In contrast to most of the early twentieth century pictures of the concourse at Tynemouth, this view from June 1969 is somewhat less bedecked with ornamental plants, although the tradition is kept alive with numerous hanging baskets. To provide entertainment and diversion for waiting passengers a vending machine can be seen, whilst in the foreground, distinguished by its Queen Anne legs, is the back of a label printing machine. By operating a large dial, letters of the alphabet could be selected, and punched onto an aluminium strip – a forerunner of the popular ‘Dymo’ printing devices. On at least one occasion the author joined the queue of other youngsters keen to invest a few coppers in printing his name. The process was long and tedious and could cause jostling, impatient queues, especially when the operator at the head of the queue punched a wrong letter, and the whole laborious process had to be repeated.
Photo by John Mann

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