Hornsey Journal, 18 May 1945
VE night celebrations were more or less spontaneous while Saturday’s festivities were well planned and catered-for parties, especially for children.
Our reporter set out to visit a number of them and here are his impressions: During the day I had been told that children’s street parties were being organised in Harringay so I proceeded to Wightman Road. Out of the twenty roads connecting Green Lanes and Wightman Road, practically every one of them resembled the scene I had just left in Nelson Road; young and old dancing around bonfires, all kinds of instruments being used, laughing children romping and eating, tables on trestles filled with food. Down Cavendish Road I spoke to Mr and Mrs H T Welland whose home was the HQ of their street party. They told me how everybody had banded together like one family to give the children the best of everything – bags of sweets, oranges, tinned and bottled fruits, homemade cakes and tarts etc.
In Duckett Road the party had linked together in a mammoth circle, doing a victory dance – “The Okey Pokey”. The features of this party were ice cream, jellies, blancmanges, egg and spam sandwiches, fireworks and savings stamps for the winners of races. Hewitt Road was celebrating in grand style. A compere, complete in top hat, white tie and tails, a pianist and a banjo player were making the party go with a swing. There were two parties in Allison Road. A feature of the Tottenham half was a large iced cake bearing the inscription, ‘God bless the kids of Allison Road’. A resident dressed as a clown riding a child’s tricycle caused screams of laughter. A bun-eating competition was one of the many popular items in the party at the other end of the road.
During the afternoon the Mayor of Hornsey attended a number of parties and took the salute from the rostrum in Falkland Road school playground where the children were suitable dressed for their united victory procession with the Allies, especially Britain, Russia and America, represented.
