Event    From 14/10/1940  To 14/10/1940

Balham Station bombing

Categories: Tragedy

During WW2 Balham, at a depth of 30 feet, was one of many deep tube stations designated for use as a civilian air raid shelter. It sheltered hundreds of people each night.

At about 8pm on 14 October 1940, a 1,400kg semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above the northern end of the platform tunnels, creating a large crater into which a bus then crashed. The northbound platform tunnel partially collapsed and was filled with sand, rubble and water from the fractured water mains and sewers above, which also flowed through the cross-passages into the southbound platform tunnel.

The torrent burst onto the platforms. and people were swept away. 600 people were rescued but more than 60 civilians and London Transport staff were killed.

World War II Today has more details and photographs. The incident features in Ian McEwan's novel 'Atonement'. This and the subsequent film both use an incorrect date.

London News Online has another, colour, photo of this scene, from a different angle.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Balham Station bombing

Commemorated ati

Balham Station bombing - 1

In memory of the 64 people killed at this station by a wartime bomb 14th Octo...

Read More

Balham Station bombing - 2

{Beneath the London Transport logo:} In remembrance of the civilians and Lond...

Read More

Balham Station bombing - 3

In remembrance of the civilians and London Transport staff who were killed at...

Read More

Other Subjects

Christopher Hugh Forsythe

Christopher Hugh Forsythe

United Kingdom citizen who died in the terrorist attacks in America on 11 September 2001. Christopher Hugh Forsythe was born on 19 October 1956 in Lambeth, the son of Hugh Forsythe and Catherine F...

Person, Tragedy, USA

1 memorial
John Christopher Moran

John Christopher Moran

United Kingdom citizen who died in the terrorist attacks in America on 11 September 2001. Christopher John Moran was born on 25 May 1963 in Maidstone, Kent. He was the son of Michael J. Moran and ...

Person, Tragedy, USA

1 memorial
Peter Patrick James Kavanagh

Peter Patrick James Kavanagh

Lawyer. Killed in the Southall rail crash, aged 29. Peter Patrick James Kavanagh was born on 6 December 1967, the only child of Peter T. Kavanagh and Maureen Kavanagh née Jordan. According to Anne...

Person, Law, Tragedy

1 memorial
Thomas Henry Thrower

Thomas Henry Thrower

Thomas Henry Thrower was born on 30 December 1915 at 35 Eagle Wharf Road, Hoxton, London, the sixth of the eight children of Frederick Thrower (1882-1963) and Alice Maud Thrower née Stubbings (1884...

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
Deep Lee

Deep Lee

Cyclist. 24-year-old fashion student going to college on the first day of her final year of a design degree course at Central St Martin's at its new King's Cross campus. At about noon on Monday she...

Person, Cyclist, Tragedy, Korea

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Dr. Margery Blackie

Dr. Margery Blackie

Homeopathic physician. Born Hertfordshire, daughter and niece of homeopaths. In 1969 appointed physician to the Queen. Dr Blackie seems to bear a great deal of responsibility for the wider accep...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial
Queen Victoria's Kensington subjects

Queen Victoria's Kensington subjects

"... her loyal Kensington subjects" which probably means some of the wealthy people who lived in Kensington.

Group, Benefactor

1 memorial