How did London rebuild after the Blitz?

It is estimated that more than 12,000 metric tons of bombs were dropped on London and nearly 30,000 civilians were killed by enemy action. In the post-war era, the city had a mammoth task ahead of it. In this video we explore how London re-emerged from being almost completely destroyed during the Blitz - and how the city wears these scars of the Blitz that you can see in plain sight.

This video has been several months in the making and I've enjoyed every second of putting it together. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I'd like to thank Lima Charlie for letting me use his camera, mic, and flat!

00:00 - Intro
01:04 - Gap sites (Notting Hill)
02:25 - The Barbican Estate
03:57 - Burgess Park
04:54 - St Mary's Newington, Kennington
05:23 - Christ Church, Lambeth North
06:05 - Ladbroke Gardens
06:36 - Walcott Square, Kennington
07:13 - St Thomas' Hospital

Music attribution - Soundstripe:
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[davidbosher]

As a Londoner born and bred, after the war in 1951, I remember the Barbican area when it was a bomb site, my cousin and I used to ride our bikes there. Thanks for a very interesting and informative video. Regards, David.

[Marcos-Silva]

This is probably my favourite urbanism channel on YouTube, keep it up mate!

[scopex]

My old nan lived in a street where one of the first V1's fell! It exploded and killed my future mums best friend from school. She was only 8 mum used to tell me how she ran up the road where they had been playing and all she saw was a wall blown out of the house and her 2 little feet sticking out under it she never forgot that. Her name was Elsie.

[TheHoveHeretic]

A thoughtful piece. Glad you contrasted London's story with others bombed to smithereens. The very different approaches to reconstruction in, say, London, Coventry, Rotterdam, Berlin, Warsaw and Munich would make for an interesting subject. We're fortunate York, Amsterdam and Paris aren't on that list.

[rubbersoul]

American watching from the State of Rhode Island in the U.S.-Wow-nice job bro! Never been to London-or anywhere outside the States-but can appreciate history-& the WWII era-fun/interesting post-never seen a video like it. Peace!

[StoneworkStories]

So well made, I love to see your progress as a storyteller and editor! Letting people look at the city with a new eye is the coolest cause

[Geckokidthepaladin]

the quality of your videos are getting better and better! and the audio sounds great :D my first job was next to the Barbican and i was immediately in love with that estate!

[laslo]

I studied abroad in the U.K. and one thing that really struck me was how the legacy of both world wars permeates the culture. People are 100 percent correct to observe that we in the U.S. wouldn’t be so blasé about flirting with dictators and fomenting war if we had to deal with this level of concrete damage.

I’m very sorry that we have let you and the rest of Europe down this time.

[KevinHiggins-ph]

I'm Welsh but my great grandfather was born and bred in Lambeth, very interesting video .

[ralph]

As a former New Yorker I also learned the FDR freeway was built from the wreckage from the Blitz. How this happened the liberty ships were off loaded with supplies for the war effort. They were empty and needed ballist sailing back from the UK. The ships were loaded with wreckage from the bombings and sailed to New York. The wreckage was dumped and crushed. It was later used as the foundation for the freeway.

[lasalleman]

Beautiful city. Wonderful visual journey. Learned things I didn't know about London, the Blitz and the postwar period, as well as the architecture. Great video.

[martcactus]

Born in the early 70s, I grew up in the UK near London and my parents and grandparents (who were all Londoners and lived through the war) talked about it a lot, and would point out bomb sites and the way they'd been filled in. This is a common feature of many UK cities - I studied in Swansea for several years and as a port and hub of coal and steel production it was heavily bombed and large areas completely destroyed and rebuilt similarly to London with "modern" buildings. I live in the US now and I don't think people have the same understanding of what its like to live through a war and be bombed as the wars are all fought a long way from home.

[matt]

Great video extremely well researched and written

[markschofield]

Really informative. Whenever I visit London my eyes are always drawn to those out of character gaps in architecture. I guess they are the scars of the city it wears with pride ❤

[Nostalga]

Normally the best rebuilds are the ones that are seamless, keeping harmony and a sense of place (the Barbican is cool inside, but walking around it feels alienating) like what John Simpson did at Old Church Street. But London has had various phases, many plots were left vacant until the late 90s and has had cases of big post war buildings like Gateway House (1955-99) close to St Pauls being demolished in the past 25 years to make room for uglier, but bigger buildings.

[brianwooton]

Excellent. We just spent a month in London and we were hungry for this kind of content.

[keith]

Thank you for this great informative video and all your hard work going into making it, quite an eye opener for what is around us and when out and about on our travels we shall see things in a different light, but not just in London as when you think of it all towns and city's suffered from enemy action and today we live amongst the legacy of all this.

[GeekyMedia]

Great video! I love how they used the Barbican in Star Wars: Andor.

[paulseoighemcgee]

Excellent docu , mate, excellent - loved it !

[DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

London's population did not return to prewar numbers until 2006.