Growing up in working-class London between the wars

This is a study of working-class childhood in the London of the inter-war period. Using a mixture of official records, oral testimony, and autobiography it seeks to explore the experiences of growing up in a working-class family between the wars; showing how this experience differed from that of their parents generation.

To achieve this aim the thesis looks at five areas of children’s lives to discover what, if any, changes had taken place after the Great War. Starting with home life the thesis asks whether children of the inter-war period lived in better housing conditions than their forbears. It seeks to discover how much impact technological advances like the development of broadcast radio and domestic electrification had on working-class children’s lives. It goes on to look at education asking what effect changes in the structure of the education system and in teaching methods had on working-class children’s school experiences and educational opportunities. The thesis then looks at the development of the Schools Medical, Meals and Welfare Services asking what impact these made. From here the thesis seeks to explore the world of children’s play, asking what sorts of games children play and how they were affected by the introduction of new media like radio and more importantly film. The attempts by those in authority be they parents, teachers, social reformers or representatives of government departments to control children’s play are also examined to discover their motivations and to assess their success. Finally the thesis looks briefly at the world of school children’s employment showing how due to a combination of complacency, lack of effort and ignorance government attempts to eliminate or even to adequately control child labour failed. Most importantly however, this thesis is about working-class children and their experiences while growing up in London between the wars.