Great Peter Street SW1

11 November 1940

By Mark Gaughran

On 11 November 1940, at around 4.15pm, a high explosive bomb dropped by a single German aircraft fell on Great Peter Street SW1. This Westminster arterial route had been struck two weeks earlier when a high explosive bomb and incendiaries, including an oil incendiary bomb, were dropped close to nearby Peabody Building flats.  

The Abbey Printing Works on St Ann's Lane and parts of Trevelyan Hall - both adajacent to St Matthew's Church on Great Peter Street - were pulverised. Fire broke out in neighbouring premises. 60 people - including around 30 girls - were initially feared trapped in the debris. Rescue teams arrived in drizzling rain to find a scene of complete chaos. Residents from one wing of the nearby Peabody Estate, bordering Abbey Orchard and Old Pye Streets, were quickly evacuated.

As darkness fell and steadier rain began, rescue teams extracted seven badly injured print workers from the heavy debris along with ten others who were shocked but uninjured. Ambulances drove these survivors to local hospitals.

Rescue efforts continued throughout the night as a new air raid commenced over Westminster and high explosive bombs began to fall in the locality again. Sifting through the rubble, civil defence workers discovered a buried car and found a set of top secret tank blueprints which were being published when the bomb fell.

When dawn broke on 12 November, 25 bodies had been collected from the print works by mortuary vans. Of these, twelve had been killed in the basement with the remaining fatalities from the first floor of the building.