Wartime Childhood Memories

My Wartime Childhood Memories

I was born on 24th January 1940 in the City of London Maternity Hospital in City Road (next to the Leysian Mission). Six weeks later it was gutted by fire in an air raid and remained derelict until the end of the War. Even the site has gone as it was incorporated into a Gyratory system with Old Street in the 1950s.

My earliest recollections were the sound of a sewing machine as my mother was a Court Hand Dressmaker (having previously worked for Norman Hartnell) backed by the sound of Victor Sylvester and Vera Lynn on the radio. I lived at the top of an office block in Finsbury Square where my father was one of two Housekeepers. There was an air raid siren at the top of a pole next to the Martha Smith Fountain in the square the latter being moved to the other corner of the square when it was redeveloped in the 1960s.

When the siren went we all descended to the basement vaults under the bank in Finsbury Pavement where you could here the sound of the underground trains and an adjacent river. We never had to go into the communal shelters sunk into the square itself which were dug out of the gardens with ramps down at the NW and SE corners although I used to visit the dugout where my father was an Air Raid Warden. I still had my father’s tin hat until a few years ago when my son snaffled it to add to his collection together with an East German Border Guard’s hat.

The roof of the building was burnt off early in the war together with that of one of the ornamental turrets both of which were only partially reinstated. I was too young to remember that although I do recall the long handled Shovels which were used to remove incendiary bombs.

My first recollection of air raids was seeing the silhouette of St. Paul’s Cathedral, out of the back window, amongst the searchlights and the thud of the anti-aircraft guns one of which was situated at the top of Moor Lane where I learnt to ride a bicycle after the end of the war. My father also used to collect shrapnel from the bombs which he kept on a shelf in his office overlooking the entrance hall — some of it was still hot.

Early on in the war I was evacuated to Horsepath, near Cowley in Oxfordshire, with my mother but she did not like it there and returned to London to help with the war effort to our virtual fortress.

My father was the Churchwarden of St. Matthews Bethnal Green and I first remember the Parish Room as the church itself had been bombed out early in the war. He would take me there in a small sidecar fitted at the rear of his Bicycle.

We did not get any “direct hits” apart from the fire in the roof referred to earlier but many buildings around us were destroyed, although the “Flying Horse” Pub round the corner had a near miss. It is there to this day. When, however, a bomb dropped on Waterlows, the printers, thousands of foreign banknotes were floating around for the next few days. No such luck occurred at the Bank of England Printing Works in the old Bedlam Hospital north of Old Street at the rear of where I was born.

During the war I had a wonderful model of an Anti-aircraft gun which fired caps together with a Wellington Bomber but they all got lost or destroyed. I remember being clambered over the bombed sites in my pram to go shopping in Whitecross Street market seeing the big buckets and cranes used to remove the debris.

As a result of the bomb damage we had an unprecedented view of the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company who had two Barrage Balloons tethered to trucks. One got destroyed by attack but I do not think they ever lost one (as depicted in “Dads Army”).
In the course of being bombed out my grandmother finished up in Coldbath Buildings in Rosebery Avenue, from which one could see the pig stys at the rear of Clerkenwell Fire Station which had a “Pig Club”.

When I was 3 or 4 I went to Coleman Street Ward School in the City and well remember that when the siren went we all had to clamber under the desks until the “all clear”. I used to play in the City Greenyard with my friend, John Burbridge, whose father was in charge of the Lord Mayor’s Coach, which I did not find all that comfortable.

I first remember the Guildhall which was roofless as was Bow Church Bell-less as the spire had been destroyed so I am not sure whether I qualified as a “Cockney”. I well remember going to Woolworths, in Cheapside, one day only to find it was not there any more. I was a bit upset about that. Later in the war I was evacuated to West Hanney, near Wantage in Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire) where they had a Butter Cross. I did not like it there as the house was large and spooky and I was first introduced to the wonders of an earth closet in an outside toilet at the bottom of the garden.

One day I was told not to go into the fields at the rear as there were bits of cows everywhere as some bombs had exploded from a crashed aircraft and blown them all to pieces. Shortly after I saw a “lightning plane” which did not have any propellers, one of the first jet aircraft. Incidentally my older cousin, Alfred, who was in the RAF learnt the hard way that you do not stand behind a jet engine when it is starting up.

Towards the end of the war we had a number of “near misses” and as I looked out of the rear window I said “O mummy! Look a parachute” “Everybody Down” — it was a landmine. Another day when we were unable to get down to the basement in time there was a loud bang and a crack suddenly appeared in the staircase wall. When the “all clear” sounded and we came up to investigate we found that the building on the NE corner of Finsbury Square was not there any more.

After VE day I was sent to an LCC Children’s Home at Ashford in Middlesex as my mother had to go into hospital for an urgent operation. There I remember the sausages were really leathery and horrible. We also used to see the ambulance trains bringing the wounded back from the front, between Staines and Feltham. My only recollection of VJ day was that the girls were all given Red, White and Blue ribbons for their hair and we all had a big party.

J.W.Barfield 27/11/05

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