(to be completed)
Celebrate /ˈsɛlɪbreɪt/ verb – to acknowledge a significant or happy, day or event, with a social gathering or enjoyable activity. “To celebrate their joint birthday, they had a big party and two cakes”.
The 75th Anniversary
Before the coronavirus crisis, the Government had moved the May Bank Holiday from Monday to Friday to allow a three-day commemoration consisting of a parade in London, speeches and broadcasts, a flypast by the Red Arrows, and a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Pubs across the country were due to remain open later, until 1am, on 8 and 9 May, while people were also encouraged to host their own street parties to get involved in what has been called the “VE Day spirit“.
While Armistice Day is usually commemorated, rather than celebrated, it has clearly been the intention for some time, that a celebration would be encouraged in 2020. The coronavirus crisis has, in part, thwarted this plan.
With ‘lockdown’, all official events have been postponed until, at present, the weekend of VJ Day (August 15th and 16th). The public are still being encouraged to take part in the ‘Nation’s Toast to the Heroes of WW2’ which takes place at 3pm on 8 May, and serves to thank those who gave their lives to ensure the freedom the country enjoys today, but to do so from the safety of their own home.
Picnics on the front garden
The Government department responsible for the events has now proposed that people should decorate their homes in red, white, and blue, and have a picnic “in their front garden”.
Front gardens are a largely post-war phenomenon
Former Manorial villages (which are typical of many rural settlements) have larger houses in the centre, often closer to the church (along with barns that have subsequently been converted), and progressively poorer accommodation further away from the Manor. The low-value properties almost always have their door directly onto the street. They have often been interspersed with, what is known as ‘regulated housing’ built between 1875 and the 1980s. The earlier of which usually also abutted the road, unless they were larger ‘villas’ which had a strip of front garden. Local authority housing, built after WW1, is virtually the only lower cost accommodation that has a front garden. A few private in-fills copied this style. However, by the 1980s, when council housing was being sold to private owners, much of this was being paved to provide standing for a vehicle, corresponding to a growth in private ownership of cars. The only examples of peripheral housing with a ‘front garden’ are private developments usually built in the 90s and 00s. Subsequent ones have smaller plots and developers again minimise the front space.
The pattern was not dissimilar in towns, where most early development was by factory owners in close proximity to their works and mills. Until private developers began to create large estates on the edges, few had gardens let alone one in the front.
City development is a more complex process, but again, the possession of a front garden was always, and largely remains, something that the wealthy may have, part of the middle class may aspire to, and for the majority is a pipe-dream.
The government’s call could be, at best, a little misguided and naive, or at worst an appeal to the aspirational middle-class who they see as a pool of prospective voters.