Main London Blitz Local Response: The Suburbs

“Go to bed hopeful; wake up thankful”, wrote a South Croydon trader during the height of the main London blitz, serving as a reminder that Londoners living on the metropolitan periphery also felt the need to pray for nightly salvation. This chapter starts with the occurrence of air raiding upon suburban London, and it is therefore worth noting in the following demographic data, that in direct contrast to all inner London boroughs some outer London boroughs actually witnessed a net increase in population—a fact wholly consistent with the trend whereby some metropolitan Londoners moved out to reside in the suburbs, especially those towards the north and in particular on the far western fringe, away from the direct line of fire. An already-complex and far from simple scene is further complicated when one considers that those already living in such boroughs had an experience peculiar unto themselves through which their areas grew whilst the majority of Londoners experienced a diminution of their neighbourhoods.