大象传媒

My mother lived in Streatham, South London, throughout the war and therefore experienced the blitz at first hand.
The nearest public shelter was less than 2 minutes walk away opposite the local Fire Station, almost next door to the local pub "The Manor Arms". She told me many times that she only visited it once preferring to shelter at home in the small space under the stairs which came to be known as the "funkhole". The reason was simply that the shelter was full of drunks, fear of being "fumbled", and of course the smell.
Nothing earth-shattering here but an interesting piece of social history, better to be dead than "fumbled"!

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.