Page Navigation - Go to: site index | start of page content | Everyday life category menu | links to related material
MAKING THE MODERN WORLD
Stories about the lives we've made

Object:National Health Service spectacles with mock tortoiseshell frames, 1970-80


picture zoom related ingenious images © Science Museum/Science and Society Picture Library

A pair of NHS (National Health Service) spectacles with imitation tortoiseshell frames made from brown plastic. After the establishment of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, cheap spectacles became available to all. Unfortunately, demand greatly exceeded supply, and it became necessary to produce a large stock of a limited range of frames to meet this demand which had created waiting lists of up to two years.

'PERSONAL' GO BACK TO PERSONAL