14th October 1940 saw one of the greatest losses of life in the history of the Underground. A look at what happened that night. ko-fi.com/jagohazzard / jagohazzard
My aunt lived in Streatham & Balham was the nearest Tube station. Although it wasn't close, the walk always reminded me of Reggie Perrin's walk to the station every morning. ("Sorry I'm late CJ, wildebeest on the line at London Bridge.") Balham Tube station has always been my mid seventies gateway to the metropolis! I didn't know about the bombing! That image of the slurry set hard blocking those steps down into the station really brought home just how awful this tragedy was. Those poor people. The dead and the men that had to dig them out. That job must've haunted them all their lives.
@@allenwilliams1306 That was always Basingstoke for me. As a small kid in St. Albans my Nan lived in Torbay. So during the interminable 12 hour drive (pre M5) I when I heard the magical name "Basingstoke" it meant the worst of the drive was over & it was A303, Stonehenge, more wonderful, pre dualled, pre bypasses A303 & then the beach!!So yeah, Basingstoke - Gateway to the Sun! 😎
Likewise, my Aunt lived in Du Cane Court, the attractive art deco block of flats 150 metres away. I never knew this terrible disaster had happened here some 22 years earlier
Excellent video - I lived in Balham for many years and thought I knew pretty much everything about that awful tragedy, but thank you for proving me wrong, adding the missing details and telling the story in your unique and engaging fashion.
I lived in Balham and remember the plaque there. Balham was a target as the German Luftwaffe could use Du Cane court as a reference. There was also a top secret communications center in a building off nightingale square.
I doubt that was a factor. The vast majority of bombs dropped on London were at random. In fact Wimbledon Common seems to have been more heavily bombed than Balham ( bombsight.org ). If they were targeting something as small as a single building it would have been in a daylight raid.
Some interesting stuff - I notice you filmed very recently. I am the Station Manager responsible for Balham and was instrumental in having the plaque replaced in 2016 - something that led to similar plaques being placed at Bank, Sloane Square, etc. I hope you found the visit to the station helpful. There were a number of points missed - it's a shame you didn't contact us, as I could have given you a proper tour and shown you the impact point and other noticable things. Also further damage did occur when a V1 struck the Southern Staion, assisting to create , what is now, Sainsbury's car park.
Alas, I was filming piecemeal whenever my Real World job brought me through the area/when I had time to walk to Balham, so there really wasn’t a lot of planning in the shots I could get. But very well done on the plaque, it’s a very tasteful piece.
My mother lived there, she told me that for weeks afterwards she would stand at the bus stop on the way to work in Victoria, and there would be a policeman who would ask where everyone was going and stop the cars and just put the people in the cars to be taken nearer the city/ west end. No one had any say in it and you couldnt refuse. Thanks for the video.
Yes, thinking I’m closing in on 40 and this was. Less than 40yrs before I was born. Not a very long time ago considering the level of damage that site dealt with, as well as many more across central London.
I grew up in eastern Essex and only rarely went to London when I was a kid in the 60s, but I remember there were still several bomb sites around the west end, fenced off with corrugated iron - and no doubt there were plenty of others in other parts of London
@@WillKemp I remember in the Mile End Road in the 1980s, there were still several buildings with bomb damage to the top floors, while the ground floors were still in use as shops etc.
I went to school about 100 metres from where this happened. The disaster was a big part of my primary school lessons on WW2 and the Blitz. I seem to remember that we were split up into groups and told to act out the bus crash, and that eight-year old me decided to play the driver with a very bad cockney accent.
@@bigblue6917 He did have a voice coach to help him with the part, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that that voice coach was Irish! Millions of Londoners who probably would have been only too happy to help him out, but they decide to pick an Irish person instead. 🤷♂️
@@bigblue6917 I watched RU-vid video recently where it was claimed that Mr VD said he was coached by one of the make-up girls. Unfortunately, said make up girl was Irish, had never set foot in London, and had no idea how to do the accent. As a result she just winged it. Nobody on the set thought to tell Dicky-boy just how bad it was either, and the rest is history!
Brilliant video as ever, thanks Jago. I had a tragedy in Balham once involving the Tesco there and their toilets which were out of use. Fair to say It really hit the fan that day!!
It is amazing what can be achieved in desperate times. On the “other side” vast swathes of track and marshalling yards in the Ruhr were blown to smithereens by allied bombers, yet intelligence photos would show trains running just a few days later.
Thank you for the education, Mr. Hazzard. What a sad, terrible tragedy. You're doing yeoman's work in bringing these moments of history forward to new generations.
The main flood doors are for the thames mainly, indeed that was a fear in WW2 that a bomb in the thames would knock out the bakerloo or northern thames tunnels
I knew about the flood, and first saw the upended bus photos in The World At War, made in 1972, but didn't realise the two were connected. There's something to learn in every video on this channel! The flood was used in the 2007 fantasy film Atonement.
A heartrending story, well told. As an aside I'm really impressed that the station and line reopened only 3 months later, considering the massive damage
Yet another interesting video and respectfully done on such an awful tragedy. We should never forget those that died and the awful circumstances in which they did. Thank you Jago, and well done.
Thanks for this video Jago. I never knew about the Balham disaster I only knew of the Bethnal Green Bomb so it was extremely informative. A very sobering and thoughtful video. My mother was injured in a V2 explosion at Belvedere so I have an understanding of the lasting memories these events cause.
Thank you for making this. Presented very appropriately. As you said, we're all familiar with the image of the bus in the crater. We can only imagine the terror those poor people on the platforms felt. Just one of the many horrors of war where ordinary people on all sides suffered.
Thanks for revealing what was behind the quite iconic pictures of the bus that had fallen into the crater, I for one didn’t know that. I can’t imagine what it was like to live in those times. This was indeed tragic and you’ve treated it with great respect.
I was born in Balham, and though this happened before my birth, my elder brother took a photo of the bus-in-the-hole. Still got it somewhere... We lived in Upper Tooting and that whole area was on the bombing run for Clapham Junction where my dad worked, which was a huge target. My friends and I spent much of our childhoods playing on the many bombsites, which weren't fully cleared up till the 1960s. My brother used to tell me stories of the raids. There was an AA gun on a railway wagon, with a few wagons of ballast coupled to it, parked in a siding at Wandsworth Common. They'd listen to it going off at night: "Bang clang, clang, clang, clang..."
I worked at one time in neighbouring Tooting at one point and I never knew about this dispite having passed through Balham on a Monday to Friday basis. Thank you for this as I have learnt something today.
Thank you for a very interesting account. It strikes me how the wars have created bits of Tube and railroad history of a sort that we, fortunately, have never had on our transit and transport systems here in the States. We've had tragic incidents and disasters...but nothing like 1,000 kg bombs!
My grandmother would have been there in the shelter and reckoned that she would have been one of the ones killed as she normally slept in the worst affected area. Thankfully she was on duty that night with the ARP as she worked for the Home Office as a typist and they were encouraged to volunteer. Probably one of the few times when being on top of a building was safer than being under ground.
Every picture tells a story, but sometimes the picture becomes iconic and sheds it’s story on the way. Thank you Jago for bringing back the story and being prepared to tell the harrowing facts.
Thank you for an informative film about an incredibly sad event. I've seen the iconic bus photograph many times and thought how frightening it must have been for those onboard, but I had no idea that such a tragedy had occurred below ground.
Great information here that I never knew. Tragic story and unbelievable level of damage. Someone got curious and was responsible for the death of themselves and many others. Very sad!
Nicely explained as ever. This was my local station from 1985-86. There are some dark spots and presences in London and on the Underground but I never felt anything untoward at Balham.
I worked in the lift pool of the PSA (public service agency) in the late 80s early 90s working on the lifts which went down into the deep shelters @ Clapham South/Clapham North. Fascinating bit of engineering as they were below the northern line with at the time blocked of access to to tube platforms above.
I thought the image of the bus on 07/07/05 was bad. I’ve never seen these images till now. Almost impossible to imagine a day in London at the height of the war. Shocking stuff!
there are more of trams that got hit, if you dont know about bethnal green as an incident that was worse, but star lane (?) school i think was the biggest london single place loss of life.
@@phobsdsr4326 No, we have not. But in 3 years, when the oncoming, bottomless depression really start to hurt most people, when TFL & NHS are making redundancies, and even civil servants being let go. Then we'll see what the human race is all about. It won't be pretty at all. And this will be the direct consequence of a few privileged leaders and their hunger for wealth and power. We had until now forgotten we are ruled by an oligarchy. Mr Hancock is a millionaire, so is Mr Johnson. And the Chancellor is on his own worth ten times as much. They are among the very few making millions on this scam they are running together.
Shane Warne 💯 And they are a cog in a big global wheel. However, after much suffering, the wheel will fall off and much injustice will be corrected, I just hope I survive the tsunami to see it happen. Stay wise, alert and be ready for anything. Never be deceived by the lunatics and be on the right side of history. That’s my aim and hope anyway.
Truly horrendous. It must have given other people elsewhere in London at the time, great concern as to whether their tube station could realise a similar tragedy.
@@eattherich9215 It looks like the doors would have held, the idea was less to shelter from a direct hit, but more from flying debris and bigger stuff nearby. The risk was seen as better than being at home - though most folk were encouraged to have shelters in their gardens I suppose the likes of Du Cane Court would have found that difficult.
My Grandfather was the driver of the tram in front of the bus in the crater, her was at the top of the hill when his clippie told him what had happened behind them, as the feed was from Clapham South he was able to get to the inspector there and report what had happened. Very lucky that was twice the Germans had failed to kill him, in ww1 he was driving a empty ammunition wagon with 4 horses when a dud shell hit the wagon.
I lived in Trinity Crescent in the early 90s, which is further up the road towards Tooting. Although Tooting Bec was nearer, if I arrived by British Rail or needed to get some shopping I would get off at Balham and just walk the rest. Certainly a terrible story which I only learnt of from talking to an elderly neighbour, who took us under her wing a bit. She had lived in the area since the 1920s and I think her dad was involved in the rescue too cos he was a volunteer fireman or ARP warden or something. I rather liked the way the film “Atonement” incorporated the event into its storyline. In an unrelated incident, one evening in 1993 or 1994, after having alighted at Balham to do some shopping, my then girlfriend and I set about walking home. It was cold and we wondered about popping into the pub next to the station for a quick drink. However, thankfully my missus decided she’d rather open a bottle when we got in and we carried on walking under the bridge. It was only later we found out that within half an hour of passing the pub, some nutter had gone in and shot someone! 😳
Tut tut, Jago describing the Northern line tube as the Underground! Especially as you had pointed out this common error in a previous video. Apart from that this was another fascinating 'tale from the tube'
The shelter provision for those without gardens to sink their own was a problem but the the options other than the Underground was either a reinforced table to hide under or the above ground communal shelters which if hit often ended up with the occupants being crushed by the concrete ceiling slab. No wonder the public took things into their own hands.
As a result my grandfather, John C Stevens, was set the task of putting in the replacement handrail in the little western entrance. It was his only work on transport networks, although he did some of the replacement windows at Parliament. He also did the window frames with the original glass at Hampton Court which remained until around the millennium. An amazing series of videos - many thanks.
Would be interesting to see a piece on "How flood defences on the London Underground work" Isn't it fascinating that these tunnels hardly ever get flooded?
I have friends in Balham and when in London often stay there I had no idea of this incident Next time I am in Balham I will have a look for the memorial and take a photo.
At first I thought you were trying for a haiku or sonnet. Then I paid a visit to your channel and read of your interest and emulation of Lillian R. Lieber. All became clear: You're in on the conspiracy; the one created by SIE. Do not think we are fooled! :D:D:D
@@cargy930 I put the note on my channel page because so many people kept asking me why. Thank you for taking the time to visit it and comment. I find it helpful to write this way my other influence was the Italian free-verse poet Stefano Massini who I met through his verse play / novel "The Lehman Trilogy"
Thanks for producing an interesting video on this tragic subject. Another wartime tube story you might consider is Wanstead on the Central Line - apparently it was used as a munitions factory.
If you do feature Wanstead, there’s another railway snippet just down the High Street in the corner of Grosvenor Road and Nightingale Road. It’s a church that used to be where St Pancras Station now stands, taken down stone-by-stone and reconstructed at its new home. In the process, it changed denomination. It’s rather special to me as the church where I married my lovely lady many years ago.
I read The Splendid and the Vile over the summer which details the period of the blitz. I cannot begin to imagine what it was like. The book touched on a subject that I didn’t think about. You would endure bombing all night then still have to go to work in the morning. Your commute could be hours longer as roads might be blocked. Your house may not have any windows left or your roof leaked due to shrapnel tearing holes in the shingles. The mental and physical exhaustion had to be overwhelming. The one humorous part was that once the bombing started you had to shelter in place. Many a young couple would scurry off at dusk to meet their mate and well then you had to stay with them all night as it was required by law.
Of course I’d seen that iconic photo and I had ridden through that junction from all directions but I had not put the two together. This video has certainly cemented them firmly in my memory. When I am next on the Northern Line I’ll stop and seek out that plaque.
Great video Mr Hazzard! Nearly at 100k, well deserved! Also, hate being that person, but in your video description the year was put down as 1949 as opposed to 1940. I blame modern keyboards being awkward.
