Britain celebrated victory in World War Two with numerous events all over
the country. All were tagged as VE Day events although they took time to organise
and took place sometime after VE Day itself. VE Day was the day of Victory in
Europe on 8 May 1945. VJ Day, the day victory was declared over Japan, took
place two months later on 15 August 1945 and marked the end of all hostilities.
VE day events in Edmonton, north London
There was a military parade through Edmonton. It took place in Fore Street, starting at Noel Park and
it was saluted by the Mayor outside the Town Hall. My uncle
who was in the home guard was involved. I remember climbing into a Bren
Gun Carrier, a small tank, with lots of other children outside the town
hall and speeding to the Angel pub and back.
We also had street parties. People put their tables
and chairs out into the street. In our street these spanned nearly half
the length of the street. A stage was erected in the middle of the street
and there was music, light, and people singing, glad to be alive.
In the evening we went to a dinner and dance in the
ballroom above the Regal Cinema. All the street lights that were still working
came on, and to walk home and see the lights on in every house blazing out,
it was magic after those long years of war, Some of the shops had their
windows ablaze with light.
There was also a bonfire. Life was going to get better
from now on.
Yet some of the houses had their curtains drawn with
the residents shut inside. When these people did come out to watch they
would be crying. We were told that these families had lost the man of the
house or one of the grown up children while serving in the forces.
Peter Johnson
Peace party in Lopen Road, Edmonton
Children's Peace Celebrations in 1945: the street party
in pen Road, Edmonton (now Enfield).
Click for a larger pictures from which you may be able
to recognise neighbours.
I am grateful to David Smythe for providing this photograph of the 1945 Peace
street party in Lopen Road, Edmonton. By then, my mother, Florence Edith Clarke
(born Cole),
was married and had moved away, but there were still Cole relatives on the
Huxley Estate, of which Lopen Road
forms a part. In particular the family home of my cousin, Anne Cole, was still
there. Although she was evacuated during the
war to West Wratting, she was back for the Peace street party and is seated
just below the first of the second group of adults. I understand that others
in the photo include Sylvia Bately, Brian Bately, Beryl Sawyer and Jimmy & Betty
Bilson - but I do not know where they are sitting.
The picture is a perfect companion for the one on this website for the
World War One Lopen Road Peace Party.
The houses appear to have changed little from my mother's time - see
116 Lopen Road in 1911.
David Smythe believes that 116 Lopen Road is probably in this 1945 photo, because
he remembers the direction from which it was taken.
Apparently a bomb dropped on Lopen Road during Word War Two, not far from
No 116. The explosion lifted a section of kerbstone onto the bare roof rafters
without breaking them. Remarkable! It left a great crater in the middle of the
road. My mother, being married, had left by then although she was very much
involved in another Edmonton bombing in Silver
Street.
Peace party in Argyle Road, Edmonton
World War Two VE Day street party, Argyle Road, Edmonton,
1945. Photo courtesy of Peter Fletcher.
Click the photo for an enlargement in which you may be
able to recognise relatives and friends.
Peace party for roads adjacent to Hazel Close, Edmonton
World War Two VE Day street party for roads adjacent
to Hazel Close, Edmonton. Photo courtesy of Tom Wallace.
Click the photo for an enlargement in which you may be
able to recognise relatives and friends.
Tom's sister, Eileen Wallace, is the girl on the left
at the front table, sitting with her best friend, Frances. They had a
separate table because Frances had chicken pox. Tom is the boy in the top hat and socks down to
his ankles. He was dressed as a conjurer and won a prize for it in the
competition.
(Eileen also went to Silver Street School, but
was 5½ years older than Tom.)
Peace party in Haselbury Road, Edmonton
This party was for the adjacent three roads of Harding Road, Tiverton Road
and Giffard Road.
World War Two street peace party for Haselbury Road (which
changed its name to Amersham Avenue) and the adjacent three roads of Harding
Road, Tiverton Road and Giffard Road, Edmonton. Photo courtesy of Andrew
Dickson.
Click for a larger image.
The two adults in the centre, in the dark clothes, are Mr and Mrs Carr (with
Mrs Dickson behind her. Mrs Flowers of 2 Haselbury Road is on the right in the
doorway. Andrew Dickson, who provided the photo, is sitting along the front
with Ronald Flowers and Leslie Carr.
(Haselbury Road later changed its name to Amersham Avenue.)
See also my own street peace
party in Edgware.
This website Join me in the 1900s is © Pat Cryer.
