The closure-threatened Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington was bedecked with vintage bunting today to mark tomorrow's VE Day and the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.

The flags draped across the building were made by a volunteer from a 'rag bag' of fabric recapturing the wartime spirit of "make do & mend."

The centre, which is a Grade 11 listed building was originally the Church of St Alban the Martyr and the foundation stone was laid in 1887.

In World War Two a massive bomb blasted out the east window of The Landmark when it fell on the nearby film studios in Broom Road.

The Landmark has launched an appeal to raise fund to stop closure following the cancellation of its entire summer programme because of the pandemic.

Today Status Quo's guitarist John 'Rhino' Edwards, who lives in Teddington and supported the local 'stay at home' fundraising gig Rockin the Lockin became the latest to support the campaign.

The rock star quoted from Joni Mitchell's famous song Big Yellow Taxi: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone."

How to donate

Definition of bunting:"light woollen stuff loosely woven, flag-material," 1742, of uncertain origin; perhaps from a dialectal survival of Middle English bonting "sifting," verbal noun from bonten "to sift," because cloth was used for sifting grain.