Friends' Gallery Picture of the Month April 2019

[Mike Costigan]

Proud owner with his well-used four-door Big Seven - note the crease in the rear wing and the broken front bumper!

Can anyone identify the origin of the number plate?

[Roger Goldthorpe]

Belgium ?

[Ritchie Wilson]

The number plate could be NZ. The War Memorial in the background looks like the cenotaph in Cathedral Square, Christchurch, NZ. The CAR label on the windscreen would be a major clue perhaps? The Grand sign visible could be the Grand Theatre, opened in 1909, which became the Embassy Theatre in 1953, pulled down in the 1960s. Access to the location is possible, but the buildings shown were gone before my memories start. Their replacements came down in the 2011 earthquakes of course. The Cathedral would have been just in front of the car, the building behind would then be Warner's Hotel perhaps.

[Bob Culver]

NZ number plates were stamped and pre war were changed every year for some weird reason, every 5 after. From old family Seven photos off white 1951, white early 60s. The dress is more 1950s. Cities downtown were dead on weekends, esp Sunday, and esp if a raw day as here. The owner looks pure Brit as nearly everyone was by a generation or two. It was a great country.
Every family owned a car but seldom  a very new one, so cars with defects, panel damage etc were very common. Now hounded off the road.

[Ritchie Wilson]

If NZ the CAR windscreen sticker could have been for war-time petrol rationing. The shape between the two lots of 3 digits would indicate the year pre-war or a longer period post-war. The colour of the plates also changed from period to period - yellow then brown just before the change to permanent numbers in 1965.

[A G Wood]

According to my information on NZ licence plates, from 1925-1941 new steel plates were issued yearly. For 1941 to 1964 new steel plates were issued 5-yearly [according to the source due to steel shortages during WW2]. If that is a NZ photo, and I agree with Ritchie it could well be taken in Christchurch, the year can be deduced from colour of the plates and the character between the two groups of numbers. In this case a mid-centre hyphen between the two groups. This would make it 1926-1927 [white letters on black background], or 1946-1951 [black on mid-buff]. Its got to be 1946-1951. The only other hyphen plate is 1932-1933, but in that case its a low hyphen.
Nice pic by the way

[Ritchie Wilson]

I would say it is definitely Christchurch. The curved-top, recessed windows in the building behind the car are very similar to the windows shown in old photos of Warner's Hotel, though they don't show the fire escape which must be a later addition. The hotel was cut in two and one side made into the Majestic Picture Theatre. The Square was the home of the picture palace in those days. The cross at the top of the cenotaph has been cropped as has the fancy structure on the top of the interesting looking building on the top right. Bob is right about NZ being dead in the weekends. When the Americans were building their bases in Antarctica in 1957 and Christchurch was filled with American sailors, my father, who had spent the war at sea in frigates, used to say he had sympathy for these guys, wandering the deserted streets of a closed city. As time went on Operation Deep Freeze - as the Antarctic Project is called - established a club for American servicemen at Harewood Airport which, some say, was a breeding ground for NZ rock music. The ski-equipped C-130 Hercules aircraft fly from Harewood to the ice.