Austerity to optimism viâ a second-hand Daimler

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The car in this photograph is nothing fancy. The backdrop is by no means pretty and as far the gung-ho-looking chap with the pipe goes, we haven't got the faintest idea whom he is. All the same, it's a photograph that's so evocative of a particular point in time that it seems a shame not to give it an airing.

Clearly the picture dates from the 1950s, but the car is some 20 years older, and looks it. We believe it's a Daimler Light 15 of the mid-1930s and the bodywork would have been produced by Mulliners Ltd. of Bordesley Green, Birmingham—that was the arm of the Mulliner coachbuilding empire managed by Herbert, and should not be confused with Arthur or H. J. We think we can just about get away with calling it a sports saloon. While there are a number of Light 15s still in existence, the six-light saloon would seem to be the most plentiful; four-light sports saloons are a real rarity today.

Assuming they all went through the same treatment as this car, it's not hard to see why. At 20 years old, this one looks really battered and bruised, but it was obviously still chugging away at the time of the photograph. We don't know where in Britain the picture was taken (the Coventry number plate is the only clue) but, in truth, it could be anywhere. Housing estates like these, of a regrettably bland and nondescript appearance, were sprouting up all over our green and pleasant land in the 1950s, providing accommodation for a rapidly-expanding population—from 30 million people in Britain in 1900, there were 41½ million in 1950. After the hardships of war and austerity, the comfort and security of a new home in leafy suburbia was, for many, a reason to be cheerful.

Certainly, our friend in the photograph is cheerful enough, though we can't fathom why. What's he been doing tearing around this unfinished housing estate and why did he want his picture taken there, anyway? He's clearly too well-dressed to be a labourer. Also, what does that note say in the window, and who is his companion behind the camera? As long as he's having fun, it's all the same to us...

Words: Zack Stiling
Photograph: Stiling Collection

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