This street party (pictured) took place in Hanson Street, Fitzrovia, back in May 1945 to celebrate VE Day (the end of the war in Europe).
The woman standing on the far right is Hilda Mogilner (whose grandmother Nancy Lazarovitch had run the kosher butcher at number 18 in the street from 1938 to 1941, when it was taken over by Marks Lazarovitch who ran it until 1970). A picture tile of a bull’s head from these days can still be seen on the wall. Hilda’s daughter, Rosalyn, is the little girl pictured in the front, second right, with Shirley Temple ringlets. The picture was sent in by Hilda’s neice, Linda Cohen of East Finchley.
Other traders in Hanson Street in 1945 (which in those days went all the way up to Carburton Street before Holcroft Court was built in 1966): Harry Rees, another kosher butcher (at 30), Atlas Food Products, bakery (32 & 34), Latimer House Boys Hostel, which became the Middlesex Hospital Institute of Clinical Research & Experimental Medicine in the 1950s (40-48), A Bennett & Co, wholesale cabinet makers (68), J D Beardmore, architectural iron founders (76), Frederick Myles, shopkeeper (80), the Lord Nelson public house, licensed to Harry Williams (92), Gladys Harper, fruiterer (1), Sarah Epstein, shopkeeper (5), Fanny Lasserson, confectioner (7), Hershel Harris, bootmaker (27), Barnett Shapiro, foreign provision director (29), The Ship public house, licensed to E J Rose & Co (31), B Levine, confectioner (33), Meawick & Co, upholstery manufacturers (63a), Chas Brooks, boot and shoe repairer to the trade (77), Edward Pearce (fruiterer), and Leib Rosenkrantz (hairdresser).
The cosmopolitan nature of the street was further shown by Poll Hy, a chandler at No. 80, and H Khan at No 77, in 1936.
Are there any descendants of any of these traders still living in Hanson Street? If so, do let us know.
Thanks for a great posting. This is the first real insight into the history of Hanson Street and who live here that I have come across. Looks like the railings survived the war, then (and were not removed like others).
What a great post, my auntie moved into Hanson street with her 5 children in 1964, as a single mother, you can imagine, times were hard, it was skid row, terrible conditions,but when I spoke to my cousins, their all said that they were the best days of their lives, they all remember the Jewish butcher, I used to live in Maple street & when ever my used to take me to visit my Auntie, I hated going for 2 reasons, one/ I had to climb 3 flights of stairs & 2/ the whole street smelled of curry