# How long did it take to rebuild London after WW2?



## geminisnake (Feb 18, 2006)

What with not living down south and not having been around til the mid 60s I have no idea how long the rebuild took and was surprised at the number of photos on bombsites in Cadmus's Teddy Girl photos thread 10 years on so can anyone give me any details?

Have we got any London urbanites that old?   Though I'm hoping some of you will just have an interest in history


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## spitfire (Feb 18, 2006)

geminisnake said:
			
		

> What with not living down south and not having been around til the mid 60s I have no idea how long the rebuild took and was surprised at the number of photos on bombsites in Cadmus's Teddy Girl photos thread 10 years on so can anyone give me any details?
> 
> Have we got any London urbanites that old?   Though I'm hoping some of you will just have an interest in history




There are still bomb sites in London. Most of which are now car parks. But as regards the majority of the damage I don't know. Would love to hear more...


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## pogofish (Feb 20, 2006)

Yup, still ongoing in some areas, housing & basic services/facilities were the first priorities in the immediate post-war years & eventually, most central/important sites were filled by the spec-property boom of the 60's.

If you google for the "Abercrombie Plan" (IIRC) you will probably find much more info.


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## scanner (Feb 20, 2006)

The Blitz, Then & Now,(3 volumes) published by After the Battle are full of photos of bomb damage and what has replaced it since the war. They cover the whole UK but full of interest. Librarys should be able to get them.


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## davesgcr (Feb 27, 2006)

The last city blitz bomb site was only built on in circa 1988 - its now City Thameslink station and offices  .......much of the 1950 and 1960 crap is now being torn down and rebuilt - Paternoster Square area foe example.


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## spitfire (Feb 27, 2006)

davesgcr said:
			
		

> The last city blitz bomb site was only built on in circa 1988 - its now City Thameslink station and offices  .......much of the 1950 and 1960 crap is now being torn down and rebuilt - Paternoster Square area foe example.



Sorry mate, I disagree. There are sites I pass by on a regular basis that are clearly bomb sites. Not just in the City but also in the east end and south east london.

I presume you mean large scale areas of destruction. There's still plenty of small to medium stuff. There's a car park sandwiched between two large buildings at the top of Finsbury Square that is a prime example. (I must add that I have no proof, this is from observation only).


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## Dead Cat Bounce (Feb 27, 2006)

> I presume you mean large scale areas of destruction. There's still plenty of small to medium stuff. There's a car park sandwiched between two large buildings at the top of Finsbury Square that is a prime example. (I must add that I have no proof, this is from observation only).



The massive new shopping centre in White City is being built on ground with a known number of WWII bombs. All sorts of plans are in place (for the BBC) should a bomb be found / go off.


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## Gavin Bl (Feb 28, 2006)

Wasn't the Barbican built on a huge bomb site - that must have been the latter part of the 1960s. There's a plaque on the adjacent street - Post Street? - marking that spot where the first bomb of the Blitz fell. 

The church in the centre of the complex has an obviously rebuilt spire too, is that bomb damage?


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## davesgcr (Feb 28, 2006)

Apologies - there must still be the odd site around where the planning machinery hasnt kicked in (or where land developers are still hanging on to get maximum potential) 

Barbican - Moorgate was a very badly damaged area - the 3 towers etc were built on a Blitz site - and the present Thameslink station at Moorgate was flattened.The Circle line took a diversion in the 1960s to maximise the redevelopment area.(when they rebuilt the area) 

I took a short cut home tonight through the Inner Temple and found a plaquen in the cobbles to Lamb Buildings - destroyed by enemy action on May 14th 1941 - its all around if you look closely.


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## dogDBC (Mar 1, 2006)

Hmm. There is evidence of Blitz damage all over London if you know what you are looking at.  An older chap once pointed out to me the view from Ridge Road in Hornsey, looking across to Ally Pally, most of the streets had a 'new' house in the middle of the row and you could see where a line of bombs had straddled them.  From memory - Inderwick Road etc.


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## lang rabbie (Mar 1, 2006)

dogDBC said:
			
		

> Hmm. There is evidence of Blitz damage all over London if you know what you are looking at.  An older chap once pointed out to me the view from Ridge Road in Hornsey, looking across to Ally Pally, most of the streets had a 'new' house in the middle of the row and you could see where a line of bombs had straddled them.  From memory - Inderwick Road etc.



If you look out for the 1950s infill houses, you can plot a line on the map in quite a few parts of South London where a single German bomber's incendiary bombs fell.   Most such houses/flats constructed by the old Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth in Streatham/Clapham are a particularly dirty shade of yellow brick.


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## lang rabbie (Mar 1, 2006)

The ideal gift for the bomb-site anorak in your life .... (hint, hint )








			
				London Topographical Society said:
			
		

> *The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-45 *
> 
> Atlas of over 100 detailed maps printed in colour, with 22-page introduction by Dr Robin Woolven. The maps cover an irregular area which extends roughly from Hammersmith to Woolwich and from Highgate to Sydenham. Large-format hardback, published jointly with London Metropolitan Archives. Publication no 164 (2005).
> 
> Available only from LMA, £50 (post & packing £20 extra). LMA is at 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB; normal hours 9.30 to 4.45 Monday to Friday, with extended opening on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 7.30. Tel: 020 7332 3820; fax: 020 7833 9136; email: ask.lma@corpoflondon.gov.uk



London Topographical Society website link


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## Hollis (Mar 1, 2006)

Hmmm... very interesting..


