{"id":3244,"date":"2020-07-27T10:28:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T10:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colinchapmanmuseum.co.uk\/?page_id=3244"},"modified":"2022-06-24T08:19:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T08:19:36","slug":"bond-special-agent","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/colinchapmanmuseum.co.uk\/?page_id=3244","title":{"rendered":"Bond: Special Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Contemporaries Series<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bond: Special Agent<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Book%20cover%20lge\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Figure 1. Recent biography<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The editors have considerable respect for Laurie Bond and are pleased to offer this article which examines his work and designs.<\/p>\n

He was a capable engineer, amateur racing driver, entrepreneur; reading demand, marrying product with defined client.<\/p>\n

He capitalised on skills, diversified when it seemed opportune.<\/p>\n

He contributed to Britain’s growth, change and improvement through the Austerity to Affluence era of post war Britain<\/p>\n

He ought to be given credit for his manufacturing capacity, the sustainability of his products and the fact he extrapolated 2nd<\/sup> World War technologies into his products and may have influenced Chapman.<\/p>\n

Laurie Bond is a very significant Industrial Designer.<\/p>\n

He is not as famous as Chapman but both men had much in common.<\/p>\n

We shall explore the commonality in this article.<\/p>\n

Bond did much to motorise and mobilsed Britain in the post war era and perhaps deserves more credit than has been given.<\/p>\n

It’s also possible that he helped inform Chapmans ideas for the Elite and Type 25.<\/p>\n

Laurie Bond 1907-1974 was mature person in the important post war era as the summary indicates<\/p>\n

1945-age 38<\/p>\n

1947-age 40<\/p>\n

1957-age 50<\/p>\n

1974- died at age 67<\/p>\n

Economic context to 1950\u2019s <\/strong><\/p>\n

Subscribers might like to see our dedicated articles on the 1950\u2019s in which we offer statistics relating to income in order to better understand customer affordability and the financial discipline; the design \/ entrepreneurs faced bringing them the products they required.<\/p>\n

Subscribers might like also to explore major socio-economic events impinging on the 1950\u2019s which include The Suez Crisis, the development of the motor cycle and sidecar for family transport, demographics, mass production, the impact of credit \/deferred terms \/Hire purchase<\/p>\n

The following statistics from the net are useful: –<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1950, the UK standard of living was higher than in any EEC country apart from Belgium. It was 50% higher than the West German standard of living, and twice as high as the Italian standard of living. By the earlier Seventies, however, the UK standard of living was lower than all EEC countries apart from Italy (which, according to one calculation, was roughly equal to Britain). In 1951, the average weekly earnings of men over the age of 21 stood at \u00a38 6s 0d, and nearly doubled a decade later to \u00a315 7s 0d. By 1966, average weekly earnings stood at \u00a320 6s 0d.[201]<\/sup><\/a> Between 1964 and 1968, the percentage of households with a television set rose from 80.5% to 85.5%, a washing machine from 54% to 63%, a refrigerator from 35% to 55%, a car from 38% to 49%, a telephone from 21.5% to 28%, and central heating from 13% to 23%.[202]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Between 1951 and 1963, wages rose by 72% while prices rose by 45%, enabling people to afford more consumer goods than ever before.[203]<\/sup><\/a> Between 1955 and 1967, the average earnings of weekly-paid workers increased by 96% and those of salaried workers by 95%, while prices rose by about 45% in the same period.[204]<\/sup><\/a> The rising affluence of the Fifties and Sixties was underpinned by sustained full employment and a dramatic rise in workers’ wages. In 1950, the average weekly wage stood at \u00a36.8s, compared with \u00a311.2s.6d in 1959. As a result of wage rises, consumer spending also increased by about 20% during this same period, while economic growth remained at about 3%. In addition, food rations were lifted in 1954 while hire-purchase controls were relaxed in the same year. As a result of these changes, large numbers of the working classes were able to participate in the consumer market for the first time.<\/p>\n

The significant real wage increases in the 1950s and 1960s contributed to a rapid increase in working-class consumerism, with British consumer spending rising by 45% between 1952 and 1964.[207]<\/sup><\/a> In addition, entitlement to various fringe benefits was improved. In 1955, 96% of manual labourers were entitled to two weeks\u2019 holiday with pay, compared with 61% in 1951. By the end of the 1950s, Britain had become one of the world’s most affluent countries, and by the early Sixties, most Britons enjoyed a level of prosperity that had previously been known only to a small minority of the population.[208]<\/sup><\/a> For the young and unattached, there was, for the first time in decades, spare cash for leisure, clothes, and luxuries. In 1959, Queen<\/em><\/a> magazine declared that “Britain has launched into an age of unparalleled lavish living.” Average wages were high while jobs were plentiful, and people saw their personal prosperity climb even higher. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan<\/a> claimed that “the luxuries of the rich have become the necessities of the poor.” Levels of disposable income rose steadily,[209]<\/sup><\/a> with the spending power of the average family rising by 50% between 1951 and 1979, and by the end of the Seventies, 6 out of 10 families had come to own a car.[210]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Car ownership rose by 250% between 1951 and 1961, and between 1955 and 1960 average weekly earnings rose by 34%, while the cost of most technological consumer items fell in real terms. In the 1950s consumers had more money to spend on goods, and more goods from which to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Contemporaries Series has been written to achieve the following objectives: –<\/strong><\/p>\n