# WW2 London Blitz housing shortage **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640 "2021-07-04T01:11:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640/21 "2021-07-07T16:50:04Z")
The point being missed here, is that people weren’t sleeping in the Underground because there was a shortage of housing in London due to bombing. Evacuations to the countryside freed up a lot more housing than the Luftwaffe destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640/22 "2021-07-07T17:36:01Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The point being missed here, is that people weren’t sleeping in the Underground because there was a shortage of housing in London due to bombing. That’s true. They had Rest Centres for the people who had lost their houses and had nowhere else to go. [https://mk0rafmuseumxfbci8mu.kinstacdn.com/images/online\_exhibitions/restLG.jpg](https://mk0rafmuseumxfbci8mu.kinstacdn.com/images/online_exhibitions/restLG.jpg) The rest centres were established in church halls and schools and provided people with a place to sleep, food, facilities, and some services such as replacing lost identity documents, or liaising with the local council to eventually get moved into accommodation. > **[WW2 London County Council "Rest Centre Service" Badge](https://www.ww2civildefence.co.uk/blog/ww2-london-county-council-rest-centre-service-badge)** > > With the threat of war building through the spring and summer of 1939, the London County Council undertook measures to assist people affected by air raids. in August 1938 the Ministry of Health made London County Council (LCC) responsible for... ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640/23 "2021-07-07T18:23:26Z")
London had an underground subway system that provided shelter, but most cities that suffered bombing raids did not. If you had a garden, it was common to build a shelter that gave some protection - an Anderson shelter. They were sunk below ground level, which gave some protection from the blast shockwaves. In central London, people lived in tenements so not many gardens and underground stations used, but not all were suitable, some of the older ones are very shallow ‘cut and cover’ affairs. That did not afford much protection if it was hit by a bomb. There were some direct hits on underground stations used as shelters that caused many casualties, some flooded when the water mains were hit (Balham). There were was also crowding and crushes in the stairs (Bethnal) Many underground spaces were pressed into services as bomb shelters and in London there was a civil defense project the build huge underground shelters designed for protection. You can still see faded signs on walls with a big S, an arrow and a number pointing in the direction of the nearest shelter and its capacity. Here is one of the largest under Clapham South station: > **[London's forgotten network of massive underground air raid shelters is being...](https://theworld.org/stories/2016-01-08/londons-forgotten-network-massive-underground-air-raid-shelters-being-found-again)** > > In World War II, London was a dangerous place. That's why the government launched a plan build a huge network of subterranean air raid shelters far below ground, each with the capacity to hold thousands of people. While there was a great organised evacuation of children to the countryside, they did not always stay there long. As you might imagine, it was emotionally very difficult for parents and children to be separated and not everyone was pleased to billet children. For young kids searching the ruins for the remains of prized scraps of twisted metal from bombs, shrapnel, was a popular past time and the ownership of a particularly good specimens was envied. Somewhat like ballbearings and glass marbles, these are currency in the playground. The huge Clapham South shelter was pressed into service again for temporary housing after the war. In 1948 it was used to house the West Indian immigrants newly arrived on the HMS Empire Windrush. This marked the start of post-war immigration to the UK from the colonies to address the labour shortage. > **[Going underground: The Windrush arrivals' subterranean dormitories](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44483090)** > > Migrants from the Caribbean were temporarily housed in underground tunnels. Now the public can visit them too. I think it still exists and is now used to farm mushrooms! London is a warren of tunnels and bunkers built during WW2. People used them for shelter or to work, there were many underground offices and factories. But they were for a national emergency, you would not want to live down there. Some are now tourist attractions. The loss of housing in London was a serious problem that took many years to solve. There were huge slum clearance projects and many ‘system built’ large scale housing projects. There were also the bungalows known as ‘pre-fabs’ that were built very quickly in open spaces such as local parks. In the 1950s and 1960s huge housing projects were started all around London. Small villages became ‘New towns’ with fast train lines or motorways into London. If you want to hear an authentic Cockney accent it is best to go 30 miles outside to Harlow in Essex. > **[London overspill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_overspill)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > London overspill communities are the communities created as a result of the government policy of moving residents out of Greater London into other areas in the South East of England between the 1930s and the 1970s. These largely consisted of council houses and new towns. > The policy was instigated in the 1930s, but started in earnest after the Second World War, as a reaction to the housing shortages caused by enemy bombing and large amounts of su... The London Blitz accounts for the very mixed character housing in London. You will often find lots of social housing projects dotted around all over the place, often in the some seriously swanky areas. The attention of Luftwaffe was quite indiscriminate in that respect. Today, if you are looking to buy an apartment in London, if it is ‘ex-council’, it means it was formerly part of a local government social housing project and is not in private ownership. It says something about the dire modern building standards that these ex-council flats are often solidly built and some 25% larger that the depressingly compact size of new build properties built by private developers. Housing is something of a political football in the UK after various historic reversals of policy between governments of different political persuasions with very different economic approaches. Consequently the state of the housing stock is not as good as other countries that had to re-build after the bombings of WW2. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum\_45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum_45/32/3385_2.png) [@eburacum\_45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum_45)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640/24 "2021-07-07T18:52:08Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > In the 1950s and 1960s huge housing projects were started all around London. Small villages became ‘New towns’ with fast train lines or motorways into London. If you want to hear an authentic Cockney accent it is best to go 30 miles outside to Harlow in Essex. That’s right. Greater London experienced a steep fall in population which continued until the 1980s. According to this link, the population of Greater London was 8,615,050, but only 6,608,598 in 1981. [http://www.demographia.com/dm-lon31.htm](http://www.demographia.com/dm-lon31.htm) ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640/25 "2021-07-07T21:54:41Z")
OK, fair enough, but it’s kinda nitpicky when they still weren’t actually living there, which was my point. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-london-blitz-housing-shortage/945640.md?page=1)