The Mill Lane 1947 Austerity Special

The very first edition of the Varsity Handbook appeared on 1st September 1947 and cost three shillings (i.e. 15 new pence). It could unblushingly offer itself as the Freshman’s guide to all things Cantabrigian, for women would not become members of the University until 1948. Only Girton and Newnham admitted female undergraduates at this date; male undergraduates may have outnumbered female by as much as 10 to 1. This was also the era of compulsory military service for men (‘National Service’). The ‘call up’ was managed by the Ministry of Labour, it took place at age 18, and the duration of service was two years. As a result, Freshmen matriculated at the age of 20, except when permission was granted to defer National Service until after graduation.

Moreover, all members of the University in statu pupillari were under the authority of the magisterial Proctor (in mortar board) and his trusty Bulldogs (in top hats): “Name and college, sir!” Those who transgressed the proctorial rules were fined in multiples of 6s.8d (exactly one third of a pre-decimal pound, or approximately 33 new pence). They could also be ‘gated’ (confined to college in the evenings), or ‘rusticated’ (sent home for the remainder of Term). A particularly egregious offender might be sent down!

The war in Europe had ended on 8th May 1945, and the war in the Far East on 15th August of that year. Everyday life in 1947 was nonetheless heavily constrained by the dislocation of the post-war world economy, and it was essential to maximise British industrial output and exports to pay for vital food imports. Certain foods (and clothing) were rationed long after the end of hostilities, and even non-rationed goods might be in short supply. Rationing was managed by shopkeepers on behalf of the Government, and consumers were issued with compulsory ID cards and ration books. Some transactions required the consumer to hand over a detachable ‘coupon’; others required the shopkeeper to stamp the ration book.

The advertisements in the Handbook set the tone concisely:

Galloway & Porter in Sidney Street tempt the tyro undergraduate with: Loose Leaf and other Note Books, Scribbling Paper and other Requisites.

Motor vehicles of the era which were left to shiver outside in winter would speedily rust, or break down altogether, so:

When in Cambridge, garage your car with King and Harper Ltd. Phone: Cambridge 3201. Wire: MOTORS

The Typewriter Service Company at 29a Trumpington Street will Buy, Sell, Repair, Overhaul and Rebuild typewriters. A comprehensive service, in fact!

And second-hand clothing could be a profitable line of business in an age of ‘clothing coupons’:

George Dennington (The Shop, 16 St. John’s Street):

HIGHEST PRICES for Gent.’s Misfit and Left-off Clothing, Boots, Shirts, etc. Please send a post-card if you would like him to call. Parcels from away attended to and CASH sent same day. 

There is also reassurance for those in need of a trim:

At the Joshua Taylor Barber’s Shop you will find that waiting is almost eliminated, for there are eight efficient operators to minister to your needs.

Patrons can walk in, or ring 3456 for an appointment. There is a caveat, however:

p.43: Having been nearly scalped during my first tonsorial tussle in Cambridge, I enquired discreetly among several well-groomed friends, who assured me that No. 1 and 2 chairs in Joshua Taylor’s hairdressing shop and some of the older assistants at the Alma Mater Saloon were first rate.

The Alma Mater was situated at 35 Trinity Street. The departmental store of Joshua Taylor traded on the corner of Sidney Street and Market Street until the 1990s: the hairdressing shop was housed in the basement.

p.40: Cinema. The BBC in 1947 was primarily a sound broadcaster, but did offer one television channel in black and white. However, few households as yet possessed a set, and people regularly went out in the evening in search of entertainment. We learn that the Playhouse and Kinema were situated in Mill Road, the Tivoli in Chesterton Lane, and the Rex in nearby Magrath Avenue. Dating from 1938, the 1800-seat A.B.C. Regal in St. Andrews Street held the palm as Cambridge’s premier picture theatre. Associated British Cinemas also controlled the other town-centre ‘picture palaces’: the Victoria (Market Hill), and the Central (Hobson Street). The ‘art-house’ cinema was a new trend in this period, and indeed we are informed that the Cosmopolitan in Market Passage will re-open as the Arts Cinema in the near future…

There are a few allusions to women in the Handbook:

p.45: Some colleges allow you to entertain your girl friends right up to midnight, but the majority insist on their removal from the premises by ten o’clock.

p.56: The Cambridge Union offers male members of the University all the facilities of a London Club for a guinea a term (with entrance fee of a guinea).

