Videos tagged with SCHOOLDAYS

Camberwell College of Arts in the 1950s (Part 2)

Camberwell College of Arts in the 1950s (Part 2)

In the second part of her interview Jacki Percy continues telling us about her experience of studying at art college in the 1950s. She witnessed the beginning of major changes in art education. When she first began studying at art college it was a place of vast creative freedom, where no-one had to give explanations and time was spent simply 'making'. Suddenly the government started to bring about changes and the arts had to start justifying itself as a worthy academic subject. Students began to have to start writing lessons and explaining themselves, something not everyone took lightly! Jacki went back to study an MA at Camberwell almost 50 years later and she goes on to explain the changes she witnessed in the college where she had begun her training so many years ago...

Camberwell College of Arts in the 1950s

Camberwell College of Arts in the 1950s

Jacki Percy studied at Camberwell College of Arts in the 1950s, and went back again to do an MA almost half a century later; so she has an amazing insight into how arts education has changed in the past decades. In the first part of her interview Jacki remembers what it was like to study in a time of great creative freedom, learning from inspirational artists at the forefront of the arts movement, when men would walk around bare-foot and clutching pocket watches! She recounts what daily life would be like for an art student back then and the processes and subjects they would study as part of their creative learning...

Life as a war-time child; routines, play and evacuation (Part 2)

Life as a war-time child; routines, play and evacuation (Part 2)

In the concluding part of her interview Vera talks about some of the childhood games she and her friends used to play, like 'Knock Down Ginger' and 'Hopscotch', with her least favourite being 'Under the Covers'. Vera tells us about her mother and father, her father worked on the docks and at one time she remembers him bringing her some bananas and her not knowing what to do with them! Children in the area were not particularly well-off and did not have many toys, they made their own entertainment. But she does remember her favourite possession being her beautiful bike… And when she was a bit older, her first pair of nylons!

Life as a war-time child; routines, play and evacuation (Part 1)

Life as a war-time child; routines, play and evacuation (Part 1)

Vera shares some of her childhood memories of growing up during WW2 in Rotherhithe. It was a time of strict rules and regulations. Children went to school and came back, and were never far from their parents. But they still managed to have very imaginative play, making the most of their stark surroundings and even playing with bits of brick and shrapnel… She also recounts her experience of being evacuated with the girl who lived next door, one that she hated. She spent the whole time crying until she was brought back home to be with her mother. She remembers spending every night in the shelter under her block of flats during the worst of the bombing…

Life in Rotherhithe during the 1940s and 50s

Life in Rotherhithe during the 1940s and 50s

In the first part of her interview Vera paints a picture of what everyday street life was like in Rotherhithe during wartime. She describes a vibrant community with streets full of market stalls and vendors, a stark contrast to the empty streets we see today. Vera describes how the butcher would give her free crackling, how her and her friends would meet upstairs in the pie and mash shop to cause havoc and how she used to go to the newsagents to buy snuff for her neighbour... It was a simple way of life but such a lovely community where everyone knew one another and everything you needed could be found on one street. Vera paints a perfect image in our heads of what life used to be like in the area...