Great Depression

The Great Depression is invoked as the economic hardship Britain had recently come through, making the prosperity visible on a suburban drive west of London a measure of recovery. In Hugh Legat’s brief reflection, new homes, factories and familiar commercial names stand against the remembered Depression, while the passing landscape suggests how economic change had become part of ordinary life.

Recovery on the Road

As the convoy leaves central London, it travels along a wide modern dual carriageway through Osterley. The route is lined with pebbledashed semi-detached houses, small front gardens and privet hedges, interspersed with light industrial factories. In the pouring rain, the signs for Gillette, Beecham’s Powders and Firestone Tyre & Rubber gleam beside the road. The scene makes recovery tangible through its combination of housing, industry and recognizable consumer businesses.

Legat’s Retrospective

Looking at the development, Hugh Legat thinks Neville Chamberlain may have been responsible for much of it, recalling Chamberlain’s earlier service as Minister of Housing and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. The thought links visible suburban growth to political office without establishing that Chamberlain personally directed the particular developments along the route. Legat’s wider conclusion is that the country had come through the Great Depression and was prosperous again: the economic past is not recounted in detail, but supplies the contrast that gives the modern roadside its significance.