Categories
1900-1949 War

Remembrance Week – London Blitzed, 1944

This must surely be the most heartbreaking tourist guide there is.

London for Everyman by William Kent was a guide to the sights of London, first published in 1933. By the 1944 edition, the Capital was forever altered by the Blitz, and pages of amendments were necessary to detail what no longer existed, what had been closed for the forseeable future, and what had been moved for safety.

This edition belonged to one Private E. O. Leichman, number W/280854, who must have bought it for a look around London, while he was on leave.

Here’s all the updates for 1944. Note that Paternoster Row had been bombed out of existence by this point – goodbye to the venerable old publishing centre, and to Madame Vastra and the Paternoster Gang (they lived at number 13, you know) – https://skittishlibrary.co.uk/the-paternoster-gang-and-the-case-of-the-victorian-clickbait/