Searchlight lit up our Parish Church on VE Day!

Memories of VE Day celebrations locally are, for me, as a then 16-year-old boy, very clear.
On the evening of Monday, May 7, I joined the crowd gathered in Bromley's Market Square alongside the Midland Bank, to hear the amplified radio announcement that the next two days were to be public holidays, starting with Victory in Europe Day.
The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, would make the official declaration confirming the cessation of hostilities against Germany at 3pm, and King George V1 would speak to the nation at 9pm.
Excitement everywhere; flags went up in every window - I counted nine in our small home!
A searchlight unit abandoned its role as enemy aircraft seeker, and was set up outside our house to play its powerful beam on the only remaining feature of Bromley's parish church, the battered tower, left as a stubborn symbol following the destruction of many of the town's churches on the night of April 16, 1941.
Simultaneously, recorded church bells pealed joyfully via loudspeakers in the centuries-old tower, in anticipation of the days ahead, when after restoration they would be heard for real.
Tuesday May 8 dawned bright and clear, and after a day of fun and friendship with everyone, the evening set in. Medhurst's (later Allders - now being altered to something else) switched on their long-dimmed floodlights, in startling contrast to the blackout restrictions we had endured for almost six years.
I recall linking arms with friends, and striding two abreast down Bromley's High Street and along the Broadway, singing every national song we could think of, along with an assortment of the romantic, including the ever-popular "Just a Song at Twilight".
Then it was on to the Palace Estate and surrounding residential areas to join in the street bonfire celebrations, where again song and dance held sway. My diary reveals that I got home at 1.45am.
Next day, Wednesday, Bromley moved on to the Queen's Mead - the Norman Park of that ere - to celebrate widely the ending of six years of deprivation, and to mark the vindication of that spirit of hope and assurance that had sustained us during the darkest hours of the war..
More bonfires that evening, and I remember, too, sitting on a bench in Bishops Avenue, behind Bromley South Station, enjoying an open-air film show, "Uncensored",in black-and-white, starring Eric Portman and Phyllis Calvert, and although Halliwell rates it poorly today, at the time it seemed great!
Recreation Road, in Shortlands, held its victory street party, complete with bonfire, on the Friday, but it was not until the following Thursday, the 17th, that my mother decided to organise a similar event for our family and neighbours in Church Road.
My sister, Brenda, together with her contemporaries Pat Sawyers and Margaret Johncock, collected cash to pay for the festivities from among local families, which also included Cook's the tailors, the Svensens and the Stevensons, and the party was duly held on the following Friday, May 25. For the record, the money raised to pay for all this jollity was just £3.15.0 - or in today's currency - £3.75.

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