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

Cecil Sewell VC

Cecil Sewell VC

SE10, Crooms Hill

The plaque is on the pavement immediately below the 'Gloucester Circus' sign. In our photo the middle bollard is crossing it.

War dead | WW1
2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Piotr Ouspensky

Piotr Ouspensky

W14, Talgarth Road, 151, Colet House

The building is home to the Study Society. Founded in 1951 by Dr. F. C. Roles and his friends who had been associates of Ouspensky, the ...

1 subject commemorated
Girdlers' Hall

Girdlers' Hall

EC2, Basinghall Avenue

The current building, 1961, was designed by C Ripley.

3 subjects commemorated, 7 creators
James Parkinson

James Parkinson

N1, Hoxton Square, 1

James Parkinson, 1755 - 1824, physician and geologist, lived here.

1 subject commemorated
Shepherd's Bush Library - plaque

Shepherd's Bush Library - plaque

W12, Uxbridge Road, 7

Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group tell us that the discrepancy between the date on the plaque and the date of erection is e...

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

Camp Griffiss, Block B, NW corner

Camp Griffiss, Block B, NW corner

TW11, Bushy Park

There were 16 of these open-book style ground plaques, marking the corners of blocks A - D, the 4 main large blocks of buildings in WW2 C...

3 subjects commemorated
Tower of London execution site - 1972

Tower of London execution site - 1972

EC3, Tower Green, Tower of London

In the first 2 minutes of the 1972 CCF film "The Boy Who Turned Yellow" some boys are taken on a school trip to the Tower of London and w...

John Wright

John Wright

N1, Dagmar Passage, 14, Little Angel Theatre

Plaque unveiled by his widow Lydia.

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Gloucester Gate Bridge (SE)

Gloucester Gate Bridge (SE)

NW1, Parkway

This stone records the opening of the bridge to the public.  Another similar stone at the north-west corner of the bridge records the gif...

7 subjects commemorated, 1 creator