Accession Day

When I was reading the newspaper this morning it occurred to me that I remember nothing of the death of King George VI but I have domestic memories of the coronation.

One very silly thing is remembered both for the conversation and the location. I was with my mother and younger sister waiting for a bus at was was called then Gas Works Bridge, now it is Manor Circus but it is in Richmond near the borders of Kew and Mortlake. To be at that bus stop we would have been visiting my maternal grandparents who lived in Kew. What I remember was my mother apologising to the 6 year old me for being unable to find any white ankle socks with red and blue stripes in my size although she had obtained them for my sister. I told her truthfully it didn't matter.

The aforementioned grandparents were rather upset as they had been 'paying into' a fund for a street party in their road but my parents had decided we should go to the other grandparents and watch the TV broadcast as it was an important historical occasion. My first memories of TV were at the paternal grandparents, apparently they had a TV as soon as the service resumed after the war. We did go to the street party after, don't recall to much about it except some singing about 'Yes we have no bananas' and 'roll out the barrel'. In the end it didn't matter, later the whole of my primary school, Latchmere Road were walked to a Kingston cinema and saw, in glorious Technicolor, all the Coronation celebrations.