Going back in time at the Western Approaches HQ

Western Approaches HQ Operations Room, September 1944 - from Wikimedia Commons

My first job after leaving university was at the Royal Insurance head office, in Liverpool. There was little space outside, so in the event of a fire our muster point was the courtyard of the nearby Exchange Flags building. In all the various times I stood there (fortunately, mostly for fire drills), I had no idea that I was standing above a piece of history.

Exchange Flags - what lies beneath?

The Western Approaches is the term used to describe the area of the Atlantic to the west of Ireland and the UK. During World War II this area assumed vital importance, as all supplies coming to Britain had to sail through it. Merchant ships were at the mercy of German submarine attacks, so a convoy system was introduced whereby the ships travelled in groups, protected by a small number of naval vessels. Liverpool became the main port for the convoys.

Western Approaches Command was initially based in Plymouth. However the fall of France meant that not only was the south coast no longer safe, but the convoys now had to travel around the north of Ireland. The headquarters had to be moved, and Liverpool was the obvious choice. The Royal Navy had already acquired Derby House in the Exchange Flags building, and the operation to protect the convoys moved into the reinforced concrete basement.

At the end of the war the Western Approaches HQ was closed up and largely forgotten. Parts of it were destroyed when a car park was built under the courtyard in the 1950s. The rest was left frozen in time, however, and is now a museum. I've been there before, but yesterday I went for a special visit.

The bunker headquarters had to be able to function regardless of what was happening above. As well as being bombproof and gasproof it had its own power supply.

The controls for the power supply

It's a warren of tunnels and rooms.

One of the many corridors

It had a telegraph room, and a telephone system.

I don't know if the Morse code aide-memoire is original

The switchboard

Sign by the telephone switching gear

But there was also a direct phone to the Admiralty for the Commander-in-Chief, if required, next to his office.

The booth is soundproofed so nothing can be overheard

The Admiral's office

Although he was provided with a flat in Derby House the second commander, Admiral Sir Max Horton, preferred to spend much of his time in the bunker. He had a small room next to his office set up as a bedroom. Like the office, it had a window looking down into the Operations Room.

The bedroom

The view from the Admiral's quarters

The two-storey Operations Room is the most impressive room in the complex. The huge maps were painted by a Liverpool artist and signwriter, who was employed under conditions of strict secrecy, with no idea what his work would be used for. The positions of the convoys were plotted on the North Atlantic map, along with those of allied aircraft and reported enemy submarines. The plots were updated every four hours, or more frequently if urgent signals were received or orders issued.

The Operations Room

This weekend visitors have had a chance to see the Operations Room 'in use'. The re-enactment group 'V for Victory' gave a demonstration of how the room would have been used during a naval engagement - the one I saw was the tracking and sinking of the German battleship 'Bismarck'. Being in an enclosed space so separated from the outside world and busy with uniformed personnel going about their roles, it really gave a feeling of what the HQ must have been like.

The room in use

This felt as close as I will ever get to time travel

From my time dancing and re-enacting with Ya Raqs I have some idea of just how much work must have gone into planning this (and it was lovely to see some of my old friends from those days now with 'V for Victory), so thank you to everyone involved.

Knitting again

It's only taken five years, but I'm back knitting again. I have actually done a few bits in the meantime, but nothing worth blogging about.

Knitwear, especially in vintage styles, is a perennial problem for me. I have a short torso (I have to take around 5cm/2" length out of bodices), so any shaped knitted garments tend to gather in unsightly folds around my waist. Very occasionally I have found shorter pieces and snapped them up, but my main sources were British Home Stores and Debenhams, now both sadly defunct.

From time to time I've been tempted by knitting patterns which I've seen online, but as I know almost nothing about knitting, and don't have any friends locally who knit, this seemed over-ambitious. Then Tasha, of Tasha Could Make That, announced a knit-along for her latest knitting pattern, and the prospect of some advice and hand-holding finally persuaded me to have a go.

