Page 9 - HGS Suburb News 143 - Summer 2020

Suburb residents’ WW2 memories WW2 bombings in the Suburb

ost people with gardens now stands, to be given flat I was a teenager in he threat of a
M grew as many vegetables shaped bottles of orange juice. Finchley in 1940 and Tsecond world war
as they could manage and some Such a novelty and so delicious! remember my family had been in the air
kept chickens if they had space. TALYA SINGER huddling round the for some time with
Rationing was very well organised, coal fire and hearing the rise of Hitler in
so we knew exactly how much the continuous ack- Nazi Germany, whose
food we would receive. (My ack fire and the occasional boom ambition was to conquer Europe
mother didn’t have to scramble of a bomb. We all pretended we and then finally occupy England.
for food slots.) I believe fish was were not afraid, but actually we The deciding factor came on 1st
available off-ration, but I remember were terrified. September 1939 when German
having to rush to join a queue I had to sleep on a mattress troops, without declaring war,
for kippers. Big excitement! wedged between a wall and a launched an invasion of Poland.
EUNICE KOSSOFF sofa so that the ceiling was The British Prime Minister, Gladys Hunter’s bombed home on Brookland Rise.
unlikely to fall down on me. My Neville Chamberlain, sent an warm. Layers of newspaper between a baby..… In Temple Fortune every
My wartime bedtime prayers parents slept under the kitchen ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw blankets also helped keep you warm. shop front from Sainsburys (opposite
included: ‘God bless my soldier table protected by a metal shelter. his troops or consider Germany Hot drinks before bed were encouraged Willifield Way) down to Lindons
uncles, God bless my sailor I still have a piece of shrapnel to be at war with Britain. No and people were taught how to (corner of Bridge Lane) is smashed.
uncles, God bless my airman about two inches long with a reply was received, and on 3rd make hay bottles to keep the drink Cheerio! We’re still smiling
uncles – and bring them all Churchill on Ministry of Health balcony. very jagged edge. September 1939 war was declared. warm. There was no toilet in the but it’s a bit forced today!”
safely home’. On 8 May 1945, I was a 19-year- MICKY WATKINS There was a major fear that air raid shelter. You were reminded Tragically, Gladys and all
JOAN LIPKIN-EDWARDS old redundant RAF navigator many civilians’ lives would be to air your bedding every day. her family were killed on the 1st
My two Grandmothers and an Aunt, trainee. I had a senior civil servant VE Day brought great celebration lost due to German bombing of Cleanliness of your person and your October 1940 when her house
with me during wartime. Anderson cousin, who invited me to the to the streets of London and British cities. So the ‘Steel Indoor belongings was most important received a direct hit (see above).
shelter in background to the left behind Ministry of Health in Whitehall, across the UK for the government, Table Shelter’ was commissioned and helped more than anything to During the war 30 people
1st grandmother...
where Churchill was due to speak civilians and home guard. But prevent disease.” were killed in the Suburb as a
to the crowds from a balcony. for many troops the war would Air raids on British cities result of bombing; 70 buildings
After a long wait, Churchill not end for months and it was began in September 1940. Gladys were destroyed and 1,700 damaged.
arrived with his retinue and passed even longer until they reached Hunter who lived in Brookland The extent of the damage can
me within a couple of metres. Blighty again. While the war was Rise wrote letters to a friend in be seen in the map drawn by
Everybody clapped like mad. He over in Europe, it continued in Devon describing the impact of Michael Holton which is now
wore a dark suit and bow tie and the Far East until September these raids: in the HGS Heritage Virtual
carried an unlit cigar. He looked when the troops then had to 26 September 1940 Museum (see below).
short and rotund and had a ensure the conditions of surrender “The poor old Suburb suffered so On the 8th May 1945 Germany
lumbering, yet determined gait, had been met (including my badly last night. I can’t realise yet surrendered. In London, crowds
This memory was passed on to matching his expression. He father Ron Gillard). myself the appalling damage. The massed in Trafalgar Square and
me by the previous owner of stepped on to the balcony and I Thousands who eventually raid lasted from 8.30 pm to 5.30 am. all the way up the Mall to
my house - No1 Erskine Hill - could just see his back. Then he returned were wounded, scarred Two land mines were dropped Buckingham Palace where King
David McCallum (actor best spoke: “God bless you all. This is and unable to talk about their on the Suburb, one on Willifield George VI and Queen Elizabeth,
known for his 60’s role in the your victory...” The rest of his experiences. 20 million soldiers Green and another in Coleridge Walk. accompanied by their daughters
Man From Uncle). He visited my short speech was drowned by died during the course of the war About 300 flats and houses are very and Prime Minister Winston
house many years ago as part of a microphone echo and general all over the world and many by the government in 1941, badly damaged – too badly for Churchill, appeared on the
Sunday Observer series on where noise from the crowds. millions of civilians including known as the Morrison shelter anyone to live in them. Two houses balcony of the palace before the
famous people used to live. He This was a day I will never over 7 million in the concentration after the Home Secretary and in Coleridge Walk were wiped out cheering crowds. And here in
remembered the doodlebug that forget and I am proud to share it camps of Nazi Germany. Minister of Home Security, Herbert and altogether and the rest are the Suburb, a Thanksgiving Mass
fell in Golders Green and as a with you. SUSIE GREGSON Morrison. It was designed so almost all in ruins. The Emmoney was held St Jude’s. The church
result caused damage in the DAVID LITTAUR that the space it took up was family of six were killed, with six was filled from end to end.
