Dead end streets -
did not disappear with the advent of victory in WW2
With the end of WW2, there was no instant about face in the fortunes of Britain. In fact, it was almost tougher post war, for the country and its people.
Rationing continued post war, longer than the term of the war, lasting until 1954.If we were victorious, why was this so? The reason was simple.
As WW2 had ended, the Cold War started as relations between the Allies fragmented, largely over a fragmented Berlin, controlled by four powers, the UK, USA, France and Russia.
In Britain, a country ravaged for 5 years by Luftwaffe air raids, many houses were damaged or destroyed. This often meant families moving in with relatives whilst they waited for suitable replacement houses, or even temporary prefab buildings to live in.
The state of the UK economy post WW2 was dire. It was essentially broke, having borrowed heavily from the USA to finance the war against Hitler's Third Reich.
With the post war economy geared to earning US Dollars to pay back America, Britain's home economy struggled back to work, industry and financial health.
A friend of mine a few years older than me said that where he lived in Essex after WW2, was not a rich area, nor were many areas of the country by comparison. Even into the 1960's and beyond, social conditions were for some way below what the cosy adverts in magazines and on television portrayed.
Social deprivation has never really gone away, it has remained a constant in the background of our lives.
Reading a recent newspaper article, it was no surprise to see even 1960's London areas in poverty. Notting Hill, a trendy enclave today much as Islington and Kensington, were in the 1960's often very poor. These areas today boast house prices in the millions, in the 60's many of them were fleapits that were controlled by cruel landlords.
Will we ever solve this problem?
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