South Hallsville School, Canning Town
10 September 1940 · London, Greater London
View this record on the map →- Date
- 10 September 1940
- Record type
- Historic bombing site
- Bomb type
- parachute-mine
- Location
- London, Greater London
- Position accuracy
- Confirmed event, approximate point (school destroyed, site redeveloped)
What happened
Families made homeless by earlier raids were sheltering in the school basement, waiting for evacuation buses that had not arrived, when the building took a direct hit and collapsed into the basement.
Casualty note
Deliberately left blank. The official figure was around 70; local residents and campaigners have long maintained the true toll was closer to 600. The wartime press blackout means the difference has never been settled.
Also worth knowing
A wartime press blackout suppressed the location, the details and the photographs, which is why the death toll remains contested more than eighty years later. The disaster contributed to the decision to open Underground stations as public shelters.