Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

Paul Terry wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:

In message , Mrs
Redboots writes

Stuart wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 31 Oct 2004:

What is HRA and what is 5/-??

I don't know HRA, but 5/- is our old currency, what used to be called
"five shillings". Now 25p, but in those days it was a lot of money!
Maybe the equivalent of £50 or thereabouts.

Not that much! 5 shillings in 1930 was worth about 12 pounds today -
so not bad for a short flight.

As little as that? Hmm..... you could support a family on £300 a year,
back then, and now you would want, what, a minimum of £20,000. Okay
some things (notably communications) are infinitely cheaper now than
they were then, but if you express 5 shillings as a fraction of the
annual salary, it would be more like £2,400 of today's money.
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

In article , Mrs Redboots
wrote:
Not that much! 5 shillings in 1930 was worth about 12 pounds
today - so not bad for a short flight.

As little as that? Hmm..... you could support a family on
£300 a year, back then, and now you would want, what, a
minimum of £20,000. Okay some things (notably communications)
are infinitely cheaper now than they were then, but if you
express 5 shillings as a fraction of the annual salary,
it would be more like £2,400 of today's money.

Uh? 5/- is 1/1200 of £300. So today's equivalent would be 1/1200
of £20K = £16.67 surely?

--
Tony Bryer

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

This is vague, but I remember reading something once that the Ace of
Spades was popular with flying types in the 1930's and some used to
fly there. Presumably there was some clear area nearby for them to
land on, though the recreation ground would possibly be too small.
I go round the Hook roundabout each night on the way home, having come
down Woodstock Lane, up the n/bound sliproad and then back down to
Esher. This is to aviod the hideous queues on the Esher-Kingston road
via Long Ditton.
When I was a child in the 70's I recall the Silly Isles, (I think it
was always stupid silly as opposed to islands off Cornwall), had a
different layout with more than one roundabout as now, hence the name.
In the same location, I heard a story that the railway bridge nearby
over the Hampton Court-Esher Road was constructed wider than necessary
as it was intended the road would be wider. The path on one side is
quite wide. Don't knowe how true this is though.
I don't often travel Londonbound on the A3, but I think the doors in
the side of the Hook Underpass are still visible. Are there any up the
road at Tolworth. I seem to think there are, but might be confusing
the two. If there are were they put there as an option to do the same
as at Hook, or just for maintainence access?

Neill



Stuart wrote in message k...
Troy Steadman wrote:


Farmer Brooms fields behind Kelvin Grove (just across the A3)? There is
a picture in HRA of a 5/- a flight bi-plane in the 1930's. Don't suppose
the pub owned the airfield but it was certainly very close to it, and a
picture in the Cap in Hand makes the connection. Douglas Bader used the
Ace but *didn't* fly to it AFAIK.

Interesting, so behind Kelvin Gravoe would be what is now the King
Edward Recreation Ground then?

What is HRA and what is 5/-??

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

Tony Bryer wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:

In article , Mrs Redboots
wrote:
Not that much! 5 shillings in 1930 was worth about 12 pounds
today - so not bad for a short flight.

As little as that? Hmm..... you could support a family on
£300 a year, back then, and now you would want, what, a
minimum of £20,000. Okay some things (notably communications)
are infinitely cheaper now than they were then, but if you
express 5 shillings as a fraction of the annual salary,
it would be more like £2,400 of today's money.

Uh? 5/- is 1/1200 of £300. So today's equivalent would be 1/1200
of £20K = £16.67 surely?

Probably, probably..... never very good at maths, I wasn't.
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

"Neill Wood" wrote in message
om

I don't often travel Londonbound on the A3, but I think the doors in
the side of the Hook Underpass are still visible.

So did I but there aren't any (I've just been to have a look) so the
generators must have been at ground level which makes sense. The Cap in
Hand (Wetherspoon) is one of the best *proper* locals in London, so I
popped in there, Harry Hawker lived at corner of Hook Rd / Orchard Rd,
so it is not surprising there was aviation interest. He is buried in the
churchyard near his house (marked with a cross on the overlaid map).

http://tinyurl.com/6fmq5

King Edward Rec is very large and quite capable I would suppose of
accomodating bi-planes. I wonder if anyone's figured out how the people
of Ace got home if they went to Mitcham on the 152?


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

"Mrs Redboots" wrote in message
...
Stuart wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 31 Oct 2004:

What is HRA and what is 5/-??

I don't know HRA, but 5/- is our old currency, what used to be called
"five shillings". Now 25p, but in those days it was a lot of money!
Maybe the equivalent of £50 or thereabouts.

Back in the 1950s, 5/- was about 25% above the hourly rate for labourers, so
today's equivalent would be the minimum wage of £4.90 per hour+25%, say
£6.12. That's a factor of about 24 to 1.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
75th Anniversary 2004, see http://www.omnibussoc.org/75th.htm
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

In message , at 17:58:22 on Mon, 1
Nov 2004, Terry Harper remarked:
Back in the 1950s, 5/- was about 25% above the hourly rate for labourers, so
today's equivalent would be the minimum wage of £4.90 per hour+25%, say
£6.12. That's a factor of about 24 to 1.

Whereas the £300 vs £20,000 is 67:1

Perhaps the £300 was a little on the low side - being £1.50 an hour or 3
shillings and nine pence an hour.
--
Roland Perry

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

Roland Perry wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 1 Nov 2004:

In message , at 17:58:22 on
Mon, 1 Nov 2004, Terry Harper
remarked:
Back in the 1950s, 5/- was about 25% above the hourly rate for labourers, so
today's equivalent would be the minimum wage of £4.90 per hour+25%, say
£6.12. That's a factor of about 24 to 1.

Whereas the £300 vs £20,000 is 67:1

Perhaps the £300 was a little on the low side - being £1.50 an hour or 3
shillings and nine pence an hour.

I was basing that on "Murder must Advertise", which I happen to be
re-reading, where a senior copywriter in an advertising agency was
earning £6.00 per week - I beg his pardon, £6/0/0, or £312 a year. And
Lord Peter Wimsey, if you recall, learning the trade, only made £4/0/0 a
week, or £208. Yet this wasn't considered particularly low....
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 31 October 2004

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

In message , Terry Harper
writes

Back in the 1950s, 5/- was about 25% above the hourly rate for labourers, so
today's equivalent would be the minimum wage of £4.90 per hour+25%, say
£6.12. That's a factor of about 24 to 1.

Why should the hourly rate of labourers in the 1950s have anything to do
with either the matter under discussion (currency value in the 1930s) or
the minimum wage today?

Rather than guessing, why not try one of the many useful economic
history reference machines, which is what I did:

http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/

Although only programmed up to 2002 it gives:

£4.91 in 2002 has the same "purchase power" as 5s in 1950.
£12.16 in 2002 has the same "purchase power" as 5s in 1930.
--
Paul Terry

Trivia: Hook Underpass (Ace of Spades)
 

Paul Terry wrote in message ...
In message , CIG_BIG_CIG
writes

What I meant by this question was if I was at the roundabout I can
only go towards London on the A3 there is no direct access to the
southbound A3 you have to go to Esher first. Has it never been
possible to get directly from Hook to the A3 southbound?

Yes, as has already been explained, before the Esher by-pass was built
the road that is now the A309 heading towards Esher *was* the southbound
A3 - so in those days there was indeed direct access from the Hook
roundabout.

It was only after the A3 got "moved" (due to the opening of the Esher
bypass) that the former direct access became instead direct access to
the A309.

Aha! The movement of the A3 explains it all!

Now logic suggests if the Ace of Spades came first then did Tolworth
and New Malden come second and third respectively?