Tag Archives: bombing

When German bombs rained down on Hampstead and a pub that no longer exists

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DURING MY CHILDHOOD in the 1960s, there was a concrete platform on Hampstead Heath Extension. It was close to Hampstead Way. Today, where it used to be visible, there is a mound of impenetrable bushes and weeds surrounded by a fence. The concrete structure was a base for anti-aircraft guns during WW2.  Although, many German aircraft were knocked out of the sky by guns such as these, many of them caused a great deal of damage all over London. Recently, while sorting through some books, I came across a slender volume called “Hampstead At War”. It was first published by Hampstead Borough Council in 1946, republished by the Camden Historical Society in 1979, and then again in 1995.  The book contains many photographs of the terrible destruction caused by bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe over Hampstead.

One of the photographs in the book struck a particular chord with me. It shows the badly damaged Hare and Hounds pub after it had been bombed in 1940. The pub, which was almost next door to the famous Old Bull & Bush pub, was established in about 1751. However, the building that was destroyed was built a long time after that.

Between 1965 and 1970, I used to travel From Golders Green station to Highgate School on the bus (route 210). Every school day, the bus would pass the Old Bull & Bush and its neighbour, the Hare and Hounds. When passing the latter in those days, I always wondered why the pub looked so recently built. When leafing through the “Hampstead at War” book today, more than 50 years after leaving the school, I found the answer. The book contains a photograph showing the extensively damaged pub.

The Hare and Hounds was rebuilt during the years I studied at Highgate. Although I can only faintly recall its appearance and can find only one photograph of it after its rebuilding, its presence remains firmly fixed in my memory. Finding the book certainly jogged my memory, and seeing the photographs of war damaged Hampstead makes a great impression. One wonders why the Germans chose to waste their ammunition on an area that has always been mainly residential.

PS: The Hare and Hounds closed forever in 2000.

Safe and sound under the ground

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DURING WW1, THERE were German Air raids over the town of Ramsgate in Kent. Many were killed by relatively few bombs.

In the late 1930s, the forward thinking Mayor of Ramsgate and his Chief Engineer designed a series of tunnels deep below the town to be used as air raid shelters. Over three miles of tunnels were dug into the chalk far below the town. The digging was carried out by miners from the (now closed) coal mines of East Kent.

Bunks in the tunnel shelter

Except for a short section about 25 feet below the ground, which was reinforced with thick concrete, the rest of the tunnel system, which was on average 75 feet below the surface, was self supporting. The tunnels could accommodate up to 60000 people, but because many of Ramsgate’s population were either evacuated or serving inthe armed forces, the town’s population was about 15000 during WW2.

The tunnels were fitted out with electric lighting; bunk beds; benches; first aid stations; and chemical toilets. People were allowed to spend the night there or when air raids were in progress. Given that Ramsgate was the last place that German bombers flew over when returning to mainland Europe, they tended to drop any remaining bombs on the town. In addition, the Germans had heavy long-range guns at Cap Gris Nez just across the English Channel from Ramsgate, and shells capable of destroying buildings fired from these could arrive in the town without prior warning.

In short, the tunnel system saved innumerable lives. Today, excellent guided tours allow visitors to explore it. Today, the 24th of July 2023, we joined one of these tours. Everything was beautifully and interestingly explained. Although not as well furnished and comfortable as the huge nuclear bunker built at Gjirokaster in Albania in the 1960s, what was constructed in quite a hurry at Ramsgate is remarkable.

Having just seen the not too brilliant film “Oppenheimer”, I could not help wondering how many people might have been saved had Hiroshima and Nagasaki been supplied with deep shelters like that at Ramsgate.

The underground artist

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THE BRITISH SCULPTOR Henry Moore (1898-1968) moved to London’s Hampstead district in 1929. Between that year and 1940 he lived in Parkhill Road, close to the Mall Studios, where the great sculptor Barbara Hepworth had her home and workshop. Many of Moore’s other close neighbours were in the forefront of the modern art world of the years between the two world wars. Not far away, the designer Jack Pritchard (1899-1992) and his family lived in Belsize Park Gardens, having moved there from Hampstead’s Platts Lane.

By Henry Moore, 1941

Quoting from my book “Beneath a Wide Sky: Hampstead and its Environs”:

“In 1929, he [Pritchard] and the Canadian architect Wells Coates (1895-1958) formed the company, Isokon, whose aim was to build Modernist style residential accommodation. Pritchard and his wife, a psychiatrist, Molly (1900-1985), commissioned Coates to build a block of flats in Lawn Road on a site that they owned. Its design was to be based on the then revolutionary new communal housing projects that they had visited in Germany, including at the influential Bauhaus in Dessau.”

The modernist building, now known as the Isokon, still stands on Lawn Road, which is close to Parkhill Road. It is still used as a block of flats. Completed in 1934, the building included communal areas including a restaurant and a bar called The Isobar where (to quote from my book again):

“… exhibitions were held in the Isobar and, according to an on-line article in ‘The Modern House Journal’ these were attended by artists including Adrian Stokes, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo. The article also noted that this refreshment area was frequented by modernist architects such as Erich Mendelsohn, Serge Chermayeff and, Wells Coates, as well as by left-wing politicians.”

The Lawn Road Flats (the Isokon) was an early British example of a ferro-concrete building with a steel frame. This made it far more resistant to being damaged by bombs than its many brick-built neighbours. In fact, the only damage it suffered during WW2 was a few broken windowpanes. Various people, including the author Agatha Christie, moved into the Isokon to seek protection from the Blitz. Another person doing the same was Henry Moore, who moved there in 1941.

Many people, who were not lucky enough to be able to live in a relatively bomb-proof edifice, sought shelter from the bombs by spending nights on the platforms of Underground stations such as Belsize Park and Hampstead, all of which are far beneath the ground. Henry Moore created a series of dramatic drawing of the people taking shelter on Underground station platforms. It is quite possible that while living in Hampstead, he visited the stations mentioned above to find subjects for his drawings, which provide a vivid record of the terrible times when London was under attack from the air.

Recently, whilst visiting the Tate Britain art gallery, which houses a great deal of British art, I saw two of Moore’s Underground drawings, both dated 1941, and several of his sculptures. The drawings are not accurate depictions of what the artist saw, but they illustrate his reactions to what he witnessed, and as such they emphasise the atmosphere of those fearful times.  Although there is no doubt that Moore was a great artist, on the whole I prefer the works of his contemporary and sometime neighbour in Hampstead: Barbara Hepworth.