A brave new world of freezers, Fablon and Formica

Afrisson of wonder last week with the news that Sally Gar-rod of Norfolk's Prestcold fridge had recorded 50 fully functioning years. Although it may need frequent defrosting, this rumbling device is the perfect riposte to postmodern snickering at the supposed naffness of the chromium-plated, Formica-topped, Fablon-covered, tile-effect kitchen of the 1950s.

To anyone who grew up in the Thirties or earlier, the 1950s kitchen was a pastel-shaded paradise. Until then, kitchens in all but the swankiest homes were drab - all dowdy creams and browns, or, for the adventurous, maybe a touch of eggshell blue. And there were a lot of unsavoury nooks and crannies that needed constant cleaning but didn't always get it. Wooden draining boards were a particular worry for the germ-conscious. And the work! Clothes had to be boiled, mangled, dried and aired, tea meant pots and cosies and strainers, toast had to be grilled and turned, and any mixing, beating, whipping, squeezing or slicing had to be done by hand.

Imagine the thrill, therefore, as each year of the Fifties brought something shiny, electric and ever so very contemporary: 1951, the first home freezer; 1954, the first automatic kettle, courtesy of Russell Hobbs; 1955, tubular metal ironing board; 1956, the non-stick saucepan, streamlined toaster, and mass-market spin- dryer; 1957, the Hoover twin-tub; 1958, tumble dryers; and 1959, microwaves.

A booming economy made these goodies affordable. There was full employment, average wages almost doubled through the Fifties to [pound]11 2s 6d, purchase tax was cut, income tax reduced from the equivalent of 45p in the pound to less than 35p, and restrictions removed on hire purchase, the credit cards of the day. Despite the cost of the gleaming new goods (a mid-1950s washing machine cost six weeks' wages), demand was such that in the two years to November 1959 the percentage of people owning a fridge rose nearly 60 per cent.

Nor was this mere acquisitiveness. A 1951 Mass Observation survey found the average housewife worked a 75-hour week, a quarter of it in the kitchen. The new gadgets may not have spelled liberation to women, but they did spare them some of the chores. Fridges meant you didn't have to shop every day, and supermarkets meant you only had to queue at one shop, not an entire high street's worth. In 1947, there were just 10 self-service stores in Britain; 15 years later there were 12,000. That, and a car to carry home the booty, meant the beginnings of the end for the pantry, meat-safe, butcher's boy and wicker-wheeled shopping basket.

And to aid this process, came freezers (the first chest model in 1956, fridge-freezers three years later) and frozen foods. The first in Britain had been launched by Smedleys in 1937: asparagus at 12p a pack, followed by strawberries, peas and green beans. Then, in 1955, came Birds Eye Fish Fingers to join frozen peas. With tea bags (Tetleys, 1952) already launched, the semi-instant teatime in a packet had arrived. For millions, the Fifties kitchen and the life it represented was real progress - and not a bit of stripped pine or an Aga in sight.

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