WW2 Blitz Walking Tour in London:
Given that my grandparents lived through the Second World War in Blitz-era London, I’ve always been fascinated by that period - particularly what it must have felt like to live in the city itself.
On the same trip in 2017, I arranged to meet Neil Bright, an expert on the London Blitz, for a walking tour. For two and a half hours, Neil guided us through a freezing April day, showing us London’s old wounds — the scars its buildings still carry from a war that shattered so many lives.
It’s just as well I took notes, because silverfish seem to have nibbled through my memory, leaving only fragments behind. I remember how quietly informative Neil was; at times, it felt like walking through 1940 itself. I remember the bitter, bitter cold of the day. And I remember Neil telling me about the old London red bricks — how the rubble from bomb-damaged buildings was loaded onto lorries and carted out of the city, intended to be reused after the war for rebuilding. He pointed out the upper corners of certain buildings where the bricks no longer matched. Apparently, they eventually ran out of those beautiful red bricks and had to make do with whatever they could find.
I also remember one particular place: the shell of a bombed church ruin, now transformed into a small park in the middle of London, its remaining stone walls reaching upward like skeletal arms.
But mostly, if I’m being completely honest, I remember what I ate after we said goodbye to Neil.
The best beef pie and vegetables I’ve ever had, tucked inside the warm safety of Joe’s Kitchen on Ludgate Hill. I remember huddling inside that cosy little restaurant while the feeling slowly returned to my frozen limbs in violent pins and needles. I remember the warmth of the food sliding down my throat and the almost spiritual experience of thawing back into a functioning human being.
Despite of the cold, I know Neil’s walk and his expertise on all things regarding the London Blitz certainly made my writing of wartime London far more vivid.
