Eye-catching black and whites

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

Are they police cars?

[lesapandre]

[sheffcortinacentre]

4 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Are they police cars?

Not sure bit hard to tell?

[Richard_FM]

11 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The blue (and amber) centred lamps were made by Notek. No idea what the thinking was, but they used to be on every Mk2 Zephyr/Zodiac that was at a car show in the 1980s.

 

 

Those are the ones I'm thinking of, sometimes the dot was smaller.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Met Police driving school (late 1970s?). Students got to make the cars shiny, shiny before taking to the open road and terrorising the unsuspecting public

[MiniMinorMk3]

The Raleigh Safety Seven

[Metal Guru]

51 minutes ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The Raleigh Safety Seven

The only safety feature it can possibly have is such a low top speed you can’t do much damage in a crash .

[Asimo]

On 22/12/2022 at 10:42, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The blue (and amber) centred lamps were made by Notek. No idea what the thinking was, but they used to be on every Mk2 Zephyr/Zodiac that was at a car show in the 1980s.

 

 

I had an MG Magnette (Farina) which came with a pair of those fitted. They weren’t connected.

I connected them.  They were useless: they lit up ok, drawing enough amps to justify a bigger dynamo, but they added nothing useful to the light from the standard 7” sealed-beam headlights. Typical car accessory: better in the bin than on my car.

[Remspoor]

Guildford.

[EyesWeldedShut]

Oxford Circus, Londonium, W1 
This was listed as '1960s' and I thought older due to the Hackney Carriages being ancient - but the Moggies make it a mid 50s at the earliest - bit of digging suggests Jays Ltd (centre background) went out of business on that site in 1961.

[Mr Pastry]

10 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Oxford Circus, Londonium, W1 
This was listed as '1960s' and I thought older due to the Hackney Carriages being ancient - but the Moggies make it a mid 50s at the earliest - bit of digging suggests Jays Ltd (centre background) went out of business on that site in 1961.

The Hillman Minx at the front of the queue is 1956 at the earliest.  

[EyesWeldedShut]

4 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

The Hillman Minx at the front of the queue is 1956 at the earliest.  

So we have 1956 - 1961 ... can we get it more refined?
Original image (decent quality) I have:
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/HLG-131-100-Queues-at-Oxford-Circus-underground-station-1960s.jpg

 

[Mr Pastry]

Looking at the traffic coming in from the top left of the picture, is that a Rover P5 in front?  1958 on.

The taxi behind the Minx is interesting as it is a Beardmore Mk7,  but they started in 1954.

@LightBulbFunCan you date it from any of the registrations?

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

I think it's a big older & bigger than a P5? [edit] changed my mind - see new image to compare
It's at the top of Regent Street, Oxford Street is the main drag running roughly Left > Right and Upper Regent Street is out of site to the right hand edge of the image.
I'd wondered about dating the bus but it's too blurry and I don't know enough about Routemasters

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-43782267
Totally unrelated to the above posts but some good images to have a peep at

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Oxford Circus, Londonium, W1 
This was listed as '1960s' and I thought older due to the Hackney Carriages being ancient - but the Moggies make it a mid 50s at the earliest - bit of digging suggests Jays Ltd (centre background) went out of business on that site in 1961.

36 minutes ago, Mr Pastry said:

Looking at the traffic coming in from the top left of the picture, is that a Rover P5 in front?  1958 on.

The taxi behind the Minx is interesting as it is a Beardmore Mk7,  but they started in 1954.

@LightBulbFunCan you date it from any of the registrations?

 

latest registration I can spot is SJJ56 which is December 1955 issue 

although the Moggie Van registration may be TLBxxx which is October 1956 issue, but its hard to make out clearly

14 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I'd wondered about dating the bus but it's too blurry and I don't know enough about Routemasters

bus looks to me like a Standard RT (or at least one without a roof box)

http://www.countrybus.org/RT/RT4.htm#top

so that does not really help us here sadly, since its actually one of the oldest vehicles in shot I think! 

[LightBulbFun]

a bit of sleuthing the shows from the archive reference number that the photo is from here

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=2409067&catln=6

which gives a date of 1962-1964, however it does not say if thats when the photos where taken or simply when the collection was put together, I mean if the company mentioned above went pop in 1961 then we know the photos do predate the date given in the archives by some degree

from the same reference number I am able to find the following photo

https://www.flickr.com/photos/2011census/5008716476/

which might give us some more clues IF this photo was taken at the same time, (note click on the flicker link for the highest detail version, the photo you see is uploaded directly to Autoshite servers for safe keeping, but flicker obviously has the best version!)

[Mr Pastry]

Interesting.  Second photo shows a Thames 307E van which makes it 1961 at the earliest. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

 

25 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

a bit of sleuthing the shows from the archive reference number that the photo is from here

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/record?catid=2409067&catln=6

which gives a date of 1962-1964, however it does not say if thats when the photos where taken or simply when the collection was put together

from the same reference number I am able to find

https://www.flickr.com/photos/2011census/5008716476/

might give us some more clues IF this photo was taken at the same time, (note click on the flicker link for the highest detail version, the photo you see is uploaded directly to Autoshite servers for safe keeping, but flicker obviously has the best version!)

Nice sleuthing Sherlock.
This one is High Holborn looking east towards The City of London . Grays Inn Rd is down on the left and Chancery Lane is off camera to the right,
(I love the hotch potch of buildings on the left - all gone now)

[EyesWeldedShut]

Same ref, different picture

[RayMK]

26 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Same ref, different picture

Nice one.  But what is the third car in line on the left?  It is small enough to be a 30's sports car but it has hints of three wheeler about it.  Edit: Bond Mark C De lux perhaps? 

Edited December 23, 2022 by RayMK
More info.

[bigstraight6]

5 minutes ago, RayMK said:

Nice one.  But what is the third car in line on the left?  It is small enough to be a 30's sports car but it has hints of three wheeler about it. 

Bond Minicar?

[RayMK]

7 minutes ago, bigstraight6 said:

Bond Minicar?

Yes.  Well spotted! I had to check the grill design which I was unfamiliar with.  

[sheffcortinacentre]

5 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Guildford.

You can here the beta coupe  & ha viva rusting in that pic but the beta went first. Trying to figure what's parked behind the clubman? Was thinking dodge aspen/Plymouth volare but bit to small , not a pinto or Vega.

[D.E]

4 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

Trying to figure what's parked behind the clubman? Was thinking dodge aspen/Plymouth volare but bit to small , not a pinto or Vega.

1974 Pontiac Ventura?

[sheffcortinacentre]

Ah yes very likely.

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Oxford Circus, Londonium, W1 
This was listed as '1960s' and I thought older due to the Hackney Carriages being ancient - but the Moggies make it a mid 50s at the earliest - bit of digging suggests Jays Ltd (centre background) went out of business on that site in 1961.

The blinds in the windows are odd, I associate that with a closed shop which would suggest it's 1961 or later, unless furriers were routinely operating like that in the 50s/60s?

[Austat]

[MiniMinorMk3]

16 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

I think it's a big older & bigger than a P5? [edit] changed my mind - see new image to compare
It's at the top of Regent Street, Oxford Street is the main drag running roughly Left > Right and Upper Regent Street is out of site to the right hand edge of the image.
I'd wondered about dating the bus but it's too blurry and I don't know enough about Routemasters

 

Mk2 Zephyr, from 1956.

 

[MiniMinorMk3]