by Colin Morley

Created on: August 11, 2011   Last Updated: August 16, 2011

In 1953, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned queen of England, Joseph Stalin died, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquered Mount Everest – and Renzo Rivolto’s revolutionary Isetta “bubble car” was introduced to a bewildered and bemused public.  The tiny car was powered by a dual cylinder two-stroke motorcycle engine.

When the iconic car was introduced,

inflation in the UK was down to 3.1% from a harmful 9%+ for the previous two years, unemployment was low, rationing of sweets, eggs, cream and sugar, still in force after the Second World War, was finally lifted and the era of “buy now pay later” had begun with car manufacturers offering previously unseen offers on new cars. The average UK salary (per annum) was £625.80 (the equivalent of only about £14,000 today)

For those families who had seen the suffering and deprivation of war, the destruction of towns and cities and the loss of so many young men, this was a much-needed glimpse of a brighter and more hopeful future. Yet the Isetta initially failed to secure many sales and in 1955 production rights were sold to the then ailing German motor company, BMW.

In that space of time, average UK earnings had risen to £729.30 (£14,700 equivalent), television ownership was on the increase (since a record number of Britons had their first taste of television watching the 1953 coronation), a young designer called Mary Quant opened a fashion boutique in the West End of London and the felt tip pen was first introduced.

1956 saw the introduction of the revolutionary fastening called Velcro.  IBM introduced the very first computer hard disk drive and a young American called Elvis Presley took the world by storm with his film “Love me Tender”.  The world was changing more rapidly than it had done for generations.

The following year saw Russia launch the world’s first mission into space, with the launch of Sputnik 1. Anthony Eden resigned as British Prime Minister, following his handling of the Suez crisis, to be succeeded by Harold (“you’ve never had it so good”) Macmillan. The European Economic Union was founded by the signing of the Treaty of Rome (though Britain would not join the party until 1973) and Britain ceded its African colonial territory of Gold Coast and British Togoland to the independent state of Ghana. David Lean’s acclaimed war film “The Bridge on the River Kwai” was released.

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