Friday 8 May 2015 is the anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day), marking 70 years since the end of the second world war in Europe, but how did Manchester celebrate?
As the news of the end of fighting in Europe was announced, crowds flocked to the streets to hear the reports, shouts of “it’s really over” were heard. Papers were passed from hand to mouth and even torn apart, reported the Evening News as people crowded around to find out what was happening.
American soldiers raced out of St Ann’s street Red Cross club, hanging bunting out of the windows, while sounds of martial music from radios were heard blaring out of windows.
It was announced that there would be dancing and band performances in Manchester’s parks, including the Besses o’ th’ barn band playing in Boggart Hole cough and the the Avro works brass band in Piccadilly Gardens.
In Smithfield market the news swept through like wildfire with the market soon festooned with flags and bunting.
Several thousand people crowded into Albert Square to hear Churchill’s announcement, the police band was playing while younger members of the crowd scrambled onto the tops of the air raid shelters.
There was a hush as the Prime Minister spoke and then the crowd sang the national anthem.The biggest cheer though was for the final all clear siren that was sounded.
Then the party began, some of the suburbs staged some of the jolliest celebrations, there was dancing on Winslow road in Withington until 2.00am, music relayed through loud speakers from windows, youngsters in Ardwick were shown old Charlie Chaplin films.
Most pubs and clubs had sold out of alcohol well before the closing time of 11.30 and people roamed from place to place in search of a drink.
The Imperial War museum’s Historian Terry Charman tells us that VE Day was two days of a collective sign of relief for the country after six years of fighting which had seen the realities of war come to the home front with bombings and acute rationing. Over sixty thousand civilians had been killed, thousands of houses destroyed and many more damaged.Everything was in short supply, everything had to be queued for and everything had been sacrificed to the war effort and just about everyone had played some part.
Rationing would continue until 1954, unbeknown then to the millions celebrating who looked forward to a New Jersusalem.People expected a better world and no return to the 1930’s. The Beveridge report of two years previous had promised that people would be looked after from the cradle to the grave.
Churchill was voted out of office in July because primarily the electorate didn’t expect his government to deliver the new way of life and had seen Labour ministers in action in the National Government.
Some said VE Day brought the best out of the British people, the celebrations were good natured, the only vandalism was the wrecking of air raid shelters .
As for the giddy drunken fuelled celebrations that have been portrayed?
Frank Lewis, after studying at the university of Manchester had just started a job in a warehouse. At 3.15, having listened to Churchill’s address, he left his suburban lodgings and caught a tram to the city centre: “Town was full of people, all lounging about doing nothing… I went in Lyons, by the Oxford cinema (where there was a queue) and got a cup of tea.” Lewis, definitely a glass-half-empty diarist, then went to Albert Square: “Everybody seemed to be waiting for something to happen. I stayed for only 10 minutes, then came home… These so-called celebrations seem so useless – people hanging about ‘doing nought’.”
