Beautiful Britons,
Spick and
Span were wonderful pinup magazines published in Britain after WWII through the 1970’s. One of the best things about keeping my blog is having the chance to get to know some of the loveliest, most generous people I can ever remember meeting. One of them is a reader, Gerard, who offered to share with me scans from a personal collection of Spick, Span and Beautiful Britons he has saved since the 1960’s when he was a “naughty boy” between the ages of 16 and 24.
Spick actually began publication around the same time as Playboy in the United States. They were extraordinarily successful magazines and much-beloved for their photos of pretty girls in lingerie and nylon stockings. As time went on, the publisher’s commitment to not publish photos depicting full-frontal nudity lead to a declining readership, as they couldn’t compete against the more explicit images emerging in reaction to changes in British censorship law. By 1976, Beautiful Britons, Spick and Span magazine had, unfortunately, ceased publication, though many collectors, like Gerard, make sure the images from the magazines live on.
These three magazines, published by Town and Country Publications, or ToCo, were the most successful girly/pin-up magazines of their time in the United Kingdom, yet I found it stunningly difficult to find textual information online about Beautiful Britons, Spick or Span for this post. In some of the images preserved online, I was able to find some charming snippets of text which give a sense of the light-heartedness found inside.
Thank you, again, Gerard for generously sharing your photos with us and for giving me the opportunity to learn about Beautiful Britons, Spick and Span.
Since there is so little information online, I would be thrilled and grateful if people reading this who have fond memories of these magazines would post what they remember in the comments section. Really no detail is too small, because, although there are quite a few photos out there, there is a dearth of text about
Beautiful Britons or Spick or Span, themselves.
(Since I first wrote this page, Gerard generously provided me with scans of
an entire issue of Spick. He also sent me some magazines to scan and share with everyone. I would LOVE to get my hands on a copy of Beautiful Britons.)
