Videos tagged with CHILDHOOD

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...

Life before, during and after WW2 in South London

Life before, during and after WW2 in South London

Beryl has lived in Rotherhithe all of her life. Before WW2 started she lived with her mother and father in a town house with a large garden, but the council knocked the houses down to make room for a large estate of flats, where she has lived ever since… During the war Beryl was evacuated to Hove and did not return to London until the worst of the war was over. She talks of how childhood and the area was so very different back then, it was a simple life where children played in the streets, caught trams to school and women never worked after they were married. Beryl went to work in the city when she was 18 for an accountancy firm. Women never worked in accountancy before the war, but after all the men were sent away to fight the women had to take over from them. She proceeded to work successfully in the industry for 42 years...

Growing up in Rothrhithe during WW2 (Part 2)

Growing up in Rothrhithe during WW2 (Part 2)

In the second part of her interview Vai Newman carries on talking about her life growing up in Rotherhithe before and after WW2. She focuses in particular on her routines and play as a child and as a young adult. It was a poverty stricken neighborhood and children had to mainly make their own ways of amusing themselves in the streets. Vai also talks about Rotherhithe and the little community feel that surrounded it. Before the age of undergrounds that went all across London, Rotherhithe was very isolated and even taxi drivers refused to go there as they would not get a fare back! Vai reflects on how the area has changed over the past half a century...

Growing up in Rothrhithe during WW2 (Part 1)

Growing up in Rothrhithe during WW2 (Part 1)

Vai Newman was born and has lived within the Rotherhithe area all of her life and experienced life there during the Second World War. Vai recounts some of the strict rules and regulations people adhered to during the war, life during the blitz and her schooldays. Vai also gives a vivid account of how different Rotherhithe was back then, with its dangerous riversides and mainly industrial wharfs that surrounded the area.