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Prices (Decimalisation)
Places (Postcodes)
Prices: Decimalisation
BRITONS GET 100-CENT HEADACHE
A STORM of controversy was blowing up last night over plans published earlier for switching Britain to a Continental-style decimal currency.
It is a storm which will bring a headache to every section of the nation — bankers, shopkeepers, the man in the pub and the woman in the shop.
Daily Mirror, 24 September 1963
The changeover to new money took place on 15th February 1971 with £sd becoming £p. There was a period of dual pricing in some old shops, which ended on 31st August 1971. The new halfpenny was a transitional coin which lasted until 1984.
THERE WILL BE £sd SHOPS AND DECIMAL (£p) SHOPS AND THIS IS WHAT THE NEW PRICES WILL LOOK LIKE
Decimal shops will mark prices in £p, and the top illustration is an example of how decimal prices under £1 will look. £sd shops will continue to show their prices in £sd.
To help you, some shops will show their prices in both £p and £sd for a time. This is called dual pricing. An example is shown in the centre illustration. [Illustrations replicated at top of this page.] Note that the selling price is shown in large figures; the £sd amount is a guide to value only. The lower illustration gives an example of how decimal prices over £1 will look.
Daily Mirror, 15 February 1971
Places: Postcodes
The introduction of postcodes was, as with telephone area codes, a gradual one. In the 1800s, major cities, starting with London, were split into a several districts. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that every address in the UK would receive a postcode, necessitated by mechanical sorting.
1858 London is given postal districts: Eight compass points plus EC and WC for central. S and NE were discontinued within the decade, but many people used them regardless until 1917!
1864 Liverpool is given compass point districts.
1867 Manchester/Salford is given numbered districts (M1, M2…)
1917 London is subdivided to include numbers. (WC1, WC2…)
1923 Glasgow is given numbered districts.
1934 Every provincial town “large enough to justify it” is given district numbering. Birmingham, Brighton/Hove, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester/Salford, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sheffield.
1959 A modern postal code format is tested in Norwich. NOR 11A
1967 The rollout of the modern postcode begins, starting with Croydon, finishing in 1973, then followed by the recoding of Norwich in 1974.
We are frankly puzzled by the Post Office’s explanations of the new postal codes the latest step in what many of us regard as the process of de-humanisation. The Post Office says that part of the code shows what area you live in, another shows which town, another the part of the town and another the street. The last the group of houses in the street. Funny, that is what we always though an address did even more precisely.
Evening News (London), 30 March 1973
HOUSEWIVES PROTEST
The Scottish Housewives’ Association sent a letter to the T.U.C. and Retail Consortium representatives, who met Mr Edward Heath last week, asking them to impress upon the Prime Minister several points.
The letter, signed by the association’s president, Mrs Margaret Needham, and secretary, Mrs E.M. Pattullo, Kirriemuir, suggests “the inflationary economy of the Common Market is ruining Britain.”
The housewives say they are sickened by “incessant and growiing harrassment” due to “stupid and unwarrantable changes in our day to day affairs.”
New road signs, postal codes, decimalisation, metrication and all-figure telephone numbers are among several other items described as “the unending and hustling changes being foisted on us by stealth and back-door methods.”
Kirriemuir Herald, 27 September 1973