Locals help relive VE Day party The One Show

RESIDENTS have helped to recreate a famous VE Day celebration taken on their street as part of a BBC project to commemorate the event.

VE Day celebrations in Kemp Place, Stockbridge. Picture: Capital Collections

They were invited by the BBC to duplicate scenes from a street party photographed 70 years ago in the Stockbridge Colonies.

Footage of their work, along with interviews with people living in Bell Place and Kemp Place were filmed on April 18.

The show is due broadcast on The One Show tonight as it marks the momentous day World War II officially came to an end in Europe.

Residents recreate the VE day celebrations.

May 8, 1945 saw more than one million people gather across Britain for spontaneous street parties.

Seventy years later TV crews armed with boxes of bunting, old photographs and Union Flags descended on Stockbridge to bring one of those scenes to life.

Residents, however, were discouraged from attending in fancy dress or period clothes because it was intended to be a “modern version” of one of the original photographs.

Among those who attended was Paul Thompson, a 35-year-old fundraising manager who lives on Kemp Place.

He said: “It was really interesting to see the photos from 70 years ago and to see what it was like on our street. It was a good opportunity to get together with friends and neighbours to recreate something of the spirit of VE Day.”

Residents brought out tables and chairs and hung flags and buntings from their homes in the same positions shown in the black and white picture.

They also agreed to move their cars, bringing out a valve radio and a gramophone dating from the time.

Vanessa Robertson, who works as a publisher and lives nearby, revealed that the Colonies is still imbued with the same sense of community captured in the VE Day picture.

She said: “One of the nice things about living in the Colonies is that it is very community-minded.

“It was a bit of fun and everybody came, and we managed to recreate the picture.”

Sadly it is understood that no one in the original photograph still lives on the street today.

The show will air at 7pm tonight on BBC 2 as part of The One Show’s 70th Anniversary Special.