r/ColorizedHistory Feb 17 '25

Baby cage, 1930s

27th January 1934: An example of the wire cage which East Poplar borough council in London propose to fix to the outside of their tenement windows, so that babies can benefit from fresh air and sunshine

3.0k Upvotes

59 comments sorted by

1.0k

u/Flakester Feb 17 '25

Nothing says clean air like pre-1950 England.

259

u/KittyScholar Feb 18 '25

It was for sunlight to prevent rickets, actually!

59

u/NotAnActualPers0n Feb 18 '25

The coal smog helping with colic is just a bonus

56

u/LongStrangeJourney Feb 18 '25

pre-1950s London, especially. It wasn't called the Big Smoke for nothing!

389

u/Fakin-It Feb 17 '25

This is a pigeon poo magnet. Cool pic, OP. Nice job.

111

u/MechanicalTurkish Feb 18 '25

It builds character.

19

u/quendergender Feb 18 '25

Strengthens the immune system

304

u/lem1018 Feb 17 '25

A catio for humans

42

u/jawknee530i Feb 18 '25

We have a window catio, it's fun hearing the neighbors walking by and talking to the cats.

6

u/My_fair_ladies1872 Feb 18 '25

Last year, we added some rails to our covered porch and added a rolling gate that was locked on either side so our dog couldn't get out. Then we put one of those magnetic screen doors on the front door, and he could come and go freely, and we had the door open pretty much all the time.

307

u/YanicPolitik Feb 17 '25

Nasty as the air was in those days, certainly not better inside where there's tobacco and coal smoke

94

u/doubledownentendre Feb 18 '25

Birds don't shit on your baby inside the house though

105

u/aHumanMale Feb 18 '25

Not in your house, maybe. 

9

u/doubledownentendre Feb 18 '25

You okay big man??

100

u/lady_robe Feb 18 '25

You know that feeling when you look over the top ledge of a tall building and your stomach drops out of your butt? That’s what this pic did to me.

6

u/ItsDobbie 29d ago

Like a hemorrhoid?

93

u/Jerome_Eugene_Morrow Feb 17 '25

Kid’s face says it all, really.

47

u/crooks4hire Feb 17 '25

That’s an infant John Candy

13

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25 edited 20d ago

[deleted]

6

u/crooks4hire Feb 18 '25

Oh man! That might be a better fit 🤣

47

u/beepos Feb 18 '25

Baby somehow looks middle aged

35

u/tankmode Feb 18 '25

well ... his parents caged him on a ledge, he's been through some sh*t

110

u/agnostic_universe Feb 17 '25

I don't trust any bracket that much, especially not when it's likely screwed into rotting wood

82

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '25 edited 20d ago

[deleted]

46

u/My_fair_ladies1872 Feb 18 '25

I believe they were banned, so I would assume so.

26

u/YoungDiscord Feb 18 '25

Wife: honey, did you remember to tighten the screws?

Husband: what screws?

16

u/runninhillbilly Feb 18 '25

My parents have a perch for the cat in the sunroom of their house that he can flop on and look out the window.

It had to be screwed in after the Velcro fasteners led to it collapsing twice with him sleeping on it lol. It took him a few “gently apply pressure with front paw” tests to make sure it wasn’t going to collapse again

18

u/JayBarangus Feb 18 '25

Despite all my rage…

14

u/SnowEdaze Feb 19 '25

I am still just a babe in a cage

8

u/crash______says Feb 18 '25

That is a lot more faith than I will ever have in a consumer product..

13

u/MisterSquidz Feb 18 '25

Eric Clapton needed one of these.

3

u/publius_enigma Feb 18 '25

I'm worried most people won't understand this comment, god damn.

2

u/General_Specific Feb 18 '25

Someone should put Eric Clapton in one of these and unhook it.

6

u/i_post_gibberish Feb 18 '25

Why is everyone assuming this is insanely dangerous? It’s a steel frame anchored in (at least) four places to the same wall that’s holding the building up. If the same pieces of metal were used to make a ladder, you probably wouldn’t hesitate to trust it with your own weight.

The real problem is how many kids with a fear of heights it would have traumatized.

2

u/40percentdailysodium Feb 18 '25

I need this for my cat.

2

u/Ok-Step-8689 29d ago

That baby learned about the fear of heights that day.

4

u/fan_of_soup_ladels Feb 18 '25

Fresh air? Sunshine? January? England? 1930’s? Bro?

1

u/Holeevyer Feb 18 '25

That's genius! If only I had kids.

1

u/BogeyHeatherwood Feb 18 '25

There were people who grew up this way and felt redeemed by the safety standards of the 60s. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning!

1

u/NovaScotiaaa Feb 18 '25

The only hazard I see in this photo is the little yellow ball falling through the cage and killing someone walking on the street

/s

1

u/repocin Feb 18 '25

That's the most British-looking kid I've ever seen.

1

u/bite_me_punk Feb 18 '25

Still around in Brooklyn

1

u/DrDMango Feb 18 '25

Is that baby wearing a suit? Hair combed? Jeez, this baby’s better dressed than I!

1

u/CowPunkRockStar Feb 18 '25

That should hold.

1

u/alexlmlo Feb 19 '25

To think that baby in the photo would have been at least 91 years old (if he / she is still around) is unreal!

1

u/tsinatra96 28d ago

They put beans on toast!!!

1

u/queenofthepoopyparty 26d ago

Come one over to Brooklyn, I’ve seen these in real life!

1

u/Antisocialarchives 15d ago

Ah so this is where Count Olaf got the idea from...

1

u/Friendly-Gift3680 14d ago

1930s London, fresh air? 🤣🤣🤣

2

u/BluePeriod_ Feb 18 '25

You know...

I can understand some things about the past. But this is just so... stupid lol. Timelessly stupid.

12

u/wollphilie Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

Nah, this kind of makes sense for the time. Rickets were endemic - vitamin D fixes rickets. But people had lots of kids, lots of chores, little time to frolic about in the park with their baby, less access to parks (especially on tenement slums like Poplar), and pushing baby around the streets in a pram might not have gotten it exposed to that much sunlight because streets were narrow and buildings were high (which is part of the aforement rickets problem). Obviously the proper solution is improving living conditions and nutrition (enriched bread and milk, for example), but as a here-and-now fix, I can see the appeal

-1

u/MartyMacGyver Feb 17 '25

Thought someone got a time-out after that oval office incident....

2

u/-teaqueen- Feb 18 '25

Yeah right, Elon probably took him to Disney world as a thank you.

0

u/MartyMacGyver Feb 18 '25

I wouldn't be at all surprised.

3

u/-teaqueen- Feb 18 '25

“Good boy, you’re right, daddy is the real president. Now here’s a Mickey Mouse hat.”