Suburb. No 1 Erskine Hill was not wasted since it could serve more including a young couple and MARIE-CHRISTINE O’CALLAGHAN
damaged and he pointed out My school, King Alfred in North as both a table and shelter. The
where the second floor had End Road, had its premises sides were detachable and could
sustained damage just adjacent requisitioned for war to be used be removed for table use. The
to a window. He remembered the by the army. The school moved floor was sprung to make a
scary noise and said they had to to a farm in Royston, Herts, for more comfortable base for a
leave the house for a short time. the whole of the duration, as mattress. It was to be placed only
SUSAN DOUEK we called it. I vividly remember on the lowest floor of a house
Mr Churchill’s speech, conveyed where it provided excellent cover
When I was a small child in the to us all by a battery operated against falling debris. Over one
late 40’s we used to go to what I setup created by the older boys. million were in use by 1945.
recall as a prefab building in the Happy days, sort of! But the most widely used
Market Place, where Heathfielde PAUL DAVIS home shelter was the Anderson
officially called ‘the sectional
steel shelter’. Two million were
issued to households. They were
the perfect shelter for the Suburb
as they needed a back garden
but it was cramped, chilly and
I was born in 1941, almost at tended to flood after rain but it Hall and Randall Plumbers
the same time as my mother’s was remarkably bomb proof.
younger brother died in Maut- Suburb resident, Susie
hausen concentration camp. I Gregson, still has an Anderson Plumbing and Heating Services • Property Maintenance
grew up in Croydon. We had a shelter in her back garden. She
dome-shaped brick shelter in writes: “The shelter is half buried
the garden, where I have a in the ground and made out of
memory of sitting on a bunk steel reinforced concrete. It measures
with a blanket and a helmet. 6 foot square by 6 foot 6 inches
We are your local funeral director We had an Anderson (or was it high. There used to be a heavy steel
Morrison?) shelter in the dining door to close off the main room but
in Hampstead Garden Suburb room. The garden shelter became is has long since rusted away. There
my father’s wine cellar covered are two circular air vents in the
624 Finchley Road, NW11 7RR
by a rockery after the war and main room. It might have slept five
had a special damp smell when or six people in very cramped
you went down the steps. conditions on bunk beds. Air raid Central Heating, Plumbing Repairs & Advisory Service
020 8455 4992 MARJORIE HARRIS shelters were used a great deal
during the Blitz between July 1940 Look no further... your local plumbers
www.levertons.co.uk My primary education took place and August 41. And again in 1944 Emergency repairs, blocked pipes, drainage,
at Child’s Way School. As you at the time of the V1 ‘doodlebug’ guttering, roofing, central heating and boilers.
€ nchleyroad@levertons.co.uk entered the school grounds at rockets, which inflicted considerable 12 months guarantee, 40 years experience
the top of Child’s Way, there damage on the Suburb. Whenever
was rather a large air raid shelter, the sirens sounded families would 132 Manor Way, Borehamwood, Herts, WD6 1QX
6 BRANCHES ACROSS NORTH LONDON
grassed over, on which running make their way with bedding,
Camden Town | Golders Green | Gospel Oak | Hampstead races were held. I remember, candles and food to keep safe. The Web: www.hallandrandallplumbers.com
Kentish Town | Muswell Hill soon after 8 May 1945, standing Hampstead News and Golders Green Email: office@hallandrandall.com
on Cambridge Heath Road, at Gazette of December 26 1940 had Tel: 020 8953 2094 • Fax: 020 8905 1602
the entrance to Bethnal Green all kinds of useful suggestions
Underground station watching ‘Comfort in your air raid shelter – Evenings: Garry 020 8207 3286 • Greg 020 8953 9828
as celebratory processions some simple hints for Health and
passed by. Frenetic flag waving Ease’. If you did not have a hot
and dancing was the order of water bottle you were urged to take
the day. a hot brick, wrapped in a blanket
DAVID W CROSSLEY (DR.) or woollen garments to keep you 11495
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