Denbigh Street/Belgrave Road SW1

26 September 1940

By Kaitlyn Hanson

Around 3.22am on 26 September 1940, two high explosive bombs fell at the intersection of Denbigh Street and Belgrave Road SW1.

Initially, only one of these bombs exploded. An unknown number of people were reported trapped in an air raid shelter underneath the pavement.

Soon after, water began filling the shelter from a nearby fractured water main. The ARP incident report noted “some”  casualties trapped by wreckage. Rescue workers arriving at the scene - from the Dolphin Square ARP depot -  feared that those trapped would drown. A gas main in the area had also caught on fire.

The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) arrived, tasked with keeping the fire at bay and pumping out the water from the basement shelter beneath them. Bodies were eventually recovered but were determined not to have drowned, but to have been killed by the bomb blast.

At 8.45am, the second bomb that fell in the area exploded. Unfortunately, the rescue worker in charge of the Westminster stretcher parties on scene had just decided to move closer to inspect it. He sustained severe head injuries, from which he later died.

Bodies still buried under the debris were “attended to” by rescue teams on 1 October 1940.