Thanks for all your recent input Red, Dawn, Ruskie, China and Linda. I'm trying to follow up as many leads as possible.
The old postcode was SW2
The only other thing that springs to mind is that the artist was probably youngish - between the ages of 25 and 45. My reasoning is based on the modernity of the palette (the actual colours used, not the surface on which the paints were mixed) and the vitality of the knife and brushwork in the mixing proces. The thickness of the paint and the number of small modulated colour mixes suggests, to me at least, the possibility of someone working in a semi-figurative or abstract impressionist manner. The size of the dumped palettes, and their frequency, makes me think that he/she was either working quite large, or very quickly. Traditional painters, and most amateurs of the day, would have used the normal hand-held artist's palette, and I am pretty confident that our artist would not have been engaged in any form of traditional portraiture or landscape.
It's strange that I should recall in such detail the precise nature of these palettes, especially as I was so young at the time and had not the faintest idea what they were...but they were my favourite find...and I physically handled them, and enjoyed the tactile feel and visual aspect as I burst the blisters of colour. Were it not for the fact that I went to arts school myself (Goldsmith's) in the early 60s I would still not know what they were...nor would I have the artist's language that enables me to describe their nature.
Please keep your suggestions coming in...and if it was YOU...please get in touch!
