“Dear Sarah,
“As a child, I was a resident of ‘Stripeland’, a name that is new to me [this was the architectural press’s sneering name for the Boundary Estate when it opened]. Between the years 1941 and 1947, my parents and I resided at Laleham Buildings, which is not quite facing the bandstand, and I attended Virginia Road School. We had no bathrooms – my earliest baths were taken in the proverbial tin bath in front of the fire. Later on, I accompanied my father to the public baths. These, I presume, were adjoining the estate’s laundry. On a recent visit to show my family where I was brought up, the buildings look as though they have been modernised, no doubt with bathrooms!”

Len sent me this front page of the Yorkshire Evening News showing him, third from left, as an evacuee to Leeds.

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“Dear Sarah,

“Thank you for your letter. What do you mean ‘WASN’T I adorable?’ – I’m even more adorable now! You asked about kitchen and cooking facilities in the flats and food in general, and I’ve got some more childhood memories:

“Potatoes baked in their skins in the black-lead oven were a treat. Also, liver was not on the ration and an occasional luxury. Bananas were unknown until after the war, but I seem to remember a black thing that may have been dried banana.

“We received at least one food parcel from America, containing a sweetmeat called halva. I don’t think I liked it and was probably more impressed by the American comics.

“There was a confectionery shop next to Virginia Road School sold 1d or 2d fruit drinks, topped up with soda. They were served at an open counter, facing the street, and consumed on the pavement outside the shop. Sweets were of course rationed, but my grandmother had a substitute – cough sweets, which were presumably off the ration. They were small red sweets of a hard jelly, covered with sugar. These were purchased at Mr Shapiro’s shop, at the Bethnal Green Road end of Brick Lane.

“I also remember the chicken soup, served with kneidlach (matzah balls, or ‘Jewish cannon-balls’) that was served every Friday. I had the flugel (wings) as a main course; the heart, liver and kidneys (pinick) were treats. I did not fancy the feet or forgle (windpipe) but stuffed neck was a favourite. In short, nothing was wasted.

“I also remember bread spread with hardened chicken fat (schalch), although the thought makes me queasy now, as does calves’ foot jelly. I think the word ‘jelly’ made the impression on me – the ‘calves’ foot’ just didn’t register. I have no idea of its purpose.

“In the war years, bread was made with unrefined flour, and my father would often speak with nostalgia of the pure white pre-war bread, which I had never seen. Now, of course, wholemeal bread is considered the healthy option.

“Holy Trinity Shoreditch in Old Nichol Street was bombed in the Blitz of May 1941. I remember us kids playing in the crater – I recall the fleas and the prayer books.

“All the best,
Len.”