Dunstable Yesteryear: An accident in 1958
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The M1 motorway was just one year away from its opening when this photo was taken in 1958 of a road accident in High Street North, Dunstable[2].
The main road through Dunstable was then a major traffic route, with heavy vehicles trundling between London and the north.
The lorry in the photo, seen after a collision with a car at the Albion Street junction, was from a Brighton-based firm. Another vehicle, squeezing past the scene, is from Chadwell Heath in East London.
Collision in High Street North, 1958
The opening of the new motorway relieved one aspect of Dunstable’s traffic problems, and drastic demolition was just about to take place at the narrow entrance of Church Street to end another bottleneck.
The buildings in the background of the picture are much the same today, although the businesses have very much altered.
The archway, a remnant of stagecoach days when it led to the stables of the Sugar Loaf hotel, was the entrance to the inn’s car park in 1958.
Alongside is the Sugar Loaf Tap, which was built in 1861 when the hotel was ordered to provide accommodation for soldiers passing through the town.
In recent times it was transformed into a record shop and then a fashion shop (latterly Ruby Tuesday), although an old Greene King brewery sign can still be seen.
The tall, narrow, building with the bay windows was the National Provincial Bank in 1958 and is now a branch of Allder’s, the opticians.
Mr Arthur Chattell, a very well-known local personality who was one of the town’s first television dealers, began his business as Cycles and Wireless but had given his shop his own name by the time this photo was taken. His premises, on the right, became a base for Oxfam in more recent times and are now vacant.
Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.
References
- ^ Visit Shots! now (www.shotstv.com)
- ^ Dunstable (www.lutontoday.co.uk)