this card shows Oxford Street, which today is associated with the annual London Christmas lights, in fact Oxford Street is always the first of the streets to have its lights lit. This year they are using LED lights, much more efficient, which were made from recycled material and will be used or recycled again after the event.
I have not been able to find out the first date that Oxford Street was illuminated, maybe you know, but it seems that the larger shops were the first to use Christmas lights to attract customers, at the end of the nineteenth century, however this was sporadic and it was not until the 1950s that Regent Street began having the large displays along the roadside and in all the shops, especially once rationing finally ended. I remember going up to see the lights as a child in the late 1960s. Telling my age now, sorry if I disappoint anyone. Apparently the 1950s and 1960s was the heyday, and they shrunk back in the 1970s and 1980s. However the arrival of the Millennium seems to have lit the spark, and they have grown successively bigger over the years.
This card, of Holborn, London, was given away by the Cameric Cigarette Card Club in February 1945, by the Guest Editors Edward Charles Prior and Wilfred Wright. There were two others, namely "9. Mansion House and Cheapside, London" and "10. Marble Arch, London"
Despite it being issued in 1945, it has to wait until part three of our original British Trade Index to make an appearance. This seems to point to either it not being felt truly a trade card, or to them only having been discovered at about that time. Some think the former, because the Cameric Club was still in existence when the first, pre 1945 card, volume was issued, and still publishing magazines. However I have a theory on this, because they did not always issue magazines, at first they issued duplicated papers, few of which have survived, and it was at this time that these cards were issued. This could have led to it slipping through our net.
Anyway the catalogue for it is :
CAMERIC CIGARETTE CARD CLUB, London
Cards dated 1945.
VIEWS OF LONDON (A) 76 x 63. Backs "With the compliments of the Guest Editors ...`Notes and News`, February, 1945", printed on Nos 4, 9 and 10 of Anonymous set ZJ5-81. ...CAOH-1
It is described in our updated British Trade Index as :
Cameric Cigarette Card Club, London
Dated 1945.
VIEWS OF LONDON (A) 76 x 63. Brown gravures. Nd. (3). Backs "With the compliments of the Guest Editors ...`Notes and News`, February, 1945." Only three issued, Nos 4, 9 and 10 of Anonymous set ZJV-070. See HX-175 ...CAM-020
The "HX" code is in the British Trade Index Handbook, and it reads
HX-175. VIEWS OF LONDON (A) Nd. (10). Issued by:
Anonymous, plain back See ZJV-070
Cameric Cigarette Card Club. See CAM-020
Now that "Z" code refers to the World Tobacco Issues Index, but it is wrong, both times, it ought to read ZJ3-71 in the original and ZJ03-855. The text there is :
VIEWS OF LONDON (A) Lg. 76 x 66. Unnd. (20). See X21/313-2C. Issued in China by B.A.T.
As for the X21 reference, that reads :
X21/313.2 VIEWS OF LONDON. In addition to the 45 "Views of The World" recorded under RB.21/313, there is a further series of 20 "Views of London" with fromts in the same style, but varnished. There are three printings.
A. B.C.C. Issue. Back in red, with illustration of closed "London Straight-Cut" box
B. B.C.C. Issue. Back in blue, pearl bordered design, inscribed "These Pictures are packed in the Brands of Cigarettes of British Cigarette Co. Ltd."
C. Anonymous issue, with plain backs
Now I have another theory about the cards, for I believe that either Mr. Wright or Mr. Prior, both dealers, acquired a bulk lot of "C", noted the plain backs, and had them put to use... but more about this as I encounter proof.