Shoreditch’s first ever week-long carnival came to an end when over 3,000 people who had crowded into Hoxton Street saw the Mayor Cllr Robert Tallantire cut the first slice from a pig sizzling over a barbecue at a bomb site.
The biggest surprise of the week-long carnival had come for Patrick Dutton, 10, the Gazette reported. He was knocked over by a lorry when he ran to enter the fancy dress competition.
Carnival queen, Margaret Everton, 19, went to see him in hospital with all her princesses, and gave him a prize for his fancy dress outfit anyway.
Apparently cynics had told the organiser Stanley Reeves that it wouldn’t be possible to pull off when he mooted the idea of a carnival in June - because of cost and time. But he proved them wrong and raised over £1,000 for old folk and youth clubs.
The carnival was wound up at midnight when Margaret drove through the borough in a convertible.
The “only disappointment” came at 11pm when Mr Reeves made an announcement at the town hall that it was “impossible to obtain” the torches which were to have been used for a torchlight parade.
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