I've followed Tasha online for ages, and been in awe of her knitting and dressmaking skills - especially her awesome plaid-matching abilities! She describes her latest pattern, the Wondrella cardigan as "Suitable for an adventurous beginner", and a brief online chat convinced me that this should be within my capabilities.

The pattern, and progress so far

Wondrella is designed to be knitted with two yarns together, but I decided against that on the basis that handling one yarn is quite enough for me at present. (On the evidence so far, this was the right decision!) Tasha had added that the pattern can be knitted in DK instead, so that's what I went for. I must admit that I chose a cheapish acrylic for my first attempt, as I'm not sure how it will turn out. The cardigan is a design I'd be happy to have in more than one colour, and it comes with several collar variations, so if it works I'll probably knit it again in proper wool. Here I must stress that my concern is based entirely on my abilities, not on Tasha's instructions, which are very detailed. There are a few bits which are new to me, but I'm reasonably confident that I'll be able to work them out when I get to them. I took the precaution of buying an extra ball of wool so that I can practise techniques as and when needed.

The first thing which threw me slightly was that the pattern is knitted on circular needles. This would be tricky for me as I knit with right needle tucked under my arm. It's how I was taught at school - a very long time ago - and I've never knitted any other way. A plea for advice on Instagram brought the information that a) this method has a name - lever knitting and b) it should be possible to knit the body at least on straight needles. I will have to learn knitting in the round for the sleeves, but I'll tackle that when I get to it. Hopefully by that stage I’ll be a more confident knitter in general.

There are no side seams to the cardigan, the body is knitted all in one. For my size, this is 155 stitches. I got to the end of the first row of ribbing, and discovered that I had made several mistakes both at the start and in the middle of the row. Sigh. After tortuously attempting to unpick a few stitches, I decided that it was easier to just unravel the whole thing and start again. On the plus side, I am now much better at casting on! This time I marked every 30 stitches with a stitch marker, so I stop at the end of each section and check it.

At worst, I only have 30 stitches to undo if I go wrong

A new project requires a new knitting bag, as the one I made previously is full of a part-done project! Some time ago I had acquired a couple of very badly made cushion covers in a mixed auction lot of sewing stuff, and had kept them because I liked the fabric. It is a cotton rep, in a very vintage-looking print, but the typeface of the writing on the selvedge suggests that it's actually modern. Anyway, I unpicked the covers, washed the fabric, and used it to make a new, roomy, bag.

Room for plenty of wool and the pattern folder

It has drawstrings on the inside to close it up, so that things don't fall out.

With the sides closed up

I also made a small zipped pouch bag for accessories such as row counters and stitch markers, as these keep getting lost in the bottom of my knitting needles bag.

A smaller bag for bits and bobs

Both bags are lined and both were 'no-buy' projects as I had everything, including the handles and zip, already.

A little bit more out of the stash

I doubt if I'll finish the cardigan in the knitalong timeframe, as I'm a very slow knitter, but I'm not worried if I don't. It will just be nice to have a vintage cardigan which actually fits.

The Pattern Book project

According to Blogger, this is my 600th post. In an era when so many blogs have either been replaced by Instagram accounts or simply fallen by the wayside, this feels like quite an achievement. (Clearly my online presence, like so much else about me, is distinctly old-fashioned!) So this seems a good time to introduce a project which I've been thinking about for a while. It's a big one, so much so that I don't expect to be anywhere near through it by the time of my 700th post - assuming that Blogger lasts that long! I want to do a serious trawl though Vogue Pattern Books (the UK editions), from the first issue as a standalone publication in 1949 to at least 1999.

There is so much information in these magazines, and not just the patterns featured in each issue. I've already written about Vogue's involvement with the start of commercial television in 1955, and returned several times to the topic of patterns for, and the representation of, older women. Things like the amount of advertising in each issue, and the products advertised, also tell us something about the times in which they appeared.

To demonstrate what I'm talking about here are six issues, each roughly a decade apart, and some of the changes that took place.

