Has any country ever changed so much in 60 years? Enchanting photos show what life was like when our Queen came to the throne




With all eyes on the Jubilee, these enchanting photographs give an insight into what life was like 60 years ago when our Queen came to the throne.

Discovered in a photographic agency’s archives, they show a world which moved at an entirely different pace. As L. P. Hartley wrote: ‘The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.’ So true.



Crime levels were a tenth of today’s. There were only 2.5 million cars on the road, as opposed to 25 million now. Few homes had phones and only a tenth owned fridges. But storing food wasn’t a problem as rationing did not end until July 1954. Shopping was a daily trail around the butcher’s, the baker’s and the greengrocer’s.



Televisions were rare — there was only one channel — but sales rocketed before June 1953, so the nation could tune into the Coronation.

Your Hovis, madam: Like a scene from the nostalgic TV advert, a baker¿s boy delivers in a quiet Suffolk street. There¿s not a yellow line - or car - in sight