Christmas at Ordnance Survey

Christmas was always a time to be celebrated at Ordnance Survey. This page only contains a small selection of photos that reflect this, most photos with identifiable people in can’t be published here. Any submissions are welcome of course though! Please send them to garyreggae@gmail.com

Decorations

For those of us who weren’t around at the time, the stories about the lavish Christmas decorations of the 1970s are the subject of many legends and have to be seen to be believed! Mandatory tea breaks and ample supplies of paper and other materials around the building led to staff constructing impressive grottoes that would put Selfridges to shame. Six-foot high dinosaurs, wild west scenes, and even a Roman temple were all products of the amazing creative talents of the staff working here and different sections would try and out-do each other by creating increasingly impressive displays. Unfortunately, a dampener was put on the festive spirits and Christmas decorations were banned after an inspection by the fire brigade – all that paper was a fire risk and there are no sprinklers in the vast majority of the building.

Staff Restaurant

The Staff Restaurant held a lunchtime Christmas meal for groups of staff (usually teams); this was held over two days even as late as the 2000s to accommodate the number of people who wanted to go. Sometimes there was entertainment in the form of kids from local schools singing carols.

In the 1980s, an annual Christmas party was held in the Restaurant for staff children. This was always on a Saturday afternoon and started off with a game of ‘musical maps’ – scrap paper maps were taped to the floor and when the music stopped, everyone had to be on one of the maps, or they were ‘out’. After this (if my memory serves me correct), was some childrens’ party food followed by screening of ancient cartoons (Casper the Friendly Ghost and Tom and Jerry come to mind) using an ancient film projector. Finally, a special song had to be sung by the children, called ‘Father Christmas is Coming’. I have not heard this song anywhere else so I believe it must have been composed by somebody who worked at Ordnance Survey but it was actually very good! Father Christmas then appeared on the stage and the children queued up and collected a present each from him (there were separate presents for boys and girls).

Office parties

Parties held in the Maybush offices, usually the last working day.

Christmas early 1980s — Barry Henshaw and Bernard Robertson.

Carol services

Ordnance Survey has also held a Christmas carol service for staff, with help from a local school brass band. Some of the children from Little Explorers nursery have also joined in sometimes!

External Christmas parties/lunches

Events held in venues other than OSHQ such as pubs/hotels/Civil Service Club etc.

Miscellaneous

Festive photos that don’t come under any of the previous categories

Last updated on Friday 22 November 2019 by GaryReggae