London at War: Relics of the Home Front from the World Wars

177 Pages·2011·12.201 MB·English

by  Alan Brooks

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LONDON
AT WAR
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LONDON
AT WAR
Relics of the Home Front from
the World Wars
ALAN BROOKS
Wharncliffe Books
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First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Wharncliffe Local History
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Alan Brooks, 2011
ISBN 978 1 84563 139 0
The right of Alan Brooks to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Typeset in Ehrhardt by Chic Media
Printed and bound in England
by CPI
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of
Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime,
Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select,
Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, Remember When,
Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
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Contents
Abbreviations & Picture Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Acknowledgements & Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Prologue ‘Black Sunday’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Chapter 1 The Dress Rehearsal: The First World War. . . . . . . . 7
Intermission The Inter-War Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 2 The London Blitz . . . and After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 3 V for Revenge: The V Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Chapter 4 Give Me Shelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 5 Scars, Shells and Carbuncles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 6 A Home from Home: Exile and Headquarters . . . . . 88
Chapter 7 WW2 Civilian War Graves and Memorials. . . . . . . . 95
Chapter 8 Odds and Ends, Other Memorials and Fakes . . . . . 113
Chapter 9 Be Your Own Blitz Detective (‘BYOBD’). . . . . . . . 129
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Appendix 1. London Boroughs, Postal Districts, the LCDR and
Fire Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Appendix 2. Selected Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Appendix 3. London Metropolitan Borough WW2 Civilian
War Memorials/Graves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Appendix 4. Selected Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Appendix 5. Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Appendix 6. Some Places to Visit, and Contact Details . . . . . . . . . 163
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
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Abbreviations
AFS Auxiliary Fire Service
ARP Air Raid Precautions
GLC Greater London Council
HE High Explosive
LCC London County Council
LCC&CA LCC and City Area
LCDR London Civil Defence Region
NFS National Fire Service
RAF Royal Air Force
US/USA United States/United States of America
WW1 World War One/First World War
WW2 World War Two/Second World War
Picture Credits
All photographs are by the author, except 5.27.
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Acknowledgements and
Dedication
I
have received help from a number of individuals and institutions in
the research and the photography for this book. I am pleased to say
that virtually without exception my enquiries were received with
interest and enthusiasm. This project has occupied me, part-time, for a
few years now. I can only offer my most contrite apologies to anyone who
has tried to help me and whom I might have inadvertently omitted from
this list. I have, however, omitted the sullen and unhelpful. They should
know who they are! I wish to thank the following people and the staff of
the following organisations (mainly in no particular order):
London Metropolitan Archives.
London Fire Brigade Museum.
Stephanie Maltman of Firemen Remembered.
Phil Mortimer at the London Fire Brigade Headquarters in Lambeth.
The following Local History Departments: Barnet, Camden, Hackney,
Hammersmith & Fulham (especially Anne Wheeldon), Islington
(especially Martin Banham), Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth,
Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Wandsworth.
The following public libraries: Wandsworth (especially the late and
much lamented West Hill branch), Barbican and Guildhall.
The museum at The Royal London Hospital.
Peggy Crispin and Clare Troughton at Mildmay Mission Hospital.
The UK National Inventory of War Memorials (at the Imperial War
Museum).
Friends of Kennington Park.
Duncan Jeffery and Nigel Harris of Westminster Abbey (for kind
permission to photograph inside St Margaret’s Church,
Westminster).
Reverend Bertrand Olivier (for kind permission to photograph inside
All Hallows by the Tower Church).
St Botolph’s Aldgate Church.
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viii London at War
Imperial War Museum (for kind permission to publish my
photographs of the V weapons in their main gallery).
The following cemeteries: City of London, East London, Islington
section of St Pancras & Islington, Manor Park, Old Battersea
(Morden), New Southgate, Putney Vale and Tower Hamlets.
The Norwegian Embassy in London.
The British Postal Museum & Archive.
London Transport Museum.
David Andrews and John Dutton of Wandsworth Borough Council.
The staff on duty at the time of my visits to St Dunstan and All Saints
Church in Stepney, the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church,
Balham Underground Station, NatWest Bank in Upper Street,
Finsbury Leisure Centre, and The Royal Academy for allowing me
to take photographs.
Rupert Harding and Brian Elliott of Pen and Sword Books.
But most especially…Susan Fleischer-Thompson, who accompanied
me on many trips to London’s streets, churches, cemeteries, etc., and
who provided support above and beyond the call of duty throughout the
gestation of this obsession of mine.
Thank you again, everyone.
Wherever possible and appropriate, I have tried to corroborate facts,
but mistakes do occur and one’s memory is not always perfect! Of
course, I take responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies that may have
made their way into this book. The only exception to this is in the
Selected Statistics (Appendix 4), where I have had to take figures,
provided by the stated sources, on faith.
Finally, I most humbly dedicate this book to the people of London
who lived through one or both of the world wars, whether they were
scarred physically or mentally, or both, or whether they were killed. I
thank any supreme being who exists that I have not had to endure what
they did.
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Preface
T
he aim of this book is simple. It is to provide a selection or atlas
of photographs of items relating to the Home Front in London
during the two world wars. Most importantly, these items must
be reasonably available for viewing to the general public in real life.
There are (essentially) no military memorials. There is little social
history – this has been done before, far better than I could hope to (see
Appendix 5). The area of interest is that under the governance of the old
London County Council (which ran the central part of London during
the period covering WW1 and WW2), plus the City of London. This
area I have designated under the abbreviation LCC&CA (LCC and City
Area) for brevity in the text. However, on the odd occasion, I have
chosen to include items located just outside this area. If you do not like
my selection, then research and write your own book.
It is not intended to be encyclopaedic (but see below). For example, I
have not included every example of surviving damage to buildings from
flying debris from exploding bombs or missiles, nor of signage
indicating nearby air raid shelter locations, that I have come across. I
have not included photographs of every deep level shelter entrance
building which still exists (although the Addendum to Chapter 4 does
list their locations). I have also made editorial decisions about inclusion
or exclusion of potentially relevant material. For example, there exist
many plaques or signs indicating that some particular building was
damaged by enemy action during WW2, but they are not all included.
The chances of inclusion are greatly increased if a specific date for the
relevant incident is stated, but some less specific inscriptions are
included if I consider them of interest for other reasons (eg Queen’s
Hall at Langham Place), if a particular building was damaged on more
that one occasion (eg the Innholders Hall, and St James Garlickhythe
Church), or if I particularly like the wording of the inscription (eg St
Lawrence Jewry Church).
There is another reason for material being omitted. I might not know
it exists. London is a big place. On the assumption that this book might