It's a big, heavy book and has detailed maps covering the whole of London.
Area covered by each numbered map |
The maps were created by the Architect's Department of the London County Council and were meticulously hand coloured in to document the scale of damage caused by bombing.
Key to LCC bomb damage maps |
Black shaded areas were totally destroyed, purple shading indicated buildings damaged beyond repair, while at the bottom of the scale yellow showed minor blast damage.
Map 62 Holburn, Bloomsbury, City of London (west) |
Map 62 (above) shows the huge area of purple shaded buildings which were damaged beyond repair in the streets surrounding St Paul's, a lot of which happened in the huge raid and fire storm of December 29th 1940, when the famous photograph of St Paul's rising above the smoke and flames was taken.
Map 63 City of London (east), Whitechapel |
The maps were helpful for finding the setting for the ambulance station in East End Angels, just a short raven's flight from the Tower of London shown on map 63.
More details of where the bombs fell in London during WW2 can be found at Bomb Sight here along with photos and first hand accounts from people who were there.
Fascinating post. Those Bomb Sight maps - what an amazing and terrible record of just one year.
ReplyDeleteThanks, June. It was terrible, especially as they never knew where the bombs would fall.
DeleteThis is fascinating. Thanks, Rosie. Just wish I was competent at reading maps - the Satnav was designed with me in mind!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather have a map than a satnav as long as someone else is driving while I navigate.
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