London during World War 2, In Color

October 21, 2012 5:47 PM

Photographs by William Vandivert of London during World War II, presented by Life Magazine.
posted by maxwelton (11 comments total)

For what it's worth (probably not much), number 14 is not "Outside of London" but a view of central London (you can see St. Paul's) from Hampstead Heath, Parliament Hill to be precise.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 6:27 PM on October 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

People did a lot of sitting-outside-in-the-grass-on-lawnchairs-reading activities. You see some of the older people and they were born in the 1870s or earlier, they are Victorians. The 19th century was still alive and kicking (its last).
posted by stbalbach at 6:36 PM on October 21, 2012

Best photo: Victory garden. Would love to see public property covered with bean poles nowadays.
posted by DU at 6:42 PM on October 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

A good reminder about what one Londoner meant when asked in the 1980's if he had anything to say to the perpetrators of an IRA bomb (perhaps apocryphal): "Fuck you. We have been bombed by professionals."
posted by dry white toast at 7:02 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I just learned about the Balham station bomb a few days ago: it happened Oct. 14th 1940.
posted by Flashman at 7:12 PM on October 21, 2012

#8 is stunning.

Hugo Jaeger's photos of Nazi-occupied Poland, which I don't think I have even have a coherent reaction to yet.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:17 PM on October 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I feel duty-bound to mention that Hull was blitzed heavily during WW2, but suffered unknown due to a media blackout. So much of the city center was destroyed, and some sites remained unrebuilt into the 1990s. Pictures, though sadly not in color.
posted by Jehan at 7:36 PM on October 21, 2012

Incidentally the 'victory garden' is approximately here to the immediate west of the Albert Memorial. Can't get onto the green with street view; it's to the left of shot slightly.
posted by genghis at 10:10 PM on October 21, 2012

For what it's worth (probably not much), number 14 is not "Outside of London" but a view of central London (you can see St. Paul's) from Hampstead Heath, Parliament Hill to be precise.

I have lived in Hampstead. The post code says London, but it's definitely outside of London. Other than a stray bomb which landed near Jack Straw's Castle, most damage from the war occurred in the Sandy Heath:

"During The War, sand was extracted from Hampstead Heath to fill sand bags and the pits were later filled with rubble from bombed sites in London. Oil from a lorry part killed many of the trees and bren gun carriers killed the last heather plants on Sandy Heath, which are now replaced." (sic)
posted by three blind mice at 1:08 AM on October 22, 2012

Picture 5 is taken at the site of the Balham station disaster, which killed 66 people.

Including Keira Knightley.
posted by Summer at 7:54 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have lived in Hampstead. The post code says London, but it's definitely outside of London.

I was born and grew up there; I and everybody I knew believed we lived in London.

If you mean "outside of London" in some vague existential sense, then you are entitled to your own opinion; the Heath has always seemed wild and un-Londony (and probably more so during the war when there were sheep on it). But Hampstead has been part of London since the second half of the nineteenth century when development fully joined it to the growing metropolis; when the London County Council was created the Borough of Hampstead was included, thus Hampstead fully counted as part of London both practically and administratively at least forty years before the picture was taken, and any picture caption that suggest otherwise is factually incorrect.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:07 AM on October 22, 2012 [1 favorite]