A cockney rave was more like a nostalgic look back to the days of the Blitz when London’s East End took a pounding from the Luftwaffe in the Second World War.
Pearly kings and queens put on a singalong of favourites from the 1940s, reminiscent of the days when similar ad hoc concerts were held in the wartime air-raid shelters.
Friday night’s bash at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, compared by TV’s DIY expert Tommy Walsh, included a 1940s show by Jessica Brett and Holly Gray, all to raise funds to complete a memorial to Britain’s worst wartime civilian disaster.
The evening made more than £1,400 towards completing the £400,000 memorial now partly built in Bethnal Green Gardens.
The memorial is sited a few yards from the entrance to Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a public air-raid shelter during the war.
An air-raid alert in March, 1943, caused a devastating crush to get into the shelter which left 173 men, women and children dead.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here