Why a Booktrail?
1943: Travel literary style to London via a fictional account of the Bethnal Green disaster when a tube station was used as a air-raid shelter
The Report
What you need to know before your trail
1943 and the air-raid shelters are wailing out across the East End of London. From every window, in and around Bethnal Green, people run, desperate to hide in the underground station which has been turned into an air-raid shelter, somewhere they can hide and protect themselves, at least for now. But this time the air-raid shelter, the place of protection and hope becomes the one place that proves to be deadly. For on the very steps to safety, people are crushed in the hurry to escape the imminent bombing ahead and 173 people are killed in the subsequent events. local magistrate Laurence Dunne sets about finding out what happened during those few, fatally confused minutes. But as he tries to get to the truth, he finds that this is not the easiest thing to find in the blackness which results
Travel Guide
The novel is based on the very real and equally shocking story of the disaster which happened in the Bethnal Green station – an air raid shelter which was supposed to be a safe haven at the time of war. 173 people died from suffocation in the crush and there was mass confusion. The siren had blasted out into the air and people came running but no air-raid seemed to be happening.
A tragic and confusing situation for many but seen here through the eyes of 8 year old Tilley, her mother Ada, young clerk Bertram, vicar McNeely, and warden Low we are taken through the horrific sequences of events.
Laurence Dunne, was commissioned to write a report for the government and this is the account of what he finds and the consequences of that fateful day.
A commemorative plaque was placed inside the station in 1993. In 2012 work started on the Stairway to Heaven Memorial to remember the victims of the disaster.
Streetview Maps
A) Bethnal Green monument
B) Bethnal Green station front
Destination: London Departure Time: 1943 Hope you enjoy your book trail of The Report. Some very real historical tragedy here to reveal a forgotten story of WW2
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