Johnson Photo Envelope (1980)

Digital cameras murdered film. Phone cameras buried it. By 2026, the only people still fiddling with reels of film are the purest of all photography enthusiasts. Decades ago, however, it was very different, as this Johnson Photo envelope from 1980 proves.

Butterkist Popcorn Packet (1983)

The first donation to Ephemeral 80s is here and it's an unapologetic corker. It's a packet of Butterkist popcorn dating back to 1983. But, hold on to your hats, it improves with every glance. Not only does it feature a competition to win a state-of-the-art Sinclair ZX81, but this very packet was dug up by a cunning fox with whiskers and history on its side.

Boots Freetime - Autumn 1985

Boots has been on our high streets for over 175 years. Not so much an institution as a piece of national furniture: immovable, unavoidable, and always useful. These days, I mostly duck in for toothpaste or ibuprofen, but as a child it was paradise in fluorescent strip-lighting. Not only did it contain toys, but it also had computer games, music and videos - what more could an excitable nipper want? Calpol? Well, yep, Boots had that too.

Boots has mostly abandoned the business of entertainment since then; Amazon do it quicker, cheaper and with less queues. But we can relive the excitement again by flicking through the Autumn 1985 edition of Boots Freetime.

Splash Newsletter - December 1985

It's time to pull back the curtain on Britain in the 1980s once more, and peer into into the peculiarly provincial lives of EMAP's employeess in December 1985. Then based in Peterborough, the magazine publisher churned out titles by the shelfload before being carved up and flogged off to assorted corporate venturers in the late 2000s. Back in the frosted last month of 1985, however, the staff at EMAP were proud to fly the EMAP flag as demonstrated by this company newsletter.

St Michael Dressing Gown (1985)

It's time for yet another helping of 1980s ephemera courtesy of Marks & Spencer in the form of their St Michael Brand. What can I say? St Michael was simply ubiquitous in Britain's relatively recent yet also distant past. Today, it's a rather fetching dressing gown we're looking at, and slipping into it feels like tuning a television to four channels and waiting for Channel 4 to start up.

Lacock Parish Magazine - September 1984

Sure, Ephemeral 80s will no doubt feature more ephemeral slices of 1980s Britain in the future, but this particular item hums with a conviction which will be hard to beat. Yes, it's a copy of the Parish of Lacock with Bowden Hill magazine which hails from September 1984. Have any other copies of this precious document survived the intervening 41 years since it was printed? I sincerely doubt it. Regardless, this tome of parish life from the mid-1980s must surely harbour a few gleaming curios to remind us of a more humdrum, simplistic and mostly forgotten time.

St Michael Coffee Glass (1985)

Coffee, that jittery, brown stimulant of the overworked, is the unofficial national religion of Britain. First coming to these shores in the 16th century, coffee has remained a staple in getting us through our day. Fast forward to the specialty coffee shops of East London today, and you can see just how dramatically coffee has evolved - mine's a pink bourbon carbonic maceration, thanks. Back in the mid-1980s, however, and coffee, much like us, was a simpler, less pretentious affair.