Miranda McArthur connects with local guide Stephen McCarthy
I met Stephen McCarthy in early December and he told me of his first visit to the Barbican, aged two and three quarters in 1959. At that time what was to become the Barbican Estate was a bombsite, as the photographs he showed me bore witness.
Here’s his account of that visit.
I was born in Chadworth House, Lever Street. My first school was St. Joseph’s on Lamb’s Buildings, and I remember the shire dray horses for the Whitbread brewery on Chiswell Street. When I was small, my father, John McCarthy, used to take me on Sunday morning walks to the city, including the Monument, St. Paul’s and London Wall. In April 1959, aged 2 and three quarters, we came to St. Giles Cripplegate Without, where my had been a choirboy, this time armed with a camera and taking 12 photographs.
Dressed in my winter coat and Rupert bear trousers, I was unaware of the significance of the empty acres around me and that the church was gutted out. Years later, in the photographs, I was able to identify buildings in the distance, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Murray House (1956) and Great Arthur House on the newly built Golden Lane Estate (1957).
He was also able to enlighten me about the bombing raids that led to the damage of St Giles and the surprising repercussions of that first bombing.
John Milton’s part in winning the Battle of Britain
On 25th August 1940 at 2am the City of London received its first bombing. The bombs were intended for upriver, the Newhaven oil refinery, but instead a string of bombs hit Fore Street and St. Giles Cripplegate. The statue of John Milton, which then stood outside the entrance of the church, was blasted off his pedestal.
John Milton fallen
He fell on his face but was largely unharmed and now stands inside the nave.
This accidental bombing of the City of London turned out to be a pivotal event. At that time, the German’s preferred policy was to drive the British to the negotiation table with its attritional and relentless attacks on British planes, airfields, air and sea defences. And then, just when it seemed like British pilots and defences were buckling under the pressure, what happened next set off a chain of events that led to a change of tempo in the war.
The next day, Churchill ordered a symbolic bombing raid on Berlin. Hitler’s reaction was furious, seeing the attacks as a personal insult. He made a speech to Nazi supporters at the Sports Palast, Berlin, threatening to drop one million kilograms of bombs in a single night. He ordered the Luftwaffe to shift its targets from British airfields, radar infrastructure, and defences to British cities, particularly London. The enemy’s change of tactics was a disaster in that it not only gave the RAF time to recover, but gave the RAF the edge in expanding its radar. Radar twinned with an integrated UK defence system made it easier for the RAF to confront enemy activity, particularly larger flying formations where the slower bombers had to be protected by the faster fighters.
London’s misfortune was the RAF’s reprieve. Poor St Giles Cripplegate Without was further damaged in the savage firestorm of 29th December, 1940.
St Giles’ interior 1940
Since then, Stephen McCarthy has become a tour guide, establishing Hidden London Walks in 2017, specialising in a leftfield approach to hidden stories and histories. He is also a co- director of A space for us? People’s Museum Somers Town Somers Town has long been associated with radicals and reformers, including Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin and the museum has a mission to preserve the area and communities, commemorating social justice narratives, including the innovative social housing that started here. Set up by local activists, A Space For Us? its work in co-curating histories of the community was shortlisted for the UK’s Museums Change Lives ‘Radical Changemaker Award.’ It currently opens Tuesday to Saturdays.
A Space For Us? 52 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1ES.
