We'll fight them on the beaches
... and on the London Underground
When London was being heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe in the Second World War it soon became apparent that the kitchen table provided very little protection against the aerial might of the Third Reich. The obvious choice for guaranteed protection was the deep-level stations of the London underground. The only problem was that the government, safe in their Whitehall bomb-proof shelters, had a different view in that the ‘tube’ was for travelling and not for protection. An uneasy stand-off ensued.
Things came to a head on an evening in 1940 when a large, terrified crowd gathered outside Liverpool Street Station and demanded sanctuary. Only the aging bayonets of the Home Guard and a few tickets collectors kept the frightened mob at bay and only for a short while. After that and despite what whatever Churchill said the famed subterranean exodus of Londoners gathered momentum. By the middle of September an estimated 150,000 Londoners were sleeping well beneath the streets. The tube quickly became a sanctuary that was adapted to hold beds, medical and sanitation facilities that made life a little more bearable.
However in the absence of any entertainment boredom became a factor and the Tube evolved into an impromptu entertainment hub as Londoners descended to avoid the conflagration above-ground. Over 50 stations acquired libraries and concert parties, dances and sing songs broke out all over the network while up above havoc reigned (rained). There was even a group of amateurs players that put on a production of Chekov’s The Bear, an inter-shelter darts league and pop up bars to take the mind off the horrors above.
Come 1941 - the Blitz was over and Londoners emerged blinking into an unrecognisable and devastated London to continue their war efforts on the surface. Such was the never-say-die attitude of the city’s inhabitants during this most trying of times that it came to embody the national feeling of defiance and was always referred to fondly as the ‘Blitz Spirit’.
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