"I remember a well known pastime as a student during rag week was the traditional 'putting a piano through a hoop' which involved breaking a piano into pieces small enough to go through a small hoop. The winning team was the one that did it in the fastest time. I can't remember where we got all the pianos from, but I don't think it was Boosey & Hawkes :-)"

It's when the many, many houses that had pianos got rid of them and replaced them with TVs. There was such a glut in pianos that no-one wanted they were given to students to entertain themselves with (and obviously playing them was way too boring!)