Event    From 3/3/1943  To 3/3/1943

Bethnal Green WW2 disaster

Categories: Tragedy

The worst civilian disaster of WW2. 173 men, women and children lost their lives as they went down into Bethnal Green underground air raid shelter in response to a siren. They died not from a bomb but from the crush as someone slipped and people behind continued pushing in. The Book of Remembrance has the list of names. Our picture source, the excellent Ian Visits, has a full report of the incident and the ensuing enquiry.

We'd always assumed that anyone who was passing could use a tube station as a shelter and perhaps that was true but also, it seems, individuals had passes. We saw one at the Dignity Funeral Museum in Rosebery Avenue. It reads: "London Civil Defence Region, Borough of Tottenham. Admit person named below for shelter at Turnpike Lane Station". This one was for a 12-year old girl and lasted just one month, in 1941.

2019: The Mirror has an interesting interview with a doctor who worked at the hospital where the the victims were taken,and some photos from the time.

2023: Spitalfields Life have the moving testimony of a survivor, Alf Morris, 13 at the time. His aunt and cousin, Lillian and Vera Trotter, did not survive.

2023: The 1975 TV film 'It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow', is a fictionalised account of the lives of a family who sheltered in the tunnels of Bethnal Green station. The station had been built but trains were not yet using it so the train tunnels were available for people to use. It seems that the place became a mini-village with a café and a theatre (at New Year at least) and with visits to above ground and other tunnel shelters.

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:
Bethnal Green WW2 disaster

Commemorated ati

Bethnal Green WW2 disaster - monument

We have transcribed all the names and the main plaque. Scattered across the t...

Read More

Bethnal Green WW2 disaster - plaque

Site of the worst civilian disaster of the second world war. In memory of 173...

Read More

Other Subjects

Edmund Hoar

Edmund Hoar

Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
George Rolph Smith

George Rolph Smith

Construction worker killed in the fatal accident at Crystal Palace.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
Sherifat Mayaleke

Sherifat Mayaleke

Killed in the Moorgate tube disaster.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
George Edgar Oliver Wenborn, Edward Medal

George Edgar Oliver Wenborn, Edward Medal

Employed at the Silvertown Brunner Mond works and killed in the 1917 Silvertown explosion. Imperial War Museum page.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
David Redfearn

David Redfearn

Killed in the Moorgate tube disaster.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial