Plaque | Civilian war dead | WW2

Ewer Street bomb shelter

Erection date: 2014

Inscription

Ewer Street Shelter
On 10 September 1940 the Ewer Bomb Shelter was hit during an air raid and 20 lives lost, including two wardens.
2014

We found each of these civilian casualties in the CWGC database and the make up is interesting: two children (aged 12 and 16); 12 women; only 6 men, of which 3 were air raid wardens. Of the 18 adults only 5 were below 50. All but 1 lived in the Union Street flats, which, looking at the buildings in that street, probably don't exist any more.

Site: Ewer Street burial ground (2 memorials)

SE1, Ewer Street

Current maps show Ewer Street shaped like a T on its side - very unusual. An 1862 map shows an L-shaped Ewer Street (without the northern branch), immediately to the north of the railway, whereas currently the east-west section is to the south of the line. All a good indication of the disruption brought by the railway.

A 1746 map shows the L-shaped "Euers Street" with a "Qu M" in the L's corner, and a "Burying Gr" adjacent, to the west.

The railway line must have used the land occupied by the east-west section of Ewer Street and by the buildings, and burial ground, on its southern side. And a replacement means of travelling east-west was provided by creating a new Ewer Street alongside the line, on the south.

We are pleased to have found the Quaker Meeting House on a map. Presumably the Baptist Church occupied the same site, possibly the same building, and we are disappointed not to have found a picture of it.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Ewer Street bomb shelter

Subjects commemorated i

The Blitz

During WW2 Britain came under heavy bombing from Germany for 8 months, 1940-1...

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World War 2

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Civilian deaths in London caused by enemy action

This page brings together all the memorials that we have for civilians killed...

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Joan Rosemary Lillian Bentley

From CWGC: Civilian of 1365 {sic} Union Street flats. Daughter of Lilian {sic...

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Rosina Sarah Cooper

Rosina Sarah Cooper was born on 4 March 1906, a daughter of William Henry Coo...

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Show all 23

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Ewer Street bomb shelter

Also at this site i

Ewer Street burial ground

Ewer Street burial ground

Ewer Street Burial Ground {On the small information board:} Site of Ewer Str...

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St Olave's Grammar School

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PP - 3D - Funnell

PP - 3D - Funnell

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The plaque would be more accurate were it placed at number 38 which was the house destroyed by the bomb. In 1950 numbers 35-38 were later...

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