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Transcription

[Page] 109
[continued from page 108]

Oxford St into Trafalgar Square there were signs
of destruction at frequent intervals in fact
there was hardly a street in which some house
had not been destroyed, but the Londoners
were going about their business as if it
was a commonplace occurrence. There
were no gaping crowds, no terror stricken
females – Perhaps it was the absolutely de:
:serted aspect of the ruined houses that
struck me most and yet it was but natural
that they should be so. There was little or
no damage in Trafalgar Square. Earlier on
my driver I had seen daylight coming through
a roofless wing of the British Museum,
and later on I saw a large house quite
near Buckingham Palace with the front
blown off and the backs of the rooms with
the iron fireplaces exposed. Victoria Station
had been hit in the administrative buildings
and traffic was dislocated owing to a great
reduction in the number of platforms, but
everyone carried on without fuss.
As the train passed out of the station
we saw an area extending to, perhaps 2 or 3
acres on which the houses had been razed
in an earlier raid. A gasometer had been

hit and all along the railway for some
distance beyond Victoria there were houses de:
:molished or streets of small dwellings burnt out.
On Tues. [Tuesday] I returned to London to give my lecture,
I lunched with Madeline Balfour at the Café
Royale in Regent St. and after lunch she took
me round some of the streets near Piccadilly
to see the devastation. The block of buildings on
the west of the entrance to Swallow St. where I
think, there had been a hatter's shop, was demolished.
St James's Piccadilly was an empty shell and
the rectory was a ruin. The Centre of Piccadilly
was completely blocked with debris, I suppose
from a bomb, Fortnum & Masons' had been hit
but carried on: Christie's was a shell; the
Orleans Club had disappeared; there was damage
in Jermyn St. and neighbourhood: St James’s St. had
escaped, but St. James's palace had been hit.
We crossed St. James's St. into St. James's Place
and in [gap in text] Sq. beyond was a large mansion
overlooking the Green Park, I think Bridgewater
Ho, [House] which belonged to Lord Ellesmere. It was
entirely burned out and it was strange to stand
looking into its ruin where in happier times there
had been so much splendour & gaiety with
all around as silent as the grave: not a soul
[continued on page 110]

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

Jane F Jamieson