The Bethnal Green disaster
March 3rd 1943
March 3rd 1943
On March 3rd 1943, after British media reported a heavy RAF raid on Berlin two nights earlier, the air raid Civil Defense siren sounded at 8:17 pm. A heavy but orderly flow of people proceeded down the blacked-out staircase from the street. It was reported that a mother and child fell, three steps up from the base and pulled a man on top of them. Before they could get up others fell around them, tangled in an immovable mass which grew, as they struggled, to nearly 300 people. Some managed to get free but 173, most of them women and children, were crushed and asphyxiated. Some 60 others were taken to hospital. News of the disaster was withheld for 36 hours and reporting of what had happened was censored, giving rise to allegations of a cover-up. At the end of the war, the Minister of Home Security, Herbert Morrison quoted from a secret report to the effect that there had been a panic, caused by the discharge of anti-aircraft rockets. But other authorities who looked into what had happened disagreed; the Shoreditch Coroner, Mr W R H Heddy said that there was "nothing to suggest any stampede or panic or anything of the kind"; Mr Justice Singleton, summarising his decision in Baker v Bethnal Green Corporation, an action for damages by a bereaved widow "there was nothing in the way of rushing or surging" on the staircase; the Master of the Rolls, Lord Greene, reviewing the lower court's judgement said "it was perfectly well known .. that there had been no panic". Lord Greene also rebuked the Ministry for getting the case to be held in secret.
The Baker lawsuit was followed by other claims, resulting in a total payout of nearly £60,000, the last of which was made in the early 1950s. The secret official report, by a Metropolitan magistrate, Laurence Rivers Dunne, acknowledged that 2 years earlier in 1941, Bethnal Green Council had warned London Civil Defence that the staircase needed a crush barrier to slow down the crowds and that the entrance should be altered to make it safer, but was told that would be a waste of money.
It was not until 50 years after the disaster that a discreet commemorative plaque was erected at the site.
The crush at Bethnal Green is thought to have been the largest single loss of civilian life in the UK in World War II and the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network.
The "Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust" was established in 2007 to create a memorial to those who died in the disaster. A teak memorial staircase with 173 angled conicals which will allow sunlight to shine down representing each of the victims is currently being built at station. It is designed by local architect Harry Paticas with initial help from Jens Borstlemann. For more information on the trust or to make a donation to help with its completion please click here.
The Baker lawsuit was followed by other claims, resulting in a total payout of nearly £60,000, the last of which was made in the early 1950s. The secret official report, by a Metropolitan magistrate, Laurence Rivers Dunne, acknowledged that 2 years earlier in 1941, Bethnal Green Council had warned London Civil Defence that the staircase needed a crush barrier to slow down the crowds and that the entrance should be altered to make it safer, but was told that would be a waste of money.
It was not until 50 years after the disaster that a discreet commemorative plaque was erected at the site.
The crush at Bethnal Green is thought to have been the largest single loss of civilian life in the UK in World War II and the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network.
The "Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust" was established in 2007 to create a memorial to those who died in the disaster. A teak memorial staircase with 173 angled conicals which will allow sunlight to shine down representing each of the victims is currently being built at station. It is designed by local architect Harry Paticas with initial help from Jens Borstlemann. For more information on the trust or to make a donation to help with its completion please click here.
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