Wartime Waterloo

[During the War, it was] Very dodgy We were close to the Thames, we were close to the Houses of Parliament, you see, and when it was a moonlight night the Germans used to follow the river.

Morley College, that got a direct hit, and they couldnt get them all out, and they stopped the traffic cos they could hear people calling, they stopped the traffic on Westminster Bridge Road, but they didnt get them all out. They rebuilt Morley College again, didnt they. Because my aunt was in there actually, she was injured slightly, and she was only in there cos her house had been bombed.

[Did you go to the Underground Stations to shelter?]

Lambeth North, sometimes it was quiet because you couldnt hear anything coming down, you see, it was down so low, and people used to lay on the platform and the girl used to come round with cigarettes and sweets.

When Hitler decided that the Doodlebugs didnt work, he sent the rockets over. And there was no warning with those at all And we were on our way down the stairs trying to get out down in the basement away from them. We all had to push the men on one side, they were in front pushing their way down. But it was great fun. I didnt like the air raids very much They frightened me a bit.

I went to the air raid shelter with my mother in Archbishops Park, and they had concrete seats and concrete floors, and I thought, Blimey, I dont like this. So I left my mother there and I walked home in an air raid, and I went up the top of the house - because we lived at the top, and I got into bed and I thought if Im going to die, I die in my bed.