A Second World War evacuee returned to his childhood neighbourhood in the East End this weekend as he visited London to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Christopher Rogers, 81, was evacuated from his home in Jane Street in 1939 at the age of eight, and had only ever returned to the area in which he was brought up once in 72 years before this weekend’s visit.

After evacuation on September 3 1939, Mr Rogers was never to return to the East End as a child as he was sent to the safety of Chesham, Buckinghamshire.

This year’s Jubilee celeberations prompted Mr Rogers to take the opportunity to visit Jane Street, which is now only a small close after a new school was built over it.

He said: “When I went to school that day I never went home again. I came to London for the Jubilee, but I thought I’d take the opportunity to go back to the East End.

“I came back knowing it would have changed, but it was sad to see how little remains of the street.”