Book tribute to Stoke Newington bomb victims

On 13 October 1940, a bomb landed on a block of flats named Coronation Avenue in Stoke Newington, killing more than 160 people.

The bomb penetrated through five stories of flats to the air raid shelter below, destroying the lives of most of those who had gathered there to keep safe.

Seventy years later, a group of local residents decided to commemorate the tragic event through a project that involves the mounting of a plaque on the site and an educational volume.

The plaque was unveiled by television presenter and Stoke Newington resident George Alagiah last year, and Just Like the End of the
World has now been published by educational charity Timeline.

The handsome 100-page paperback, edited by Camilla Loewe, is a collection of historical narrative, personal accounts of the events surrounding the bombing, archival documents relating to 13 October 1940, and other accounts that provide a feel for what it was like to live in Hackney during the Blitz.

Adorned with a wide range of photographs, the personal recollections contained in this book are undoubtedly its strongest point.

During the 1940s, the residents of Stoke Newington were mostly humble folk; many of them worked in the East End textile industry, and during the Blitz they were managing as best they could to care for their families.

It is perhaps the details of their accounts that speak most directly to the reader:

“The cellar was filling up fast with water. At the far end there was a ladder leading to an escape hatch: by the time I got there the water was up to my waist; the air was full of dust, which was in my nose and in my mouth” –Lawrie Edison, 11.

“Afterwards you couldn’t see anything because of the dust and the smoke. It was literally like being in nother world. The smell, that was the other thing – even days later, the dust was thick.” Denis Bateman, 12.

“All they gave me of my family was my mother’s earrings and her wedding ring and an empty handbag. That’s all I ever got”. Betty Perkins, 26.

Though 72 years is a considerable period, there are many who still remember the families of those who perished in the bombing and for whom this volume is a poignant memento of the War.

Just Like the End of the World
Publisher: Timeline
ISBN: 978 0 9573397 1 2
RRP: £15.00