Sleeping in the Underground
Keeping calm and carrying on below the streets of London
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1940-1941
From September 1940 to May 1941, the German Luftwaffe bombed London and other British cities almost every night in a sustained attack called the Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.”The Blitz was meant to cripple Britain’s war production and demoralize the population into surrender.Londoners sought protection in their homes, in their yards, and even in the stations and tunnels of the London Underground.The government was initially wary of using the stations as shelters, concerned that the thousands congregating underground below the ferocious bombing would refuse to return to the surface and take up the work necessary to keep the country running. As more and more people lost their homes, the government relented and allowed people to shelter in the stations, even outfitting some with bunk beds. Sleeping on platforms and in trains and service tunnels with hundreds of others was far from a spirited slumber party. Sanitation and latrines were inadequate for such large numbers of people.Even the stations were not completely safe. On Oct. 14, 1940, a 3,000-pound bomb struck Balham Station, rupturing gas and water lines and killing 66 people inside.In the eight months of the Blitz, more than 43,000 civilians were killed, 140,000 wounded, and a million homes destroyed or damaged.
It was cold and there was always the fear that if they burst a water main we might get flooded. - Len Phillips
There must have been at least 1,000 people there, all crammed in, and inside it was horrible. It was cold, damp and smelly, and it had really uncomfortable metal beds with no bedding. - Ron Leagas
I asked my parents if we could sleep on the platforms too, because to me — as a child — it looked like fun. But they always said no. I think they felt that if they were going to die, they would rather do it in their own home. - Pat Clarke
Everyone, really, was very cheerful and bright. You never heard people complain about anything. - June Wilson
In London, people were always fearful. When the Blitz ended, we said we could finally breathe. - Julia Draper
