Locating the Blitz Garden
I think I can help Gustav Milne with his query about the exact location of the ‘Blitz Garden’ he mentioned in his feature on the London Blitz (CA 368). It is almost in the backyard – if there is one – of the present Museum of London!
Please note, in the photograph shown in the article [and above], the lady with a shopping bag. Just behind her in the pavement is what is almost certainly a GPO Telephones junction cover. Another may account for the unclear feature in the pavement to the left of the gentlemen on the right lower corner of the picture. If I am right, an enquiry addressed to BT will very likely produce a map that shows these covers/junctions, and gives a very precise location for the picture.
If this fails, as the result of post-war development, try a little triangulation. Directly above the two postmen, and forming the skyline, are the ‘belvederes’ on the roof of the old GPO HQ building, one per corner. Lately they have gained another storey in the form of a French chateau-ish tiled(?) roof. In 1968/1969 I worked briefly at PHQ, but removed myself to Wales & Marches HQ because the air pollution of London was causing me breathing problems. I have some knowledge of the area therefore, and can assert with reasonable hope of accuracy that the buildings visible to the right of PHQ still stand. Thus the cleared bomb-site, and the rubble pile above the heads of the five ladies looking over the wall in the picture, are now somewhere underneath the museum’s gallery dedicated to the 17th century and its foyer/cafe.
Review – The Lost King