Youngsters growing up back then often had free rein to roam the neighbourhood in which they lived, provided they were back home in time for supper.
There’s barely a car in sight in these nostalgic photos, except for the ruined vehicles being used as climbing frames by curious children.
Traffic was growing, however, and one sign, urging drivers not to use a residential street as a rat-run, reminds motorists that ‘children play here’.
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The roads and pavements are seen here turned into makeshift football and cricket pitches, or battlefields for rampaging knights and cowboys.
Fearless children are pictured swinging from the lampposts, playing with old tyres and pogoing down the middle of the street.
Nowhere was off-limits in this era before health and safety really took hold, including the many bomb sites dotted around the post-war landscape.
Children can be seen clambering over the rubble and making dens among the concrete and twisted metal.
In a time before social media, streaming and video games, youngsters knew how to make their own fun.
From building and racing go-karts to playing roller hockey with tea cosies for helmets and newspaper stuffed into their socks in place of shin pads, they were a resourceful bunch.
Do these photos bring back memories for you of happy days spent playing outdoors, and do you think it’s time we reclaimed the streets for today’s children?
For more nostalgia, check out this list of things you probably miss about the 60s if you grew up then.
9. Street cricket
A group of boys play their own mini-Test match outside the Oval in 1968. Pictured are Clive Murray (8), David Delvish (10), Joseph Williams (8), Gary O'Rourke (10), Stephen Handy (11), Stephen Brimble (11) and his brother, Martin Brimble (9). | Getty Images Photo: Ian Tyas/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive
10. Toddling on the cobbles
Television actress Catherine Fuller makes friends with a toddler in the street in London's East End in June 1956 | Getty Images Photo: Harry Kerr/BIPs
11. Wiggle board
A boy tests his balance on a wiggle board, constructed from a wooden board positioned on a cylindrical roller, in June 1956 | Getty Images Photo: Weir/BIPs
12. Roller hockey
Children playing hockey on roller-skates in January 1952. They are wearing tea-cosies as protective headgear and have newspaper stuffed into their socks to pad their shins. | Getty Images Photo: Fred Morley/Fox Photos