The guinea (£1.1s., or £1.05) was a monetary unit which disappeared with decimalisation in February 1971. It was applied to goods and services with a certain ‘snob’ value.

p.57: There was a Women Graduates’ Club at 12 Mill Lane. All women graduates of any university were eligible for membership. The subscription was £1.10s. a year. The club offered luncheon, afternoon tea facilities, and residence for a limited number of members. [£1.10s. is £1.50].

p.68: Boxing is the only sport beside [rugby] football, which has no exponents on the distaff side…Mixed events are entered upon in a spirit of levity. 

p.107: We find a list of telephone kiosks, and a list of public conveniences in the town. Nine of the latter cater for Gentlemen, but only three for Ladies: unchivalrous!

p.41: People dance in Cambridge all the time, pausing only on Sundays. Many of the Town dances in the Rex Ballroom or the Guildhall have not got proctorial permission, but undergraduates may attend the daily tea dances at the Dorothy Café. 

The Rex ballroom and cinema were located in hard-to-find Magrath Avenue, behind Shire Hall. The imposing former premises of the Dorothy Café in Sidney Street were converted into Dillons Bookshop (now Waterstones) in the 1980s. The University authorities viewed dances with suspicion, insofar as dancing encouraged well-bred male undergraduates to make the acquaintance of the ladies of the town. And dancing on Sundays would excite the particular ire of Victorian Sabbatarians long after the passing of the great Queen herself!

p.93: Hitch-Hiking. Transport cafes are recommended as the best place to beg lifts, one of the most strategically situated being the Jubilee Café on the Ware-Royston road. Dress and accoutrements recommended: the best old school blazer available and a suitably academic-looking book, spare cash for bus fares, and a pair of stout walking shoes.

There were no motorways or split-level road junctions in Britain in 1947, and the volume of motor traffic was but a fraction of what it is today. Southbound hikers were advised to take the right fork in the road at Trumpington. Northbound hikers sought out the Cambridge Arms in Edmonton (North London) to connect with lorries taking the Cambridge Arterial Road (or ‘A.10’) via Royston.

By train: even the fastest services to King’s Cross or Liverpool Street took 1½ hours, and were of course hauled by steam locomotives. Liverpool Street Station at this date was the smoky cathedral of the Railway Age hymned by Sir John Betjeman, its cavernous interior a chiaroscuro of slanting sunlight and fuliginous gloom. The drastic station rebuilding of the late 1980s rationalised operating procedures at Liverpool Street, but eliminated all the charm! 

Food rationing and shortages have been a fact of life since the outbreak of war in 1939:

p.101: The selection of cakes in the town is comparatively good, but you must know when and where to queue.

Prospective purchasers had to be in line by 2.30pm to buy cakes sold from 3pm. And readers please note: no ration-book coupons were required for trifles at J. Lyons (31 Petty Cury), apple tarts at Grodzinski’s (Market Square, Wednesday and Friday), or pastry slices at Thurston’s Café (26 St. Andrew’s Street). The J. Lyons company operated the once-famous Lyons Corner Houses in London, together with some 200 cafés nationally; it even collaborated with the University’s Mathematical Laboratory to produce Britain’s first commercial computer (known as Lyons Electronic Office, or LEO for short).

p.101: If you are on your way to a lecture in Mill Lane, you will find Fitzbillies, of 52 Trumpington Street, very useful…you might be fortunate, on your way out of a 1 o’clock lecture, to buy one of their dough cakes or some buns.

p.42-43: For inexpensive lunches, often much better than the college food, the British Restaurant in Jesus Lane (housed in the Pitt Club premises) is the logical choice if you are not particular about comfort – the charge is 1s. 6d. including bread and coffee, and it is advisable to get there before the one o’clock queue starts. [1s.6d. or ‘one-and-six’ is equivalent to 7½ new pence]. 

p.43: From experience, I have found that many of the village stores in the country around Cambridge stock items of food unobtainable in the town – such as Nescafe or tinned jam; it is well worth a bus ride to try now and again. 

