Rising Living Standards

Question 1

The 1951 Festival of Britain

Question 2

Rising Wages

Answer 2

• Due to the ‘Golden Age of Employment’, people’s wages increased
• The average weekly wage of a working-class male increased from £8.30 to £15.35 between 1951-1961

Question 3

Consumerism

Answer 3

• There was a surge in the ownership of modern consumer goods
• Goods such as televisions, washing machines, refrigerators and new furniture were being bought using hire purchase (buy now-pay later) schemes
• The advertising industry became a visible symbol of affluence, especially after ITV launched in 1955
• People became accustomed to the glossy adverts during/between popular TV shows

Question 4

New Leisure Activities

Answer 4

• Holiday camps reached their peak in the 1950s as people had paid time off work and disposable income
• 60,000 people holidayed at Butlins weekly
• Butlins was a chain of holiday camps founded by Billy Butlin in 1936
• These were built at popular seaside resorts, e.g. Blackpool, Skegness and Clacton
• Butlins was made towards the working-class and provided entertainment for the whole family
• Foreign holidays were possible but an expensive luxury
• Less than 2% go the population could afford to go abroad and were mainly enjoyed by the affluent upper-class and the prosperous middle-class

Question 5

Mass Television

Answer 5

• Early 1950s: TV programmes were only broadcast from 3PM-6PM and then 7PM-10:30PM
• There was originally one channel, BBC 1, funded by the TV licence but would soon be joined by commercial TV, funded by commercial advertising after ITV was launched in 1955
• 1953: the Queen’s coronation was the first royal coronation to be televised, causing a spur of TV sets being purchased
• 56% of the population watched the coronation
• 1960: first soap-opera, Coronation Street
• 1957-1959: number of households that owned a TV set rose by 32%
• 1960: 10 million TV sets in use

Question 6

Rising Car Ownership

Answer 6

• Boom in car ownership between 1957-1959 rising by 25%
• Created demands for new roads to be built, including motorways
• Commuting by car became popular, pushing housing developments to occur outside cities and towns
• Construction on modern motorways started in 1958, the M1 was built soon after
• 1957-1963: 1,200 miles of roads were completed/upgraded

Question 7

New Modern Housing

Answer 7

• 1951: Britain’s infrastructure was badly run-down and needed modernising
• Conservative Party promised to build 300,000 homes per year in their Manifesto
• Pre-war slums were cleared and new towns were built
• New towns already built by Atlee’s Labour government in the 1940s such as Stevenage grew rapidly
• Shifts in population expanded resulting in traditional communities breaking up
• This trend was magnified due to the increase of car ownership, no longer necessary to live near workplaces
• Home ownership increased (‘property-owning democracy’), easy access to cheap mortgages
• Number of people living in council houses was still higher than people who owned houses