I'd hesitate to park any car of mine there for fear of it being up on bricks when I got back.

[vixen1700]

Sid's Dad said:

There was a garage that specialised in Facel Vegas along the road between Cropredy and Banbury in the early seventies. I used to go past it every day on the school bus. It was the highlight of the journey. Many of the Facels they had in were quite scruffy - they even had a manky Excellence in - but one, an electric blue Facel 11 registered SPY222 was in splendid condition.

From Volume 1:



This HK500 is outside that garage.



SPY222 At the same time.

Saw pictures of it at a show on the Facel Facebook page last year and it looked superb.

[P5BNij]

RichB said:

P5BNij said:

I don't think I've posted this one before, apologies if I have - deepest darkest Brum, 1967....

It's only when you look back at these photos and realise the grim reality of these places. Forget the images conjured up by Heartbeat and Poirot on the Bluebell Railway, this looks like somewhere you'd swap a some swag after a jewelry raid or hide a body in a pile of damp coal. I'd hesitate to park any car of mine there for fear of it being up on bricks when I got back.

My thoughts exactly, and some of it today is still pretty grim ,a lot of the locations I work to on the railway aren't nice places to hang around in.

West London Line in the '70s.... I work trains through here regularly and the new modern steel and glass station buildings are in total contrast to the weeds and graffiti that infest most of the route down to Clapham....

[aeropilot]

RichB said:

P5BNij said:

I don't think I've posted this one before, apologies if I have - deepest darkest Brum, 1967....

It's only when you look back at these photos and realise the grim reality of these places. Forget the images conjured up by Heartbeat and Poirot on the Bluebell Railway, this looks like somewhere you'd swap a some swag after a jewelry raid or hide a body in a pile of damp coal. I'd hesitate to park any car of mine there for fear of it being up on bricks when I got back.

Except that wasn't really the case back then.

Another 10-15 years and that would be very much become the case.

[P5BNij]