Things you don’t see outside any more

[johnnychips]

Following on from the ‘Things that used to be commonplace in the home’ thread, shall we continue with the nostalgia? This was inspired by this quote:

Ah, the pissoir. Something that used to provide a whiff of old France, although that wasn’t the only thing it provided a whiff off.

and I remember there used to be a lot of public Gents urinals, which were little more than a wall, with a bit of a curved entrance so people couldn’t see inside, and a drain. They usually - not surprisingly - stunk of stale urine, but were very convenient, as it were. The last example I can remember using was at Hawes, maybe twenty years ago, though this was ingeniously somehow built inside a wall.

Yellow sodium lamps with a sort of ‘box’ for the electrics at the bottom.

Dustmen and coalmen actually carrying metal bins and sacks on their backs.

I’m sure you’ll be able to think of many more things that were common outside that we hardly see any more. They could be structures, people, anything you think interesting. And a Happy New Year.


Edit: I found a picture

 

[Hadders]

There's a pissoir outside Vauxhall station.

 

[PTR 444]

Milk floats

 

[yorksrob]

There's a pissoir outside Vauxhall station.

Have a friend who lived on the Kingston loop. With no loos on the stations or the 455's. The bog at Vauxhall bus station was the only place between there and Kings Cross with a toilet.

My goodness, was I relieved of that !

 

[Hadders]

Have a friend who lived on the Kingston loop. With no loos on the stations or the 455's. The bog at Vauxhall bus station was the only place between there and Kings Cross with a toilet.

My goodness, was I relieved of that !

The gents at Vauxhall bus station is what I would describe as for 'emergency use only'.

 

[Non Multi]

I thought pissoirs had made something of a small comeback in certain town and city centres, after the closure of many council lavatories. I'm sure I saw a GRP one in Reading town centre earlier this year.

 

[yorksrob]

The gents at Vauxhall bus station is what I would describe as for 'emergency use only'.

And when you're going from the Kingston Loop to the Cross of an evening, it's an emergency

I thought pissoirs had made something of a small comeback in certain town and city centres, after the closure of many council lavatories. I'm sure I saw a GRP one in Reading town centre earlier this year.

They ought to IMO.

 

[johnnychips]

I did read somewhere that urinals appeared out of the ground in the evening in London to prevent wayside peeing, though I might have dreamt it. There was one outside Brussel Zuid that we used till quite recently. It always had a beer can in the target area, so one hand held your nose, while the other…

 

[Galvanize]

Milk floats

Very occasionally see them out on the road. There’s one that does the rounds in North London around Clissold Park/Manor House way in the small hours from time to time!

 

[yorksrob]

I did read somewhere that urinals appeared out of the ground in the evening in London to prevent wayside peeing, though I might have dreamt it.

They experimented with some in Leeds for a while. Got cut back due to cost.

They want the dosh from people buying drinks, but they don't want to cough up to give people somewhere to pee

 

[Gloster]

Those gents urinals at festivals. A baggy wall of hessian held up by old beanpoles and a drainpipe that was slightly raised at one. The produce was supposed to run out through a hole in the hessian at one end and then drain away into a trench that probably led to a muddy ditch. The smell emanating from the ditch after a day or two was...

And there were those plastic portable toilets that, looked at from the top, like tear drops. They were adequate (just) if properly supported at the back, but all the human comings and goings would shift them about until some poor girl would find it tipping over and herself soaked in the contents.

Those who get dreamy eyed about seeing bands like Deep Purple and Procol Harum should remember what it was really like.

 

[Non Multi]

I've certainly not seen a battery powered milk float in a very long time, they've been replaced by diesel Ford Transits locally.

 

[johnnychips]

I thought pissoirs had made something of a small comeback in certain town and city centres, after the closure of many council lavatories. I'm sure I saw a GRP one in Reading town centre earlier this year.

What’s a GRP?

 

[PG]

New build houses with TV aerials.

What’s a GRP?

Glass Reinforced Plastic

 

[yorksrob]

Those gents urinals at festivals. A baggy wall of hessian held up by old beanpoles and a drainpipe that was slightly raised at one. The produce was supposed to run out through a hole in the hessian at one end and then drain away into a trench that probably led to a muddy ditch. The smell emanating from the ditch after a day or two was...

And there were those plastic portable toilets that, looked at from the top, like tear drops. They were adequate (just) if properly supported at the back, but all the human comings and goings would shift them about until some poor girl would find it tipping over and herself soaked in the contents.

Those who get dreamy eyed about seeing bands like Deep Purple and Procol Harum should remember what it was really like.

I've only been to one festival and that had portaloos, but I must admit, a wall of hessian isn't the first thing I'd think of to produce a bog !

 

[johnnychips]

New build houses with TV aerials.

Do you even need Sky dishes these days?

 

[Non Multi]

What’s a GRP?

Glass Reinforced Plastic, AKA fibreglass.

 

[yorksrob]

Do you even need Sky dishes these days?

Squarials ! There's one I saw in Leeds not long ago !

 

[Non Multi]

Billboards with cigarette advertising (it's banned).

 

[johnnychips]

Squarials ! There's one I saw in Leeds not long ago !

Was that somebody’s rival to Sky like Betamax and VHS? I have a very vague memory of it.

 

[Non Multi]

Busking one man bands.

 

[yorksrob]

Was that somebody’s rival to Sky like Betamax and VHS? I have a very vague memory of it.

I think it was BSB's answer to the satellite dish as far as I Remember ! It's a bit hazy as my family only had terrestrial at the time !

(We'd had cable in the past - rediffusion with a dial on the wall, but had given it up in favour of a video recorder).

 

[Non Multi]

Car window stickers from radio stations that state their operating band and frequency.

 

[johnnychips]

I would say ‘Rag and Bone’ men who collected any possible reusable stuff, but in Doncaster, there are still a few people who go round in a truck and collect scrap metal weekly, their megaphone blaring down the street. Does anybody else have that? Not noticed it in Sheffield yet.

 

[Non Multi]

I would say ‘Rag and Bone’ men who collected any possible reusable stuff, but in Doncaster, there are still a few people who go round in a truck and collect scrap metal weekly, their megaphone blaring down the street. Does anybody else have that? Not noticed it in Sheffield yet.

They made a comeback for a bit here when the price of scrap went bananas a decade or so ago. They'd cruise around in their Transit tipper vans ringing a small, loud bell when they were hunting for scrap.

 

[Kite159]

Do you even need Sky dishes these days?

Give it a few more years and I reckon the majority of TV will be delivered via the internet. I believe Sky already have a "Dish-Free" product built into their TV range

 

[johnnychips]

Car window stickers from radio stations that state their operating band and frequency.

That’s a superb observation. They even used to offer them as prizes: ‘the first twenty people who ring in and tell us whether a giraffe is a mammal or a fish will win one of our super spectacular stickers’.

 

[PG]

Tax discs in (usually) the bottom of the nearside windscreen, though some older cars still have the last one issued still in place when the owner hasn't bothered to remove it!

 

[telstarbox]

I was going to say Ford Escorts but then I saw one of the convertibles in good nick at the lights the other day.

 

[PG]

Traffic Wardens directing traffic or come to think of it traffic wardens per se.