Parking meters 'celebrate' 50th birthday » Communities » 24dash.com

It's the 50th birthday no-one will have a party for: parking meters have notched up five decades of use in the UK.

The first parking meters were installed on the streets of Mayfair, London in 1958.

They were originally invented by local newspaper editor Carlton Magee for use in Oklahoma, America, in 1935.

But the British version was designed by Kenneth Grange, commissioned by the Design Council who thought the US model was too ugly.

Coin meters are no longer in use in Mayfair, as last year Westminster council dumped the machines in favour of a cashless system.

But where they are used they can provoke a violent reaction.

In Lewes, Sussex, where they were first installed in 2004, there were 200 "attacks" on the machines in three years, which wrote off 35 of the 96 in use.

And in Eastbourne, council bosses resorted to installing smart machines that could call for help if they came under fire.

The meters are fitted with a Sim card to raise the alarm if someone tries to damage the meter or break into the money box.

Today's anniversary is being marked with a display of old parking meters in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, where the first machines were installed.