Buildings were black with soot - it came as a great shock to me years later to discover that landmarks such as St Paul's Cathedral and indeed most prominent buildings were actually white once the centuries of grime had been cleaned off. London was still "The Smoke", with coal fires, steam locomotives and the famous smogs. Milk and bread were delivered daily in electric vehicles, and once a week, on different days, there would be mobile shops in vans - butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer, grocer - and the mobile library. The coalman and the rag and bone man came with horse carts - my dad and other neighbouts used to rush to be the first one out with a shovel to collect the droppings for their rhubarb patches.
![granny in paradise level 76 granny in paradise level 76](https://www.myabandonware.com/media/screenshots/g/granny-in-paradise-ltn/granny-in-paradise_2.jpg)
There was still a sense of community and homogeneity - we knew most of the neighbours and helped each other out, we played in the virtually car-free streets with neighbouring children, if we went to a friend's house it looked very much like our own and the family would be doing much the same as us and eating a pretty identical meal, there were fixed days when almost everyone did their shopping, laundry, etc. The war still dominated life - virtually every adult male I knew had been in the army, and many of the women (including my mum). My early memories of London were bomb sites - the ruined buildings had generally been cleared but there were huge empty spaces, which of course were great for children to play in. More generally, rationing only ended the year I was born, so my early years were still a time of austerity, and my parents (and everyone we knew) still had that attitude. If I recall correctly it was very dramatically done in the last seconds of an episode you didn't get to see much of the Dalek but you were aware that it was something very evil.
![granny in paradise level 76 granny in paradise level 76](https://images.nintendolife.com/10a5fa32d0878/trials-of-mana-gameplay.large.jpg)
I had a similar childhood experience when the very first Dalek appeared on Dr Who. I'll drink a cup of coffee after an upmarket dinner, or thick sweet Arabic or Ethiopian coffee in a local cafe, or of course an Irish coffee, but I never got a taste for drinking the stuff regularly. I'm English, so likewise, pots and pots of tea.