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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk/davehillblog/2010/mar/08/bethnal-green-tube-disaster-memorial-campaign-barbara-windsor
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| The Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, 1943 | |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| It was purely by chance that I saw this ceremony yesterday, while roaming bits of the East End. The Stairway To Heaven Memorial Trust tells the tragic backstory: | It was purely by chance that I saw this ceremony yesterday, while roaming bits of the East End. The Stairway To Heaven Memorial Trust tells the tragic backstory: |
| On 3 March 1943 a crowd of people entered Bethnal Green tube station which was used at the time as an air-raid shelter. After the searchlights went on and an anti-aircraft battery a few hundred yards away in Victoria Park launched a salvo of a new type of anti-aircraft rockets, the crowd surged forward. Someone tripped on the stairs causing many others to fall. 300 people were crushed into the stairwell within a few seconds, 173 of them died and over 90 were injured. The worst civilian disaster of the 2nd World War. | On 3 March 1943 a crowd of people entered Bethnal Green tube station which was used at the time as an air-raid shelter. After the searchlights went on and an anti-aircraft battery a few hundred yards away in Victoria Park launched a salvo of a new type of anti-aircraft rockets, the crowd surged forward. Someone tripped on the stairs causing many others to fall. 300 people were crushed into the stairwell within a few seconds, 173 of them died and over 90 were injured. The worst civilian disaster of the 2nd World War. |
| Sixty-two of the dead were children. For a long time the event was not widely recognised, some say for political reasons. A plaque marks the spot where the catastrophe occurred, but the Trust is raising the money for a larger memorial. As you'll see from my photograph, Barbara Windsor has lent her support. Also in attendance were Pearly Kings and Queens and representatives of Tower Hamlets Council and the Salvation Army. At the end, the little girl released white doves from a basket. You can donate to the campaign online here. | Sixty-two of the dead were children. For a long time the event was not widely recognised, some say for political reasons. A plaque marks the spot where the catastrophe occurred, but the Trust is raising the money for a larger memorial. As you'll see from my photograph, Barbara Windsor has lent her support. Also in attendance were Pearly Kings and Queens and representatives of Tower Hamlets Council and the Salvation Army. At the end, the little girl released white doves from a basket. You can donate to the campaign online here. |
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