“Mr Sutton Pownall, a gravedigger, lives at Number Two Court, Dickenson Street, Oldham, with his wife Joyce and their five children in a 150 year old house. The family share one bedroom, one kitchen and one living room. They share a key for communal toilets, near to where the dustbins are stacked. His children are Susan, 6, Steve, 5, Sandra, 4, Mark, 3 and Baby Gary, aged 8 months. 1st June 1962.”
The contraption in the brick nook is a coin operated gas meter similar to the one below. Drop in some change and you can heat the flat and cook for a few hours until the timer ran out and you had to feed it again.
“The meter controlled the gas supply to the dwelling’s appliances. In a typical UK flat of the era that had gas, this commonly included both cooking and some form of space heating (plus often hot water), all paid for by feeding coins into the same or similar meters. These systems largely gave way to credit meters, then modern prepayment/smart meters as North Sea gas, central heating, and different payment methods spread.” [via GROK].
Top (colorized) image found here via Google search of this image; caption from here. The original photo and more can be found in a photo essay titled Smog, Slums and Stars in the Making – 25 Pictures of a Lost Era in Oldham, Manchester Evening News, 04 March 2022.
Vintage 1949 coin operated gas meter found here, via here.]
