The Case Of The Disappearing Pub

Disclaimer: This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV on behalf of Margaret Moore and has been added to the site with her permission. Margaret Moore fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My mother was newly married in 1939. She was working in a pub in Aldgate at the time. This particular day the manageress said to her, “Don’t bother going home Teresa it’s very bad - stay on here”. She said she couldn’t stay on because her husband would worry about her. When she went to work the next morning there were police and ambulances everywhere. The pub and the street where it had been were now completely gone. So her manageress and all the other people must have been killed. The place had been badly bombed. She felt very lucky that she’d missed it. If she’d stayed she wouldn’t have been alive. The city was a big target — the Bank tube station which was being used as a shelter had been hit while people were it. Around 300 to 400 people died as there were in there, sheltering from the bombs. So places like Aldgate, along with all parts of the city, were also heavily hit. You could see the river from the planes and the pilots must have used it to place their bombs.

I was born in 1941 and as I lived through the bombs in the war I find that now I don’t like loud noises. When the IRA were actively planting bombs in London I found myself more nervous than other people, because of my past experience.

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