Thursday 26th September 1940 – Hackford Road, Liberty Street, Caldwell Street, Crewdson Road & Brixton Road

1,300 killed in London alone this week…

The raid that is documented below came in the early hours of the morning, burning buildings and shattering nerves…

A summary of the incident

Time that the bombs hitBetween 2:00 and 2:30 AM
Type of bomb/sIncendiary
Was anyone hurt or killed?No
Where did the bombs land?They fell all over the area - Caldwell Street, Brixton Road, Liberty Street, Crewdson Road.
Were houses damaged?Yes
Were businesses damaged?No
Were there evacuations?Yes

Sites of the bombs are indicated with red dots on the map below:

There are two Civil Defence incident logs for this bombing raid, the first reads:

Date26.09.40
Time02:23
Position of OccuranceHackford Road & Caldwell Street
Type of bombsIncendiary
Casualties (Approx)None
Whether any trapped under wreckageNone
FireYes
Damage to MainsNone
Names of any roads blockedNone
Position of any unexploded bombsNone
Time of occurance02:00
NotesNo Action

And the second reads:

Date26.9.40
Time2.55
Position of Occurance174 Brixton Road
Type of bombsIncendiary
Casualties (Approx)None
Whether any trapped under wreckageNone
FireFire
Damage to MainsNone
Names of any roads blockedNone
Position of any unexploded bombsNone
Time of occurance02:30
NotesAFS have fire under control

The civil defence messages sent back and forth to the local ARP (Air raid precaution) depot read as follows..

The Caldwell Street set of messages:

DateTimeText of Message
26.9.4001:09Urgent
There are fires spread all over the area, more than the wardens can attend to.
Please send AFS as soon as possible. Attend to house in 8 Caldwell Street first.

The Crewdson Road set of messages:

DateTimeText of Message
26.9.402:50 AMRe: our message of 02:10 hrs as for as we can ascertain all fires on our area have been extinguished.
26.09.406:31 AM21 Crewdson Road between Clapham Road & Brixton Road. 20:20 PM.
Incendiary Bomb. Roof top back burnt out including floor.
Casualties - nil.
Wardens, public extinguished this fire with much difficulty before AFS arrived. Arrival of AFS they stood by then left for depot.

The Brixton Road, Hackford Road & Liberty Street set of messages:

DateTimeText of Message
26.9.403.5912 Incendiary bombs have been located in this area.
8 extinguished by fire parties and wardens. 4 by A.F.S.
All fires extinguished.
174 Brixton Road roof and attic badly damaged.
169 Brixton Road attic slightly damaged.
63 Hackford Road holes through roof.
Slight damage - 5 Liberty Street. Penetrated to no 3 slight damage
26.9.4004:004 persons living at No 174 Brixton Road whose house was damaged by fire are waiting at this post.
Please advise where to send them. (Kennington Road School)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *