Author masters London's disasters (From Croydon Guardian)

Author masters London's disasters - and Croydon's!

9:00am Saturday 7th August 2010 in Heritage By Kirsty Whalley

Croydon has been the site of some of the worst disasters in London, a new book has revealed.

Journalist John Withington, delves into the tragedies in his new book London’s Disasters: from Boudicca to the Banking Crisis.

Mr Withington said: “Disasters are terrible things but they often do bring out the best in people.

“They behave heroically, you see the human spirit at its best.”

And nowhere was this strength of spirit more evident than during the Second World War when Croydon was devastated by German bombs.

A misinformation campaign by the Government to convince Hitler to aim short when dropping his V 1 flying bombs was a great success. This meant central London was spared some of the worst of the bombing, but Croydon suffered as a result.

No less than 54,000 houses in the borough were damaged by the bombs, with vast areas of Croydon completely devastated.

Croydon was also the site of one of the most spectacular fires London has seen, the Crystal Palace fire of 1936.

It began in a ladies lavatory and the resulting blaze, which flamed hundreds of feet into the air, could be seen as far away as Hampstead Heath.

More than 400 firefighters battled the blaze with 88 fire engines on the scene.

Their heroic efforts were in vain and when the historic building collapsed, the explosion could be heard across London.

These famous disasters were not the only misfortunes to affect the borough, which has also been the site of some tragic train crashes.

In October 1947, a thick, impenetrable fog settled in the Croydon area.

In the signal box at Purley Oaks station was an inexperienced signalman who had never worked in fog before.

The trains were moving slowly, causing severe delays and the signalman held the Hayward’s Heath to London Bridge train at Purley Oaks station, but because he could not see it in the fog, he appeared to forget about it.

Six minutes later, he allowed the Tattenham Corner to London Bridge train on to the same track. It ploughed into the waiting train, killing 32 passengers.

Some 40 years later, five people were killed at Purley when carriages spilled down an embankment into suburban gardens after a train driver went through a red light and collided with another train.

Croydon was also badly affected during the great storm of 1987.

It was one of the worst hit areas, with 75,000 trees destroyed in the raging gales. One of London’s two deaths happened in Croydon when a motorist ploughed into a fallen tree.

q John Withington’s book is published by History Press, priced £8.99.