Bonfires, buses and a fake moustache: Alan remembers VE Day

Wild celebrations broke out across Britain on 8th May 1945, as fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe officially ended after six years. Alan, 9, was living in Brighton with his grandmother after he and his family were evacuated from their home in North London during the Blitz. On VE Day, he made his way to the centre of the seaside town to find large crowds gathered around the Clock Tower.

He said, “People were singing, dancing and kissing ... it was just a general melee. All the buses had stopped, and people piled up their wooden destination boards and set fire to them. There were bonfires everywhere.

“Later, my parents had a glass of beer in the street. In those days, you could take a jug to the side entrance of the pub, have it filled with beer and drink it at home.

“We also had a bonfire in our street and some soldiers threw a handful of bullets in it. They didn’t explode at first, but when my friend Ronnie Cox poked the embers the next day a bullet went off and he had to go to hospital to have the brass splinters removed.”

Alan, now 89, will be sharing memories like these at an event on Saturday 10th May 2025 marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day. It’s being held at Take Shelter, an underground museum housed in a World War II air raid shelter at Brighton’s Downs Junior School.

Take Shelter, which is supported by funding made possible by National Lottery players, is believed to be the only school shelter open to the public. Comprised of interconnecting tunnels buried three metres below the school’s playground, it was designed to hold 300 pupils and staff during the day and members of the local community at night.

Alan is a regular volunteer at Take Shelter, which has been chosen to host Brighton’s official VE Day commemoration. His collection of about 35 World War II gas masks will be on display and he’ll be answering questions about VE Day and life in wartime Britain.

A few days after VE Day there was another victory party in Alan’s street. A photograph taken at the time [see image above] shows a group of children wearing fancy dress costumes. Alan is in the centre of the picture wearing an ill-fitting suit and a stick-on Hitler moustache.

He said, “We all dressed up because the owner of Jack Sheppard’s seafront theatre lived in our street and loaned us costumes and helmets and the like. I’ll be blowed if I can remember why I wanted to look like Hitler, but we all took the mickey out of him in those days.

“I remember we ate fish paste sandwiches, fairy cakes, and jelly and blancmange. The drink was orange juice made from pulp supplied by the Ministry of Food.”

4th April 2025