The Hidden History of Our Streets

Added 7 May 2020

The Loxley Road bomb

LCC Bomb Damage map, online at Layers of London.

(Keep clicking on the maps - there are 3 views.)

Ordnance Survey, late 1940s

Second World War - Bombs

A bomb that fell on houses at the Wandsworth Common -end of Loxley Rd caused serious damage to no's 6-10. According to the BombSight website (no longer online), seventy-one high-explosive bombs were dropped on the Wandsworth Common area during the Blitz (September 1940 to May 1941).

[NB See also Alan Littlechild's map of bombs falling on the parish of St Mary Magdalene, acquired from his daughter Barbara in September 2024 - thanks, Barbara!]

Is it my imagination or can you see a difference in the colour of the bricks in No.8's bay window, evidence of the rebuilding? It seems likely that superficial damage also occurred to many houses nearby. Which front doors are now missing their characteristic stained glass roundels, blown ut by the blast? Does anybody have any more information?

Keep clicking on the maps below to view a series of detailed close-ups, ending in a composite photograph taken by RAF reconnaissance planes, probably in 1945 or 1946.

Even more extensive damage occurred to houses at the Magdalen end of Tilehurst Road, and the corner of Lyford and Herondale (nos 58-64). These were caused by V-1 flying bombs ("Doodlebugs"). Houses here were rebuilt in a slightly different style from those that preceded them. One of these replacement houses has recently been demolished and a new and larger one built.




(Keep clicking on the maps - there are 4 views.)

From The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps, 1939-1945



(Click on image to enlarge)

The larger circles show where V-1 flying bombs ("Doodlebugs") fell (from June 1944). Four such circles are shown on or near the north of the common, and two on the south.



V-1 flying bomb - the slow-moving "Doodlebug"

(Click on image to enlarge)

Smaller (and less numerous) circles represent the much more destructive V-2 rockets (from September 1944).



V-2 rocket

(Click on image to enlarge)

A V-2 rocket fell on the SE corner of Wandsworth Prison, and Heathfield Road, causing complete destruction of every building within a 100-metre radius. I played on this "bomb-dump" as a boy, and moved into one of the "Heathfield Court" flats that replaced the nineteenth-century houses that once stood there.



<< Index: The Hidden History of Our Streets


Please contact me, Philip Boys / 14 Loxley Road, if you have any comments, queries or information to add. And if you want any more of this kind of thing...