VE Day Street Party, Cleethorpes – May 1945

Taken during the celebrations marking Victory in Europe (VE) Day in May 1945, this candid photograph captures the joyful atmosphere as the people of Cleethorpes came together after nearly six years of war. Children, many wearing homemade paper hats, sit around long tables decorated with flowers and Union Flags, while parents, neighbours and friends gather to share tea, cakes and conversation.

Street parties such as this were organised across Britain following Germany's surrender on 8 May 1945. Food was still rationed, so these celebrations relied on the generosity and resourcefulness of local families, who pooled precious ingredients to create a memorable occasion for the community's children.

Photographed from an elevated viewpoint, the image offers a remarkable snapshot of everyday life at the end of the Second World War. The smiles, wartime clothing, prams, bicycles and simple decorations provide a vivid record of how the people of Cleethorpes celebrated the end of the war in Europe, although the conflict in the Far East would continue until August 1945.

Kindly reproduced by permission of the Trevitt Collection Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum Collection