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## Hollis (Mar 1, 2006)

I want them.


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## dogDBC (Mar 2, 2006)

Ooh, a bit steep though.


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## Gavin Bl (Mar 2, 2006)

dogDBC said:
			
		

> Hmm. There is evidence of Blitz damage all over London if you know what you are looking at.  An older chap once pointed out to me the view from Ridge Road in Hornsey, looking across to Ally Pally, most of the streets had a 'new' house in the middle of the row and you could see where a line of bombs had straddled them.  From memory - Inderwick Road etc.



There's a good series of local books on the air war and bomb damage in Sussex - pinpointing things like the incongruous 50s house in a victorian terrace, and so on. You can see the span on the Brighton viaduct that was blown out - look right ahead on Argyle st, or the ME110 that came down in St Nicholas' graveyard - pilot decapitated by a gravestone, co-pilot thrown into a tree. Surely, there must be a similar series for London itself?

Couple of others spring to mind - theres a memorial in Abney cemetery in Stoke Newington to about 100 people killed in the destruction of a block of flats.

Also a pub on the hill up from Anerley station had a plaque on it about a V1 strike.

Also a V2 came down on Farringdon, killed 400, but news was suppressed for 'morale'.


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## silvermoon (Mar 3, 2006)

This site lists V1 and V2 attacks in London www.flyingbombsandrockets.com   also reading this topic makes me wonder how many uxb`s there are still left.


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## Gavin Bl (Mar 3, 2006)

silvermoon said:
			
		

> This site lists V1 and V2 attacks in London www.flyingbombsandrockets.com   also reading this topic makes me wonder how many uxb`s there are still left.



Fascinating site Silvermoon - I think the destruction of the block of flats I was talking about, is the Vallance Road referred to on the site

cheers
Gav


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## spitfire (Mar 3, 2006)

silvermoon said:
			
		

> This site lists V1 and V2 attacks in London www.flyingbombsandrockets.com   also reading this topic makes me wonder how many uxb`s there are still left.



Really good site. Thanks Silvermoon. Does anyone know of a london-wide one? Would be dead interesting.


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## Lock&Light (Mar 3, 2006)

The re-building of Dresden Cathedral, was only recenty completed.


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## Clapham Omnibus (Mar 6, 2006)

*Rebuilding London*

Hi Ya
They are still rebuilding London after WW2.If you go to the local boroughs website eg www.wandsworth.gov.uk and then go to the museum page they will tell you where the bombs dropped and what's there now. Croydon is the best one to go to as all the V wepons fell sort of london on that unfortunate Borough. Contory to a poet of distinction they rearly fell on Slough.


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## tommers (Mar 6, 2006)

according to that website the square I live on suffered a direct hit from a V1.   

it's got pictures and all sorts.  our landlord told us the end house had been hit in the war, I'll have to give him the address of the site.


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## laptop (Mar 6, 2006)

I believe Bishopsgate Goods Yard on Shoreditch High Street, just outside the City, was bombed, and lay untouched until a couple of years ago - when they demolished lots of it and left it again. 

(Thinking about it, they can't have been very big bombs, since the arches survived and I don't remember there being much obvious patching.)

Aren't some of the empty plots down by St Katherine's Docks also bomb sites?


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## davesgcr (Mar 6, 2006)

Bishopsgate Goods Depot burned down in (I think) 1963 - it was a massive fire which burned for about a week and several staff were killed - as it was used for storage of rail delivered spirits / alcohol and other flammables it was the biggest London fire since the blitz. What remained after the fire was knocked down - though the flooded cellers / arches remained. The function was transferred to LIFT (London International Freight Terminal) - now itself closed and demolished - in this case for the new Stratford International Station - due to open in 2007.


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## laptop (Mar 6, 2006)

Ah, thanks.

Now you mention it...


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## Reg in slippers (Mar 11, 2006)

grove road in mile end has a plaque on the railway bridge, mentioning the first V1 to reach London fell there

bethnal green tube entrance has a plaque to commemorate 173 people who died as a result of panic trying to get down to the safety of the platforms


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## AnnaKarpik (Mar 11, 2006)

Lock&Light said:
			
		

> The re-building of Dresden Cathedral, was only recenty completed.



Quite!


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## taochi (Mar 13, 2006)

It took a while but Londoners were quick to work together and rebuild. How about tearing down those disgraceful estate blocks? The residents of those can move into the hotels around central. I'm sure the owners of the Ritz wouldn't mind if it was handed over to the Unions involved with public transport. London's looking a little grey at the moment. You get the idea..


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## maximilian ping (Mar 13, 2006)

less time than its taken to build the new wembley stadium


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## northrepps12345 (Jun 9, 2011)

*Wardley Street*

Does anyone know or have any old photos of Wardley Street or Garratt Lane Wandsworth during the 1930/1950's?

