In my parents’ two bedroom council flat in north east London, as a small child in the later 1960s, I remember how cold it was there during the winter months. No central heating installed in the block until the late 1970s. Until then we relied on a gas fire in the front room, and in my room, a two bar metal framed electric fire with a corded flex from the 1950s that was plugged into a socket which droplets of water covered the front of. The insides of the windows in my bedroom froze when it was really cold. No thick duvets - just a thin eiderdown over a bedspread and a sheet below it. I cried with the cold in there. As a special treat, Mum would lay an electric blanket on my bed if it was really freezing. Otherwise, you put up with what you had.
