Before heading on to our next Wednesday series, here’s a recap of our last….
1. Balham Underground Station…
2. Kennington Park air raid shelter…
4. Following the Leader (Memorial to the Children Killed in the Blitz)…
5. The Stairway to Heaven Memorial, Bethnal Green…
6. Stainer Street Arch bombing…
7. First V1 rocket to strike London…
8. First V2 rocket to strike London…
9. Wedding party memorial, Camberwell Green…
10. Blitz Memorial (Memorial to the Civilians of East London)
This evocative memorial, which stands on the north bank of the River Thames at Wapping, is designed to show the figure (or rather the absence of the figure) of a dove.
This rather poignant monument stands in a park above where an air raid shelter once stood in which a wedding party, 13 people in total, lost their lives in late 1940.
The first V2 rocket to strike London hit Chiswick in west London in September, 1944.
The first V1 rocket attack on London took place in June, 1944, and resulted in six deaths and 30 injuries.
This simple blue plaque memorial in Southwark commemorates a bombing on the night of 17th February, 1941, in which some 68 people were killed.
This unique memorial commemorates the worst civilian tragedy of World War II in the UK – the disaster at Bethnal Tube station in east London.
This unusual – and rather poignant, if overlooked – memorial, located on the side of a housing block in Lambeth, is a sculptural relief depicting a series of children.
Weeks after the start of the Blitz, on 13th October, 1940, a bomb struck a residential housing block and the air raid shelter located in Stoke Newington.
More than 100 people died when, on the night of 15th October, 1940, a bomb destroyed an air raid shelter located in Kennington Park in Lambeth.
While no official death toll was announced at the time, it’s now believed that 104 people died in the bombing. Forty-eight bodies were recovered and buried in Streatham Cemetery while the remainder still lie under the park.
The majority of those killed were women and children with the youngest just three-months-old. The oldest known victim was 75.
While Lambeth’s civilian dead are commemorated in a memorial at Lambeth Cemetery dedicated in 1952, in early 2000s the Friends of Kennington Park raised funds for a permanent memorial to those killed in the tragedy in the park.
The memorial, which was designed by Richard Kindersley and is located in the South Field close to the Tinworth Fountain Gate, is an upright stab of Caithness stone brought from Scotland standing 2.6 metres tall.
It is inscribed with a quote from poet Maya Angelou – “History despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again.”
While another inscription around the edge of the stone commemorates the more than “50 men, women and children” who died during the bombing, a nearby interpretation board puts the toll at more than 100.
WHERE: Kennington Park, inside the Tinworth Fountain Gate, Kennington Park Road, Lambeth (nearest Tube station is Oval); WHEN: Usually 7.30am until 15 minutes before sunset; COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.lambeth.gov.uk/parks/kennington-park
This month, the UK and other nations marked 80 years since VE (Victory in Europe) Day. London suffered greatly during the Blitz and later rocket attacks, so we thought it appropriate to take a look at some key memorials around the city.
Exploring London 