Christmas Spending Still Up In London

Press, Volume C, Issue 29702, 21 December 1961, Page 2

Christmas Spending Still Up In London

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, Dec. 19. London shopkeepers, they say, are a little disappointed this Christmas —far too many people are "just looking” instead of buying. That may be so but it is still like a Rugby scrum to try to approach any counter or even to walk with any degree of comfort down any West End street. Shopkeepers might complain but Christmas spending in the weekly figures of the Bank of England shows little change in volume from that of last year. In the last four weeks note circulation has been increased by £l2l million compared with £124 million for the corresponding period in 1960. The amount now outstanding is £2438 million which is £B5 million higher than last year. This increase, of about per cent., corresponds closely with an increase in retail prices. Apart from the commercial side of Christmas, shopkeepers and private householders more and more are adopting the custom of having lighted Christmas trees outside their business premises or in the porch or front window of their homes. There are countless trees all over the West End. The best-known one, that in Trafalgar square, is the annual gift of Oslo. Council Trees Most churches have their own and the London County Council has set up 13 trees which glow on Clapham Common and in St. Pancras, Shoreditch, Stepney and

North Woolwich to the east and away at Shepherds Bush in the west. Christinas decorations twinkle above streets in city and suburb. In the curved sweep of Regent street an archway of coronets glitters and at first-floor level hundreds of brilliant Christmas trees and seasonal symbols add to the gaiety. Brightly-coloured baubles sway over Oxford street crowds and in Bond street cascades of light hang like banners from large candles on either side. Shop windows match up to lights. Sloane square is completely canopied with coloured lights strung from tree to tree. For the last week, and it will probably get worse, thousands of cars carrying family parties nightly have been making nose-to-tail progress along Regent and Oxford streets to admire Christmas illuminations. Cars are banking up to such an extent that traffic lights have became useless and police have had to control traffic with portable loud hailers. Newspaper Advice Newspapers and home magazines are having a field day. Advice on what and what not to give appears daily and the number of recipes for roasting turkey and baking plum pudding and Christmas cake is legion. This Christmas has been notable for the extraordinary amount of space taken by liquor advertisers. It seems to have been successful for wine merchants boast they have not before had such a quantity of orders. Wine, they say, has now become commonplace on tables of Continental-conscious Britons.

This seems to be a year for off-the-beat presents. One most popular idea came from a baby sitting agency in the West End. Now it cannot cope with orders. It arranged for hundreds of vouchers for a free baby sitter for Christmas—4s 2d an hour to the giver, 24 hours notice needed. Books of six vouchers were sold out in a few days. Now printers are so choked with work they can’t print any more for weeks. Then there’s the “continuous” present such as membership of the Stocking Club which keeps a girl in nylons aiU the year round at a nominal cost; or an order to a florist to deliver flowers each week or month for a small sum. Gift of Smog For homesick friends overseas there is a shop in London which sends at regular intervals as required, tins of genuine London smog. What is called the season’s most unlikely to be bought present is a solid gold transistor radio set available for 2000gns. The 2000gns—according to a card in the window ,which accompanies the set includes the 2s 5d battery. Poulterers claim that Christmas turkey will be the plumpest and tenderest the British housewife has known for years. Breeding research is steadily putting more flesh where it is wanted —on the breast. Prices are down—from 8d to 9d per lb—because 1,500,000 more turkeys have been produced this year. Oven-ready birds are selling for about 5s per lb.

Already people have begun leaving London for a Christmas holiday abroad. British European Airways will carry about 100,000 holiday makers in nearly 1000 flights in and out of London. The most popular Continental destination is Switzerland. A grim Christmas warning came from the Minister of Transport (Mr Marples). Unless everyone showed greater care on the roads, he said, more than 150 people wouldn’t live to enjoy their presents and more than 1500 would be too seriously injured to do so.