Between 1939 and 1945 Stoke Newington suffered very considerable bomb damage and one can see the results in new building in almost every street nearby.
BL-SNS Bombing Map 1939-1945
Saved BL-SNS Bombing Map
The colours on theses maps are over fifty years old and have darkened in that time.
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Colour Key References |
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Black -Total destruction |
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Purple - Damaged beyond repair |
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Dark Red - Doubtful if repairable |
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Light Red - Seriously damaged, but repairable at cost |
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Orange - General blast damage, not structural |
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Yellow - Blast damage, minor in nature |
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O |
V1 flying bomb |
large circle |
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o |
V2 long range rocket. |
small circle |
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This bombing map shows that bomb damage during the Second World War was widespread and severe. Whole rows of houses were destroyed. Some were ‘Damaged beyond repair' (PURPLE) or ‘Seriously damaged' (RED) ‘Doubtful if repairable'. Other houses suffered lesser damage and could be repaired, but the overall picture was very serious indeed. The colour key describes the different levels of damage.
War Damage Map 1939-45
This invaluable map was made by the London County Council immediately after the Second World War. It became the basis for the Abercrombie Plan fo the rebuilding of London .
Areas marked in black show how widespread the damage was. Some houses were repaired; others patched up temporarily. Even those houses not bombed, deteriorated because there could be little maintenance during the war and were in need of care and modernising.
The map shows the strategic bombing pattern. The reservoirs would have shown up clearly in the night sky and the concentration of attacks near the filter beds show the attempt made to disrupt London 's water supply.
My Black and White version of the Bombing Map
The Bombing Maps were stored by the L. C. C. in the lower basement at County Hall and in about 1960 the Architects Department gave me copies of them all. Colour photocopiers were not available then, so the prints were in black and white. I reproduced pieces of the maps in various books and they were very useful indeed.
An architect rang me from South London to check on my maps, He had been called in to find out why a house was collapsing. They were fifteen feet down and still bringing up complete window frames. Clearly an old bomb crater had been filled with bomb debris, leveled and forgotten. Later someone had given permission for houses to be built on the site and he wanted evidence for the coming court case.
When the L. C. C. was closed down the Bombing Maps and their copyright were passed to the London Metropolitan Archive and in 2005 the London Topographical Society published the maps in colour. I am grateful to LMA for permission to publish pieces of these maps.
Black and Whit compared with Colour
The blacl and white maps showed which houses had been damaged but not the deree of damage. The coloured maps show the centre of damage in a dark colour and rrings of lesser damage radiating round it. This explains why some houses could be repaired and others could not. The black and white maps were helpful but the coloured ones are invaluable.
The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939-1945. Available at libraries and archives.
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