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Living in Stroud Home >>   Living in Stroud>>   World War II >>   VE Day celebrations outside Sub Rooms ENLARGE TEXT
World War II  |  VE Day celebrations outside Sub Rooms

When the war finally came to an end the celebrations in Stroud were ecstatic. Sweets were given to children; there was dancing in the streets, beer flowed freely and a public holiday declared.  For many people, that day marked the dawning of a realisation that life could change back into something normal.

TRANSCRIPT
Yeh, we went to Stroud to the front of the Sub Rooms and down Russell St [yes] and that's where I saw the beer running down into the drains where everybody was having so much beer. [Laughter] It was quite, it was quite nice
MARGARET CHAPMAN

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TRANSCRIPT
I must have been at work and [eh] we decided, my friend and I, what we were going to do the following day when the celebrations started.  And we started by going off to the Prince Albert in Rodborough, having a few drinks and then going down into town.  And we joined in the dancing at the top of Rowcroft by George Holloway's statue and the [the, t, t] thing that [eh] stays in my mind is the fact that the musicians, a trio of musicians, were standing on the roof of [the] what is now the dentist's.  And Stan Nichols who was [an] a Special Policeman, and quite a large man, was up there playing his [eh] double bass.
G ARTHUR

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TRANSCRIPT
...But the biggest impact of the whole thing was, [ehm] for years and years and years on the corner of George Street and Bedford Street, was the café, Tucks.  But it was always a café of some sort of description until, like a lot of other places in Stroud now, it's an estate agent [agent].  But here is the thing: that establishment on the corner had electric lights on in the window.  That might sound nothing to a lot of people.  I had never seen a light at night like that. And as I talk to you I can see it now
WILLIAM PHILLIPS

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VE Celebrations by kind permission of Peckhams (copyright)

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