Possibly the most obvious reminders of the bombing are the post-war housing estates which were built on the extensive bomb sites, and in particular the many fences around them which were made from redundant stretchers.
About 2,500 bombs and rockets fell on Lambeth during the Second World War, many of them in Vauxhall in an attempt to hit the railways and the Thames bridges. This note looks at:-
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Possibly the most obvious reminders of the bombing are the post-war housing estates which were built on the extensive bomb sites, and in particular the many fences around them which were made from redundant stretchers. |
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Another poignant reminder of the bombing is the memorial in Kennington Park to what was by far the worst local incident in the war:- the bombing of the Kennington Park communal shallow trench-style air raid shelter on Tuesday 15 October 1940.
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The shelter was large enough to accomodate hundreds, and maybe thousands, of people, and it filled the whole of the south field in Kennington Park - the field opposite what is now the cafe. The outline of the buildings can still be seen from the air, especially when the ground is very dry - see the photo below. But the shelter was an unpleasant place, and people only went there because the government stopped them going down into the nearby underground stations. One witness reported that “The public shelter was horrible, smelly. It had a mouldy slab of concrete for a roof. But you couldn’t go anywhere else - the Oval Station was full of barbed wire … they wouldn’t let you near it.”
The direct hit on the shelter inevitably caused huge damage and horrible injuries. One witness reported that he "was 17. My job was helping to dig the bodies out. We put curtains up, so that people walking past couldn’t see in the pit. Eventually we couldn’t do anymore and we covered the remains with lime.". The chaos of war along with the need to keep up morale meant that no official toll of those dead and missing was announced, but historians now believe that 104 people were killed. It is said that 46 bodies were recovered but the majority of the bodies were left unrecovered when the site was levelled.
A more detailed report may be found in Rob Pateman's excellent pamphlet "Kennington's Forgotten Tragedy".
There were two major bombings in Richborne Terrace (which then extended through to Meadow Road). One string of bombs, on the night of 27/28 September 1940, led to the demolition of Nos 34-60, subsequently replaced by maisonettes, and killed people in Nos 79, 81, 105 and 107. Amazingly, only nine people were killed. Much later, in 1945, a V1 flying bomb (also see further below) landed close to the site of the second September 1940 bomb-site.
One of the two earlier bombings was recorded, in words and a picture, by local civil defence worker Stanley Rothwell:
Mr Rothwell's painting of the incident is in the Imperial War Museum and is reproduced below with their kind permission. It shows an Anderson shelter after a direct hit. Mr Rothwell is on the left accompanied by his colleague Benny Cunningham. It is interesting that Mr Rothwell's son subsequently went to work in the War Museum.
Most of the Anderson shelters, in the back gardens of the Richborne Terrace houses, were removed after the war. However, the shelter at the back of one house is still in good condition, and can be visited by prior arrangement:- Click here for further information.
The last bomb to fall on Lambeth - a V1 jet-propelled pilotless "doodlebug" - photo above - landed between Richborne Terrace and Fentiman Road - northwest of Carroun Road - on 5 January 1945. 13 people were killed and 100 made homeless. Here are photos comparing a similar terrace still standing today in Fentiman Road with a photo taken in Femtiman Road after the V1 bombing. Damaged Richborne Terrace houses can be seen in the distance. The whole area is now occupied by large blocks of flats.
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Tragically, many years later, a Richborne Terrace resident, Philip Russell, was one of the victims of the first ever London suicide bombers when he was killed on a bus in Tavistock Square, near Euston Station, on 7 July 2005.
There was also an interesting incident near the Oval. The largest and last of the daylight raids on London took place on 15 September 1940. Over 180 German planes were shot down and a German airman, Robert Zehbe, baled out of his stricken Dornier bomber and landed in front of Alverstone House in Harleyford Road. Pieces of his plane came down elsewhere in central London, including in the forecourt of Victoria Station. Zehbe was attacked by a mob of furious women but was rescued by the police and driven across the Oval's turf and Vauxhall Bridge to the Millbank military hospital, where he died next day. There was a suggestion that he had been seriously injured by the Oval mob, but it is equally likely that he was badly injured before he landed.
Information about this incident was provided by historian Martin Smart. (I no longer have contact details for Martin but would be very pleased if any visitor to this site could let me have any contact information.) Pieces of the bomber are now in the RAF Museum, Hendon.
The war years were certainly not devoid of humour. The following link takes you to a delightful spoof letter circulated to his neighbours in Redcross Street (now Redcross Way) by young James Donovan. He was particularly adept at mimicking the bureaucratic style of the time. (If your browser reduces the image to fit your screen, you can expand it by clicking in the bottom right hand corner of the image.)
Further information about the war years can be found in the excellent Life in Lambeth during World War Two published by Lambeth Archives, and on the 1940s Society website, as well, of course, in Kennington's Imperial War Museum.
Local historian Neil Bright (020 7701 8624) can help you research the lives of First World War servicemen, and is a fund of knowledge about South London during both wars.
