IT WAS ANOTHER WORLD – MOTORING IN 1953

23 May 2023

The 2nd of June marks 70 years since the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and so we thought it timely to list just some of the vast changes in motoring over the past seven decades. 1953 may have seen the UK’s first motel (in Hythe, Kent) and flashing Belisha Beacons on Zebra Crossings but it was still a country devoid of the following:

White car poster

  • Single yellow lines – 1956
  • Double yellow lines - 1958
  • Parking Meters – 1958
  • The first Little Chefs - 1958
  • The Preston Bypass is the UK’s first motorway – 1958
  • The launch of the Mini – 1959
  • The opening of the M1 - 1959
  • Traffic Wardens – 1960
  • The MOT Test - 1960
  • The first British car with seat belts as standard – the Jensen 541S, 1960
  • The Morris Minor becomes the first British car to exceed sales of one million - 1960
  • Automated level crossings – 1961
  • The end of the AA and RAC salutes – 1961
  • Leicester’s Auto-Magic Car Park is one of the UK’s first automated public car parks - 1961
  • The demise of the Austin A35 Countryman means the end of trafficators on new cars – 1962
  • The last London trolley bus – 1962
  • Turbocharged production cars – the Oldsmobile Jetfire, 1962
  • The first ‘Drink-Drive’ campaign – 1964
  • The first London box junctions - 1964
  • The introduction of the new ‘Worboys’ road signs - 1965
  • Amber indicators front and rear are legal requirements on new UK-market cars – 1965
  • The eight-track cartridge player (on US Fords) – 1965
  • The UK’s first self-service petrol pumps – 1965
  • Unit Beat Police ‘Panda Cars’ – 1965
  • The Daihatsu Compagno is the first Japanese car sold in the UK - 1965
  • Front seat belts have to be fitted to all post-1965 cars – 1967
  • The Breathalyser – 1967
  • Star grading for British petrol – 1967
  • The UK’s first two-level viaduct – 1968
  • The UK’s first contraflow bus lane (in Reading) - 1968
  • Car cassette players – 1968
  • The UK’s first mini-roundabout (in Peterborough) - 1968
  • The first pelican crossing – 1969
  • The Green Cross Code replaces the Kerb Drill - 1970
  • The Vauxhall Victor FE is the last mainstream British car available with a front bench seat – 1972
  • Safety helmets are compulsory for motorcycle riders - 1973
  • Hand signals no longer a part of the driving test – 1975
  • The BBC broadcasts the first Top Gear - 1977
  • The removal of the last London police telephone box from the Barnet by-pass - 1981
  • Mandatory Front Seat Belt Wearing - 1983
  • Car CD players - 1984
  • The opening of the M25 – 1986
  • Rear seat belts are mandatory fittings on new UK-market cars – 1987
  • The wearing of rear seat belts becomes a legal requirement – 1991
  • The first production automatic parking system - 1999
  • The AA decommissions its last telephone box – 2002
  • And British car marques of 1953 that are no longer with us:

AC, Allard, Alvis, Armstrong-Siddeley, Austin, Austin-Healey, Bond, Bristol, Daimler, Dellow, Frazer Nash, Hillman, HRG, Humber, Jensen, Jowett, Lanchester, Lea Francis, Morris, Paramount, Reliant, Riley, Rover, Singer, Standard, Sunbeam, Sunbeam-Talbot, Triumph, Turner and Wolseley