Market Place shelters, South Shields
2-3 October 1941 · South Shields, Tyne and Wear
View this record on the map →- Date
- 2-3 October 1941
- Record type
- Historic bombing site
- Bomb type
- HE
- Casualties
- 12
- Location
- South Shields, Tyne and Wear
- Position accuracy
- Confirmed event, approximate point (the shelters' exact position is unknown)
What happened
Two bombs struck entrances to the shelters beneath South Shields Market Place; one fell near East Street, rupturing a gas main and setting a trolleybus alight, and another hit the shelter in the north-east quarter.
Casualty note
Twelve killed in the shelters and five rescued — the site-specific figure. The widely quoted 68 killed is a TOWN-WIDE total for the whole raid, and is routinely misattributed to the shelter itself. A third source gives 50 across the 2-3 October raids.
Also worth knowing
The toll was lower than it might have been because the usual route from Union Alley had been blocked in an earlier raid, sending many cinema-goers to the North Street shelter instead. Around 240 shops, houses and offices in the Market Place were destroyed or later demolished. The dead were commemorated with a Union flag laid in cobblestones.