Plaque

(lost) First Zeppelin bomb of WW1 - incorrect

First Zeppelin bomb of WW1
First Zeppelin bomb of WW1 - incorrect
Inscription

First bomb of World War One to fall from a Zeppelin on London dropped in the garden of The Nevill Arms public house, 30 May 1915.
London Borough of Hackney

This plaque was, according to the Council, a mistake and was removed by Hackney.

Site: First Zeppelin bomb of WW1 (1 memorial)

N16, Osterley Road, Osterley Arms

Londonist posted about a nearby house, 16 Alkham Road, with a plaque claiming a similar title: the first London house hit in an air raid. We initially thought this Osterley Road plaque disproved that claim but the first Zeppelin raid on London was definitely on 31 May so this plaque has the date wrong and the Alkham Road house wins this undesirable accolade.

Credit to Ross Corben who first told us about this plaque and then to our friend at the Soho Society, Roger Shlomo Harris, who went along with his camera. And also to Simon Dowse who told us, October 2015, that the plaque has gone missing. And then to Alan Patient who forwarded this link which explains that this Osterley Road plaque was indeed a mistake - the bomb fell here on the 31st (not the 30th) and, crucially, after the Alkham Road bomb.

Hackney are probably rather embarrassed by this plaque. We certainly are now heartily sick of it and glad to know that it will not return!

Sorry, one more thing: Hackney have a photo of PC Edmund Forbes posing with this bomb, with "169 lbs" written on it. 

2022: This story will not go away. A TV programme about Hackney interviewed the historian Ian Castle who described the bombing of the Nevill Arms as the first air raid, on the night of 31 May.  Actually he said that the LZ38 airship dropped 3 incendiary bomb on nos 31 (the pub), 47 and 27 Nevill Road. Only that at number 27 actually exploded and caused a fire. The one at the pub landed on an outbuilding causing a hole in the roof. Castle did not mention Alkham Road (probably because the subject of the piece was Nevill Road, not the area more generally). What’s interesting here is that, even if Nevill Road was attacked before Alkham Road, the pub cannot have been the first hit, since the building is in the middle of the run of 3 bombs, which is, north to south: 47, 31, 27.

Also, on that Hackney page Castle refers to bombs landing on a number of other roads that night including Alkham Road. So our understanding now is that the plaque on the pub was 'wrong' because it gave the wrong date. Also Alkham Road is the most northerly of the bomb sites mentioned for that night so that presumably was first, even if only by a matter of minutes.

Credit for this entry to: Ross Corben, Roger Shlomo Harris, Simon Dowse, Alan Patient

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
First Zeppelin bomb of WW1 - incorrect

Subjects commemorated i

First Zeppelin bomb of WW1

The Picture source has a good description of this event.  More at IanVisits a...

Read More

Zeppelin airships

Invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1900. London was first targeted w...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
First Zeppelin bomb of WW1 - incorrect

Created by i

Hackney Council

Hackney Council was created in 1965 from the 3 Metropolitan Borough Councils ...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Christopher Whall

Christopher Whall

W6, Ravenscourt Road, 19

Christopher Whitworth Whall, 1849 - 1924, stained glass artist, lived here. Greater London Council

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Avondale Park

Avondale Park

W11, Walmer Road, The Lodge, Miss Delaney's Nursery School

From RBKC: "Avondale Park, at the top of Pottery Lane, was created in 1892 when the area that had been a huge fetid pool known as "the oc...

6 subjects commemorated
Manor House Station

Manor House Station

N4, Green Lanes

The station is on the Piccadilly line. We usually aim to show photographs of the exteriors of London underground stations, because of the...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Gladys Mills

Gladys Mills

IG10, Barncroft Close, 43

Gladys Mills, 1918 - 1978, pianist lived here. Loughton Town Council 2008

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
King of Corsica

King of Corsica

W1, Wardour Street, St Anne's Soho

The weather-worn stone above this plaque is, we guess, the original gravestone. Perhaps someone with legal training could explain the me...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator