The Blitz, the German bombing campaign against Britain during the Second World War, had a profound impact on London.
From September 1940, the German Luftwaffe dropped some 20,000 bombs on the city, killing thousands, and leaving many more homeless. But for all its human cost, a 2021 research paper has suggested that the London Blitz may also have had a significant impact on how the capital would develop in the years after the war.
Economists calculated that, had the Blitz not occurred, London’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be 10% lower, or £50 billion worse off every year.
The 'Blitz' – from the German term Blitzkrieg ('lightning war') – was the sustained campaign of aerial bombing attacks on British towns and cities carried out by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) from September 1940 until May 1941.
From Piccadilly Circus to shop windows in Mayfair, discover what the scenes were like in London during The Blitz in these short clips filmed by amateur filmmaker Rosie Newman as part of her film Britain At War.
London, Coventry, Manchester and many more cities were attacked during the aerial bombing campaign. But could the Blitz have worked? Curator Ian Kikuchi examines one of the deadliest nights of the Blitz, the bombing of Coventry.
Throughout history, various architectural movements have come, gone and re-emerged. However, there is one 20th century movement that is arguably the most contentious of them all, this is known as brutalism. We examine the truth behind London's 'unsightly' post-war architecture.
