Changing Leisure Pursuits 1918/79 - Society in Transition 1918 - 1979
Football - growth and decline of live
spectatorship
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Clubs
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Attendance
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Cost
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Growth
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Decline
after WW2
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· Britain was the
global leader in developing football as a national sport
· Britain was the
first industrial nation - growth of factories made it easier to organise
workers into teams + arrange matches
· Football
association founded in 1888
· Rise of mass
transport and communication made national leagues possible
· Growth of radio
(BBC), national newspapers and cinema newsreels increased interest in
football
· Low ticket prices
for matches drew large crowds
· Saturday half days
gave men time to play
· Attendance peaked
in 1948-49 at 41.2 million
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·
TV
o
Fans
watched sports shows instead of watching live, shows included Match of the
day (1964) and World of Sport (1965)
o
New tech
in the 60s like colour TV, multiple camera angles and slow-mo replay made
watching at home more enjoyable
o
England
world cup in 1966 was watched by 32 million
·
Hooliganism
o
Increased
violence at matches put people off going
o
Many
clubs built up fences to keep fans off pitches
o
British
rail cancelled ‘Soccer Special’ which provided cheap travel to games, after
several of their carriages were destroyed
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Effect of increased viewership:
· More advertising money - £1 million in 1966, £16 million in 1976, £100
million by 1983
· Higher wages for footballers - wage caps scrapped, professional
footballers can now earn huge sums through advertising
· ‘Amateurism’ declines in favour of professional football
Holidays and tourism
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1935
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·
Only
1.5 million out of 18.5 million workers have paid holiday
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1938
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·
Holiday
with Pay Act strongly suggest employers pay for 3 consecutive days of Holiday
·
7.75
million workers enjoy this
·
Most
spend their holidays at the seaside
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1960
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o Two weeks paid holiday for manual workers
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1975
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o Three weeks paid holiday
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1979
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o Four weeks paid holiday
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Holiday in the interwar years
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Seaside visits
o
Class divisions -
better off go to Tynemouth rather than Whitely Bay
o
Holiday industry grew
rapidly - Blackpool had 2 million visitors each year
o
Youth Hostel
Association and Rambled Association experience increased membership - more
Britons want to get out of the city
o
Butlin’s launched in
1937 - by 1939 there are 20 000 holiday camps in Britain, who cater for 30 000
visitors a week- poorer families could go away for the first time
Holiday during the war
o
Gov. tried to prevent
travel for leisure to free up roads
o
Railway companies
banned from running extra trains during peak holiday hours
o
This was ineffective -
seaside holidays like ‘Wakes Week’ and ‘Trip Week’ continued
o
Gov. tried (with some
success) to promote ‘Holiday at Home’, but mainly accepted that holidays were
good for morale
o
Wartime institutions
like POW camps, military barracks and workers hostels would later be used for
holiday camps
Holidays after the war
o
An increase in
disposable income like to more foreign holidays and caravan holidays
o
By the end of the 70s
½ the population had been on a caravan holiday
o
No. of holidays abroad
increased in the 70s due to cheap package holidays and an end to currency
restrictions
o
By 1979 almost 2/3 had
been on a package holiday using companies like Thomas Cook - most went to
resorts in Spain
o
Foreign travel
influenced British tastes - wine consumption doubled in the 60s and 70s,
Italian and Greek food became more popular
Travel Developments
Car
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Ownership
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Impact
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•
Increased rapidly after WW1 - from 100 000 in 1919 to two million in
1939
•
Cheaper, smaller cars like the Austin Seven (1922) made motoring
affordable for the middle class
•
Price of cars halved between 1924-1938
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Few restrictions on motorists helped to popularise cars - driving test
only introduced in 1934
•
After WW2 car ownership doubled due to the end of petrol rationing,
more efficient production techniques and rises in income
•
Car ownership doubled between 1960 and 1970 from 5.6 million to 11.8
million
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• Ministry of Transport spent lots of money to improve
roads until the mid-1930s
• By 1939, 1.4 million jobs were dependant on the
motor industry
• Ribbon development - houses and factories began to
stretch out along roads
• More people were able to live in the suburbs - the
populations of many cities (including London) declined between 1911 and 1951
• More remote parts of the country were opened up to
holiday makers - by 1971 cars make 63% of holiday transportation
• Large car-parks built - first multi-storey car park
open in Blackpool in 1939
• Change in consumer habits - rise of the ‘weekly
shop’ as people could load lots of groceries and food into their car
• Out of town supermarkets more popular - ASDA the
first one to open in 1964
• Motoring a very male activity - 1975 only 29% of
passports held by women
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Planes
•
WW1 - rapid
improvement in design of planes
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1918 - flight a
commercially viable option for travel
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Flight expensive in
interwar years - only rich could afford - plane companies had to be propped up
by the state:
o
1924 Imperial Airways
subsidised by the government to promote image of British power
o
1935 British airways
starts as a private company, had to be rescued by state
•
Rapid growth in air
transport after WW2 due to improvement in design, safety and the economy
•
Allowed Britons to
enjoy holidays abroad
Trains
•
WW1 - state takes control
of railways
•
1921 railway act
forces all rail companies to merge into 4
•
Growth of railways
encouraged ribbon development before cars and buses
•
‘Metro land’ - a
series of suburbs north of London linked to the city centre by the Metropolitan
railway
•
1848 ‘big four’ merged
into the nationalised British Railway (denationalised in 1994-97)
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