Faith


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## Streathamite (Jun 9, 2011)

spitfire said:


> I presume you mean large scale areas of destruction. There's still plenty of small to medium stuff. There's a car park sandwiched between two large buildings at the top of Finsbury Square that is a prime example. (I must add that I have no proof, this is from observation only).


You SURE about that one? been there quite a few times, used to work near there, that's a surprise to me


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## Streathamite (Jun 9, 2011)

Clapham Omnibus said:


> Croydon is the best one to go to as all the V wepons fell sort of london on that unfortunate Borough.


frankly, a reprise of that would, if anything, improve the place


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## marty21 (Jun 9, 2011)

lang rabbie said:


> If you look out for the 1950s infill houses, you can plot a line on the map in quite a few parts of South London where a single German bomber's incendiary bombs fell.   Most such houses/flats constructed by the old Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth in Streatham/Clapham are a particularly dirty shade of yellow brick.


 
I used to work in Maida Vale, and there are infil houses on a lot of the streets, around Warwick Avenue and parallel streets.


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## Puddy_Tat (Jun 9, 2011)

depends really what you mean by "rebuilt"

there are some sites that never got fully re-developed, or got turned into car parks or planned open spaces (e.g. Folkestone Gardens, New Cross)

the excalibur estate (U75 thread here) consists of "temporary" housing that was built just after the war, and is only now being redeveloped, although this was built on previously open space rather than a bombed site.



> Does anyone know or have any old photos of Wardley Street or Garratt Lane Wandsworth during the 1930/1950's?



assuming that the usual web searches have failed, i'd suggest the local studies bit of the local library service.


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## toblerone3 (Jun 9, 2011)

davesgcr said:


> The last city blitz bomb site was only built on in circa 1988 - its now City Thameslink station and offices  .......much of the 1950 and 1960 crap is now being torn down and rebuilt - Paternoster Square area foe example.



Big bomb site in Mount Pleasant next to the sorting office. Is a car park. Original building was a parcel sorting office. Was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 has not yet been rebuilt.


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## Minnie_the_Minx (Jun 9, 2011)

I remember getting the train between Southend and Liverpool and Fenchurch Street in the 1970s and there were still old bomb sites around in the East End then


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## Hocus Eye. (Jun 10, 2011)

I know someone who was guiding a German businessman around London in a car. Mindful of the need not to mention the war to this important client she was stumped for a moment when on crossing the river into Southwark he asked why there were no old buildings there."They all fell down" she answered almost truthfully.


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## 19sixtysix (Jun 10, 2011)

There's new new Georgian style house on the brixton road that replaced a bomb site only a couple of years ago.


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## stuff_it (Jun 10, 2011)

Judging from the state of the bombed out warehouses that we had a rave at by the River Lea in 2005 they are only just now finishing off bits due to the Olympics. Basically an open space with a few broken walls and some round bits of concrete where they filled in the craters a bit.


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## stuff_it (Jun 10, 2011)

Hocus Eye. said:


> I know someone who was guiding a German businessman around London in a car. Mindful of the need not to mention the war to this important client she was stumped for a moment when on crossing the river into Southwark he asked why there were no old buildings there."They all fell down" she answered almost truthfully.


 
'They all fell down during the epic 1966 world cup afterparty' is what she should have said....


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## ViolentPanda (Jun 10, 2011)

northrepps12345 said:


> Does anyone know or have any old photos of Wardley Street or Garratt Lane Wandsworth during the 1930/1950's?
> 
> Faith


 
Hmm, there wasn't that much there worth photographing in the late '60s/early '70s. Wardley St was one of a series of roads that traversed the (extremely manky) Wandle (the stretch between Wandsworth High St and just shy of the swimming pool in King George's Park got covered in when the Arndale shopping centre was built), which ran parallel with Garrett Lane up as far as Kimber road before flaring off toward south Wimbledon. I remember my nan saying that the Wandsworth/Earlsfield border bit of Garrett Lane was a bit ropey between the wars, because so many of the people who lived in the terraces thereabout worked in local factories which either went on short time or closed down, so a lot of folk were on their uppers.

Wandsworth History Society used to have a good photo-archive back when I last checked, as did the council offices (both on the part of Wandsworth High St that follows on from East Hill. Wandsworth Council archives are also pretty helpful if you phone them up and tell them what you're after, although what they're charging for prints nowadays, I don't know.


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## spitfire (Jun 10, 2011)

Streathamite said:


> You SURE about that one? been there quite a few times, used to work near there, that's a surprise to me


 
Yeah, pretty positive, think it's been built on now though. In between Tabernacle Street and City Road.


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## oryx (Jun 11, 2011)

northrepps12345 said:


> Does anyone know or have any old photos of Wardley Street or Garratt Lane Wandsworth during the 1930/1950's?
> 
> Faith


 
Wandsworth Museum (which I last visited in 2005 when it was run by the Council) has a good collection of old borough photos.

http://www.wandsworthmuseum.co.uk/


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