1949 to 1999

I've already written about the Spring 1949 issue, so here is a later issue from the year to start things off.

Autumn 1949

There were a few more full-colour pages in this than in the Spring issue, but they were given over to advertising. Elsewhere, colour was in the form of line drawings, with just a few colours used. The previous issue (Summer) had announced the launch of Vogue Paris Original patterns, and this issue contained the second batch of designs to be released.

Vogue Paris Originals by Lanvin

As with the spring issue, there were only a few photographs.

More colour, and photos

The 1949 issues show a country still recovering from the effects of the war, but everything had changed a decade later.

September 1959

There was a far greater use of photography, and full colour was widely used in features.

Colour photographs illustrate features on patterns . . .

. . . and on fabrics

Articles on sewing techniques had appeared.

Mrs Scarsdale talks tailoring

There were far more advertisements, including several for different brands of sewing machine.

There is also an advert for Elna on the next page

One thing which I hope to do as part of this project is chart the demise of the British fabric industry, and the more recent demise of the department store. The list of shops selling Jacqmar fabrics is dizzying.

So many retailers, for one fabric brand alone

Moving on, the model on the front of the Summer 1969 issue is wearing Vogue 7594. Not that you could tell.

It's that tiny bit of red

It's a mystery to me why a dressmaking magazine would use head shots on the cover. The previous two covers actually included the pattern number.

This was the era when the Pattern Book included features shot in exotic locations. In this issue, it was Mexico.

Vogue 7601

There was also a small feature on makeup.

There is nothing natural about that eyeliner

And line drawings still made an occasional appearance.

From "Summer Fashion Portfolio"

By Spring 1979 not much had changed apart from the name. The cover was still trying to look like a generic women's magazine.

Vogue 2050. Not that you'd know

The location shoot this time was in El Salvador, and Karen Bjornson appeared in a lot of the images.

Looking cheery while souvenir shopping

Perhaps she didn't want to go home

There was also a double page feature on half sizes, and patterns which go up to size 22½. However, the model featured is clearly neither older nor anywhere close to a larger size.

Four half size patterns

For me, the highlight of this issue is the advert for a Sylko shade card. It had samples of each of the threads available, along with the shade number and name.

I would love to have one of these!

By 1989 the cover had gone back to showing at least some clothing.

Autumn 1989, showing Vogue Classics 7594 and 7587

Articles on sewing techniques still appeared.

More tailoring

Some things had changed, though. Sewing machines, for a start.

Very futuristic

And finally, models of colour were appearing in features.

Albeit rarely

The final issue of Vogue Patterns before the millennium chose to feature Vintage Vogue patterns, and especially those from the 1940s.

November/December 1999

Patterns from (l to r) 1948, 1946 and 1947

I didn't know that Vogue had ever reissued men’s patterns. I wonder how popular this one was?

Zoot suit and 1946 skirt suit

Even the techniques article was on vintage sewing.

Four pages on vintage sewing techniques

Not all of the issue was looking backwards, however. In the Spring issue, Vogue had introduced Today's Fit, and this issue included two new patterns.

The Today's Fit line is still going now

Given that Today's Fit is described as a "revolutionary line of patterns based on a new set of measurements that more closely reflect the body proportions of today's women", to me this suggests that the 31 Misses' patterns in the issue didn't much reflect the body proportions of today's women, but never mind.

This page of adverts caught my eye, as being so different from 1959. There are no named fabric brands, and sales appear to be through specialist shops rather than departments in large stores - which very much reflects my changing experience of buying material over the years.

I should check how many of these are still trading

Finally, a real taste of things to come.

Order online from our newly created website

Vogue Patterns magazine eventually became Sew Today (in the UK, at least) when Vogue patterns merged with Butterick and McCall's, and now it is online only. But I think that the magazines will be an interesting way of charting changes in home sewing (albeit for those sewists who could afford Vogue patterns) over half a century or more.