Over the last few years, we have seen the British high street change a lot in a short space of time. It led me to thinking about how the high street used to be, so I thought I would find out.
The early 1900s had been a time where there was a huge divide on the high street between those who had money and those who didn't. For those where money was never limited, they could spend there time and money browsing around department stores such as Selfridges or visiting their local tailor or dressmaker to have something bespoke made for them. People who had limited money had to resort to buying second hand from local market stalls where they could pick up a bargain.
Another popular business on the high street was tearooms. For those that could afford it, they would be able to join friends or family whilst enjoying a nice cup of tea and a delicious fresh cake. It wasn't just the wealthy that used tearooms, as it has been noted that some poorer people would save up for a long time so that they could have a treat at the local tearoom, usually for a special occasion such as a birthday.
It is the norm today to just pop out to the local supermarket and pick up everything you need in one place however back in pre-war Britain you would buy your meat from the butchers, food basics such as butter and fresh fruit and veg, sweets could be bought from the sweetshop and you would visit the ironmonger for various tools. Unlike supermarkets today, when visiting these types of shops, the produce would come in whole and the shopkeeper would weight out and cut the amount each individual needed. It saved a lot on packaging and wastage. For things like cotton, you could pick them up in the penny bazaar's where all manner of cheap but useful things were sold, all for just a penny.
The high street itself was often a friend yet busy atmosphere. Everyone, mainly women were out of the house early to ensure they got the best products. The later in the day they went, the more likely they were to get fruit and veg on the turn or the meat that nobody else wanted. During the 1910s, lamps were still lit by hand each evening as electricity was yet to arrive on the high street. Newspapers could be bought on street corners rather than in shops and passers-by would be able to hear the seller shouting about the latest headlines. At a time when not everyone could read, this was how most people heard that Britain was at war with Germany.
The outbreak of war saw recruitment offices pop up all over the country with most of them being located on the high street to attract more people. Reports described how queues of people could be seen on the high street all wanting to volunteer.
As the war dragged on, the high street was hugely affected. Many roles were taken over by women for a start and at lot of these women now had money to spare. But with it getting harder to get supplies to Britain, the shops were having less and less for sale. Queues would form at the local shops in order to get some food. People were told to not buy things unnecessarily but the government knew they needed to do something more to restrict the amount people could buy. The answer - rationing which was brought into force in January 1918 with the restriction of sugar. This meant in theory that no matter how much money you had, you all were entitled to the same amount of restricted foods.
By April, other items such as meat, cheese, butter and margarine were also rationed. The government was able to enforce rationing in a short space of time by issuing everybody with a ration card. In order to receive your weekly ration, you had to register with you local butcher and grocer and this was the only place you would be able to buy rationed products from. With the ration books came a lot of hard work and filling in forms for the shopkeepers which all took time. This meant that in some overpopulated places, you could expect to queue up for hours just to get your weeks ration.
The war changed the high street like never before. It was never going to go back for the war had started to shape it into what we know today. The rationing of items didn't just finish with the end of the war. Britain struggled through more austerity as the years went by. After all, Britain had spent millions to win the war as a consequence was in debt. The number of men that had been killed or injured during the war had affected family life and so for a lot of poorer families, money was extremely tight. They couldn't afford a lot of the basics let alone any treats or luxuries. Of those who were lucky enough to return home after the war in okay form, many then had to fight the battle to survive the Spanish Flu epidemic that swept across Britain. A lot of Men were unable to work in the industries they had pre-war so the shops continued to look bare. With people having less and less money as the post-war years dragged on, people needed products as cheap as possible and this saw the end to many businesses on the high street.
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