A ‘sentimental journey’ back down the years
Residents set to recreate VE Day party as estate celebrates 100th anniversary
Published: 3 September, 2010
by PETER GRUNER
HANG up the flags, roll out the bunting and bring on the tea and cakes – because residents at Liverpool Road estate in Highbury are about to celebrate, again, victory against the Nazis and the end of Second World War.
Hundreds of residents – including a few elderly folk who remember the original event in 1945 – will sit at traditional trestle tables, sing and be entertained for the special VE Day party being re-created on Sunday afternoon.
It’s all part of the 100th anniversary of the estate, built in 1910 from the legacy of the great financier and benefactor Samuel Lewis (1837-1901) at a cost of £101,000 – the equivalent of nearly £9million in today’s money.
Gadi Sprukt, who is helping to organise the event on behalf of Southern Housing Group, said the estate, with its 242 flats accommodating more than 500 people, was originally built to house the “working poor”.
“We’re taking a sentimental journey back to VE Day with everyone wearing paper hats and singing old songs,” said Mr Sprukt, who works for Tall Tales, an arts events organisation. “We’ve also involved artists to bring a lot of colour to the day.”
In 1910 the average weekly rent for a Liverpool Road resident was five shillings (£14.27 today), inclusive of chimney sweeping and Venetian blinds. Baths were installed underneath a wooden table top in the kitchen, accompanied by an enamel sink. Each home had a coal bunker and every tenant was allocated a dust pail.
Resident Reg Burbidge, 84, was in the army for VE Day and celebrated with a party in Nottingham.
“It was a wonderful, wonderful day,” he said. “Everyone was so relieved that the war was over and we really let our hair down.”
Reg, a former local government officer for 43 years with Islington Council, added: “I’ve been here for 62 years now, so Liverpool Road holds many memories for me. My wife Alice died here six years ago. My three children grew up here, and other members of the family moved into homes on the estate themselves.
“The affordable rents here enabled people to save money and move on to private homes – but my wife and I never wanted to leave. Housing associations in 1910 and in 2010 are an invaluable source of housing and support.”