Crowds turn out to Victoria Park firework show

Fireworks lit up the sky over Victoria Park for the annual fireworks display.

This year’s �140,000 spectular firework display which attracts thousands of spectators from Tower Hamlets and Hackney which took as its theme Remember,Remember which commemorated the 70th anniversary of the start of the Blitz.

Recordings of air raid sirens were sounded as the show got under way and the fireworks were let off to the sounds of wartime tunes and the theme music from Dad’s Army as 90,000 people watched in Victoria Park.

There was no admission fee to the firework display and �2,000 was collected for the Stairway to Heaven memorial campaign for a statue in memory of the 173 people who died at Bethnal Green underground station in March 1943 - the largest number of civilian deaths during the war.

Sandra Scotting from the campaign said: “We were delighted with the money raised at the event. There were a lot of young people there. We had three survivors from the disaster Alf Morris, Peter Perryman and Pat Spicer who were at the park collecting money and our patron Tommy Walsh from the television show Ground Force made a speech asking people to donate.”

The campaign needs a further �250,000 to build a memorial at Bethnal Green Gardens.

The event is funded by Tower Hamlets council using income from other events held in Victoria Park.