20 Things That Quietly VANISHED From 1970s Britain

One ordinary day in 1970s Britain, from the tea that made itself to the telly that switched off at half past ten, and twenty everyday things that quietly disappeared. Every fact is checked against museum collections and official records (sources below). Which one did your house have? Tell me your number in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 A winter morning in the 1970s 0:50 Waking up: Teasmade, frost on the inside, the eiderdown 3:26 On the doorstep: the milk float and the blue tits 5:37 Washday and the telephone: twin tub, the hall phone, Trimphone, red phone box 7:55 The walk to school: on your own, and the Green Cross Code 9:22 Afternoon: the pop man, Space Hopper, Spirograph, Raleigh Chopper 12:17 Evening: Ceefax, Switch Off Something, the 10:30 close-down 14:13 The long hot summer of 1976 14:57 The eighties arrive: the ZX Spectrum 15:48 Goodbye to all that Next in the series: A Saturday in 1980s Britain. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL Britain, Remembered tells the social history of everyday life in the 1960s–90s through objects, places and routines. No clips, just research, photographs and original illustrations. New films every week. ABOUT THE PICTURES Every claim was checked against the sources below. The teletext pages, Spirograph drawing, tape-loading stripes, close-down animation, maps and paper title cards are original recreations made for this channel, not archive material. Music: original, made for this channel. SOURCES Science Museum Group Collection (objects 1970-383, 1984-989, Y1994.70, 2004-117, 1971-402, 1985-195) V&A / Young V&A (B.87-2004, B.155:1 to 35-2011, B.4-2024) ONS General Lifestyle Survey 2011, ch. 4 DECC UK Housing Energy Fact File 2013 Met Office (summer 1976, published 2026) BBC News (24 Oct 2012; 8 Mar 2012) Hansard, House of Commons, 13 Dec 1973 (Energy Supplies statement) The National Archives (road safety campaigns; "Switch Off Some Power") Historic England List entry 1392404 British Trust for Ornithology archive (Fisher & Hinde, British Birds 42, 1949) Hillman, Adams & Whitelegg, One False Move (PSI, 1990) Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (ONS, DECC). PHOTOGRAPHS (credited on screen; full list with titles and links in the pinned comment) Wikimedia Commons: MortimerCat (CC BY-SA 3.0) Cory Doctorow (optimised by Gazebo) (CC BY-SA 2.0) Industriemuseum Gent (CC0) Sheridan Parsons (CC BY-SA 4.0) Alexandr frolov (CC BY-SA 4.0) Brian Snelson (edited by Ubcule) (CC BY 2.0) Andy Dingley (CC BY-SA 3.0) PookieFugglestein (CC0) National Museum of Finland (CC BY 4.0) National Museum of Finland (CC BY 4.0) UKmender (CC BY-SA 3.0) Diamondmagna (CC BY-SA 3.0) Lewis Hulbert (CC BY-SA 4.0) Alex Brown (CC BY 2.0) Reptonix (CC BY 3.0) Multicherry (CC BY-SA 3.0) Multicherry (CC BY-SA 4.0) Thehotone1970 (CC0) Sludge G (CC BY-SA 2.0) WwwFrank (CC BY-SA 3.0) Bill Bertram (CC BY-SA 2.5) Jzh2074 (CC BY-SA 4.0) Andrew Bone (CC BY 2.0) James Petts (CC BY-SA 2.0) James Petts (CC BY-SA 2.0) Maniago (Public domain) Yanachka (Public domain) Kris Atomic (CC0) Geograph Britain and Ireland, CC BY-SA 2.0, geograph.org.uk/p/[number]: John Lucas (239357); Alan Murray-Rust (6746622, 7038598, 7052519, 6881427, 6881425, 7052515); Jaggery (5054459, 2456314); Christine Matthews (1147710); Dr Neil Clifton (468324, 343911, 468401, 468413, 346739); John Norris (8421743); Kev Griffin (357749); Philip Halling (5423142, 6458516, 7893960, 5423150, 7893986); Jim Barton (2203769, 2746037); Paul Anderson (678276); John Baker (1756312, 1776992, 1622207); Crispin Purdye (62861); Alan Reid (4313427); Bernard Sharp (3395784); Ben Brooksbank (4661047); Des Blenkinsopp (6504388); P L Chadwick (7868942) Licences: CC BY 2.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 CC BY 3.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 CC BY 4.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC BY-SA 2.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 CC BY-SA 2.5: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 CC BY-SA 3.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 CC BY-SA 4.0: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 CC0: creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 Public domain: public domain CC BY-SA 2.0 (Geograph): creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 Images have been cropped, panned and colour-graded; these are modifications. Map data: Natural Earth (public domain). #1970s #BritishHistory #Nostalgia #SocialHistory