Ron and his brother Jeff in 1945

THE eager and hungry faces of two little boys stood out above the melee of Sunday’s street party in Hungerford Road: a black and white photo of Ron Weaver and his brother Jeff, captured on film tucking into sandwiches and cake nearly eight decades ago.

Mr Weaver had been invited to a party around the corner in Goodinge Road, organised by St Luke’s Church where he went to Sunday School. It was May 1945 and all they had known was war and tragedy.

At 86, Mr Weaver is now one of Hungerford Road’s oldest-surviving former residents. In the photo he was just eight – and it was already five heartbreaking years since his mother was killed in the second month of the Blitz. On Sunday, people crowded around his photos and story, posted to the wall by Hungerford Road resident and retired journalist Annette Witheridge, who has chronicled his life as part of a series of local archives.

She said: “On October 8 1940 German bombs rained down on London. Eight people died sheltering at Finsbury Park Station and scores more were seriously injured. Among those rushed to hospital were Ron and his parents William and Lilian: Ron and his dad survived but his 25-year-old mother died two days later.”

Mr Weaver said: “Our house on Tollington Park Road was bombed out. My grandfather, who refused to leave, survived. But we went to the shelter and were hit.”

Ron Weaver [Andrew Pegram]

Describing what the area looked like in the years that followed, he added: “The whole area was a bomb site. I remember kicking shrapnel along the road, playing on the mounds of rubble, where the Bridge School is now, and pushing my baby brother Jeff in his pram. It was some time before 1945 and we lived there until I was 10.

“My dad didn’t talk about what had happened to my mum. You didn’t in those days. He married again a year after my mum died, that’s what they did then.”

His father was a milkman who could not read or write, and Mr Weaver would sometimes go out with him on his horse and cart delivering milk. They lived at 103 Hungerford Road, which was demolished in the 1970s and turned into flats.

“We didn’t have a bathroom. We went to the Hornsey Road baths to wash,” he recalled.

“There was a garden at the back, where we kept a few chickens. Even though I was very young I thought nothing of crossing busy Holloway Road alone and going to visit my grandfather and other relatives. I also remember going to the Finsbury Park Empire. And, of course, we were all big Arsenal fans.”

The family later moved to Chingford, but Mr Weaver said he has always felt pulled back.

“It’s funny, I’ve lived all over the place and brought my two sons up in Walthamstow but, I don’t know what it is, I’ve always been drawn back here to Islington,” he said.

“Sometimes I try to remember my mum. But I just can’t. Dad didn’t really talk about her but many years after her death he did say that her injuries were life changing, she couldn’t have survived.

“He found happiness again and I was happy too. And my memories of Hungerford Road remain so strong.”