Remember…a brick placed on a lighted gas ring heats up a room more economically than lighting the fire (Varsity Handbook, 1949 p.60). And college bedmakers expect a ten-shilling tip at the end of Term (Varsity Handbook, 1950 p.31). If we may conclude upon a note of mild admonition:

College porters and portresses are more expert psychologists than most members of the University Health Service and more observant than the average member of M.I.5. It is more important to be polite to gyps and bedders than to the Bursar or Senior Tutor.

[From: Say “Thank You”, the Girton College manual of undergraduate etiquette, 2nd edition 1955, p.12].

Advice which is as pertinent today as it was in the 1940s and 1950s…

Mill Lane Stop Press!

Our callow but enterprising Freshman has purchased his own copy of the Varsity Handbook – now he turns eagerly to the Cambridge Daily News of Tuesday 7th October in search of entertainment in the Town!

Cinema (Readers please note: ‘second features’ are omitted.)

A.B.C. Victoria: It Happened on 5th Avenue. ‘A charming fantasy’ about the New York housing shortage!

A.B.C. Regal: Master of Bankdam. A worthy British costume drama set in 19th-century Yorkshire: the versatile Dennis Price co-stars.

A.B.C. Central: The Rookies. A slapstick comedy starring the popular screen duo Abbott & Costello.

A.B.C. Tivoli: Jane Eyre. ‘If anything [Orson Welles] is rather too sinister and melodramatic…little Joan Fontaine gives one of the best performances of her career.’

A.B.C. Playhouse: Sally, Irene and Mary. A musical comedy, in which American songbird Alice Faye ‘is at her best’; featured comics include Jimmy ‘the Great’ Durante (his conspicuous nose was his personal trademark).

Rex: Gangs Incorporated. Alan Ladd stars as a police officer who poses as an underworld character to expose a gang syndicate.

Kinema: ‘Presented in a Technicolor that enhances the brilliance of the South American scene, That Night in Rio is a real treat, with the two stars Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche co-starring with spotless performances’. Also stars the indispensable Alice Faye. That Night in Rio was first released in 1941: this is a ‘second-run feature’ for the benefit of suburban film-goers.

Theatre

The Arts Theatre’s Box Office enjoys a surefire winner this week, with Noël Coward’s hit play Present Laughter performed nightly at 8. Geoffrey Edwards takes on the central role of Garry Essendine to great acclaim. And there are plaudits for the author, too. ‘Herein the old maestro is at his scintillating best, etching with that sophisticated acidity for which he is famous a pertinent portrait of the preening, idolised theatre star for whom all the world’s a stage.’

Dancing (1):

Rex Theatre (Cambridge 3969):

TO-NIGHT. DANCING. 7.30 – 11.0

Dance to the New Rex Orchestra.

Entry is a snip at 2/- [i.e. two shillings or 10 new pence]. But it is most improbable that the dance has the benefit of proctorial permission, and any male undergraduate who attends it (with or without his gown) may expect to be thoroughly ‘Deaned’ after breakfast on Wednesday morning! Doubtless the Proctors utilised the omniscient Cambridge Daily News to plan their nightly campaigns… In contrast, the undergraduates of Newnham and Girton would not be subject to the rigours of proctorial discipline until 1948.

Dancing (2):

Cambridge Borough Conservative & Unionist Association.

DANCE. Guildhall.

Wednesday, 8th October

8 – 12 m.n.

Stirlingaires Dance Band

Tickets 4/6. Light shoes essential.

‘4/6’ is four shillings and sixpence, or 22½ new pence. Tickets may be purchased from Miller’s in Sidney Street (’Phone 2253) or the Conservative Office at 12 Alexandra Street (’Phone 4788), just off Petty Cury. And one might suspect that the ‘Hon. Sec.’ (Captain H.O. Langden) discreetly approached the Proctorial Office to request the appropriate permission. If so, let us hope that the Proctors looked graciously upon his plea, and that very many young University men of impeccable antecedents danced with the charming young Conservative ladies of the Borough while the chaperons looked vigilantly on. England Expects. The Borough of Cambridge would be elevated to ‘City’ status by King George VI in Festival of Britain Year, 1951.