On this day 75 years ago, the worst civilian disaster of World War 2 occurred. 173 people-mostly women and children- lost their lives on the staircase at Bethnal Green tube station.
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The underground shelter at Bethnal Green had saved many lives during the Blitz: but on the evening of March 3rd 1943, things would go catastrophically wrong. 500 people were already sheltering underground there when the air raid siren sounded at 8.17 pm.
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Locals grabbed bedding and essentials and headed for the shelter, on buses or on foot. It was a cold,rainy night. Around 1500 people had made their way down the dimly-lit staircase when, at 8.27pm, an anti-aircraft rocket salvo was discharged at nearby Victoria Park.
This was a new weapon, previously unheard in the area, & terrifyingly loud. The crowd surged- there was no wild panic, just an understandable urge to take cover from what they believed was a German bombing raid. On the 3rd step from the bottom a woman carrying a child tripped.
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That was all it took. Within about 30 seconds, the staircase had become a ‘charnel house’ as people fell on top of one other and were trapped and suffocated. Joseph Walker was 8: ‘I got pushed down the stairs in a wave but luckily my head stayed clear so I could breathe...
‘It was a long time before we were pulled out. So many were dead around me but someone saw my hand move...’ Joseph was in hospital recovering for 9 months with damage to his spleen, arms & neck.
At nearby Queen Elizabeth Children’s Hospital in Hackney, junior doctor Joan Martin, aged 27, was on duty in Casualty. The phone rang at 8.45 pm, and they were told to get ready to receive 30 children who had ‘fainted’ at a tube station.
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When the first body was brought in, mauve-complexioned from asphyxiation, they were unprepared. Body after body followed- all children- with the occasional survivor. The senior Dr in charge was unable to cope & had to go off duty- Joan was left in charge with 2 medical students.
They worked all night. 12 hours later Joan went off duty, sworn to secrecy about what she’d seen. She thought the event would be in the news, listening out for radio broadcasts over the next few days. Nothing: she realised there had been a complete media blackout.
Why the news blackout? For morale purposes; but the local Council had also long been asking the Government for safety improvements at the shelter- which were refused. There were early attempts to blame the victims for ‘panic’. For some, this is another Hillsborough.
What’s certain is that the inability to talk about it made the trauma of survivors far worse. Dr Joan Martin had nightmares about it throughout her life. She didn’t speak about Bethnal Green for *50 years*. Then, by chance, she met another survivor...
He told her a plaque was finally being unveiled, & she should come to the ceremony. Her response? ‘No chance!’ After all those years she didn’t want to deal with the memories. But somehow, she found herself there...
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She went to every annual memorial service thereafter, and when the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ memorial was unveiled last year, she cut the ribbon,aged 102! This is Joan with youngest survivor Margaret McKay, a baby on that terrible night...
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Sadly Joan died in January, after an extraordinary life of dedicated service to others- she was awarded an MBE for work with disabled children. All the victims & survivors will be remembered on Monday on the Robert Elms ( QPR fan ) BBC Radio London show along with Joan’s biographer Joy Puritz.
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Adapted from a Twitter thread by historian Louise Raw. @LouiseRawAuthor
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