Lordship lane/Broadwater farm had a deep level shelter that took a direct hit, killing hundreds. Granted, it’s not a train line, but the wars worst civilian loss of life in London.
No mention of one the heroes of the Balham tube disaster. John Rundle (64) was a member of the Salvation Army at Wimbledon Corps in London. He was the station master at Balham Underground station. On the night of 14 October 1940 about 700 people were on the platforms at Balham when a 1,400kg bomb fell on the high street fracturing the gas and water mains that lay above their heads. Thousands of gallons of water filled the station. One of the victims was John Rundle. Mr Rundle stayed on the phone calmly giving information to those responding to the emergency on the other side of the blocked tunnel. As the flood waters rose he must have known that he would not be rescued but his actions helped others to be saved.
How brazen of you to tell us where you love, but where do you actually live???? You are so right in saying how Clapham South is a nonentity. I travelled the Northern Line daily from Tottenham Court Road to Morden for some years, and probably got on or off most up to Stockwell, but never CS. Don't even know what the entrance looks like!
You've talked about the Widened Lines recently, and now about WWII station damage. Might there be room to combine the two and talk about the history of Aldersgate/Barbican station? It's such a great example of a cut-and-cover station, and there's still bits of support from when it was covered by glass.
I always wished they could find the funds to recreate the original Barbican canopy. It can be done: When I lived in Bournemouth they rebuilt the long-missing staion canopy. It transformed the station.
The one thing that's true of any war, anywhere in the world, is that day-in, day-out there are many, many ordinary people just trying to get on with their lives while mayhem erupts around them. Because... what else can they do?
Probably your best to date, and that is a difficult one to say, but this video was..... Well.... Hard to say... But deep... If that makes sense and not a pun... Just well done and considerate to the tragedy that happened at Balham... Very well done on this video.
Excellent video. Just the right tone. BTW, how about a video on the wartime use by Plessey electronics of the unopened Leytonstone to Gants Hill section of the Central Line. An underground factory using the Underground? Sounds like a job for Jago!
Another great vid - thank you. The question I keep on asking myself when I see this type of destruction is how on earth do you start to recover and rebuild from such wreckage? Also during wartime, surely labour and materials must have been in short supply?
That photo of Churchill was in the main hall of my high school in Scarborough (Ontario, Canada). I learned there that he LOATHED that photo of himself. High School's name is Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute.
In Munich there was also an incident of a bus falling into a crater in the 1990s. During construction of the new U-bahn line to the Messestadt, the road above the tunnel collapsed. An approaching bus could not stop in time and fell into the hole. Sadly, three people were killed.
Flicking through the RadioTimes for the coming week's broadcasts, there is a colour photograph of that Balham bus in the crater. It is used as a backdrop to Dr Lucy Worsley's 90 minute documentary on the 'Blitz spirit'.
I lived there for a while and remember the old very small plaque, good to see a more fitting memorial. As well as Bethnal green, Bank station was also hit destroying the main ticket hall, the blast wave travelled through the tunnels killing and injuring all the way down to platform level. More info: ww2today.com/11th-january-1941-51-killed-in-direct-hit-on-bank-station
Either this or Bethnal Green tragedy.. one of my Great Nan’s friends and her daughter perished and my Nan who sadly died in the pandemic last year aged 91 remembered her mum telling her the heartbreaking news back all those years ago.
My Mum grew up in Balham and she was 6 when this tragedy, her Mother would never shelter in the tube station during raids, might of saved my Mums life🤷
Bombing civilians is one of the worst things people can do to one another during war. The Luftwaffe started it, the RAF stroke back, everyone suffered on both sides.
I think Hitler and the Nazis [and the German Air Force in WW1] had the idea of blowing-up/killing citizens (war from the air/sky) to de-morale our war-effort - imagine your a solider on the front line, killing the enemy and suddenly get a letter/telegram saying that the enemy is bombing/doing air-raids over your country and that your dearest has been killed with a bomb 😱 a small amount of soldiers were put-off and defected from the front line and the army
May I just point out that it was indeed the British who started out that malarkey ? The first deliberate bombing raid against civilians was the 1940 RAF raid against Berlin. The very limited number of bombs which earlier had been dropped on Oxford Street were a mishap, something Mr Churchill was well aware of. The Oxford Street incident was an accident, the bombing of Berlin was a war crime. So you do need to get your knowledge fact checked.
@@thefreedomguyuk Just looking at Germany and the UK you are right but what about Poland and Rotterdam? The RAF's attacks were a response to those bombings as well. But I think we shouldn't argue over who did what first. Fact is that civilian bombings are a war crime no matter what the circumstances are.
