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[ Text Only: Homepage ]
[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
The idea that the people of London were all in the blitz together, destroying boundaries of class and authority, was largely myth.
When the bombing started, some of the best shelters were reserved for the rich. After enduring days of destruction, the people of Stepney, east London had had enough of watching their wealthy neighbours protected in relative comfort.
Co-ordinated by the Communist Party of Great Britain, one Saturday night a group of 70 people went to the Savoy Hotel, which had a robust and luxurious shelter for its guests. Whereas shelters for 'ordinary people' were flimsy, with bare stone floors and few blankets, here were strong steel - girder reinforcements, armchairs, beds and nurses. Despite the management's attempts to evict them, the group stayed and were eventually served full teas.
As a result of the action and the publicity that followed it, the National Government, which included all three main parties, quickly improved conditions in shelters.
Nevertheless, one obvious network of ready-built shelters remained closed. The Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, refused to open the tube during air raids. Similar tactics were used and when the police closed off the tube a few days later during the next raid, groups, armed with crowbars, forced open the gates. Thousands of people took shelter on the platforms.
The following day, without any reference to this action, Morrison announced that the government had changed its mind. The tubes would be open as shelters.
Such battles for rights continued throughout the blitz.
Equality bombshell
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