Sunday, 8 November 2015
Fate
As far as I know, only two bombs fell on Ladbroke Grove during the whole of the war. One of 'em completely demolished a house, the plot the ruins were cleared from, remains a vacant patch of incongruous green to this day, I wonder if anyone knows this piece of estate is up for grabs? I mention it, because who should've been residing opposite, but my mother. She would occasionally recall the incident that left her ears ringing, deaf to the cries of my brother, bawling amid the broken glass in his cot. 'Not a scratch on him!' she'd say, 'not a scratch'. It's odd to think that if the gust of wind picked up in the wrong the direction or that bomb hit a pigeon on the way down, I wouldn't be here to relay the miracle of the uninjured baby retrieved from a pile of shattered glass and the patch of green on Ladbroke Grove, would be the other side of the road.
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Perhaps if it had hit a pigeon on the way down, it would've exploded in mid-air and the house opposite from your mother's might've been spared (along with hers). Depends on how high the pigeon was flying, I suppose. I wonder if a house will ever be built on that plot of land - what do you think?
ReplyDeleteYeah I suppose that's another possibility but to be honest, I think birds are mostly in the roost at night, maybe It was an owl? I'm not sure why they haven't built on the plot, could be the foundations need to be excavated and that might destabilise the house next door, it did have a bomb go off next door after all.
DeleteAh, but it might've been a messenger pigeon on a secret night-time mission, carrying some hush-hush plans to or from high command. And I'd have thought that a bomb going off would've destabilized next door more than some carefully executed excavations.
DeleteI'm just speculating, it could be any reason for not reclaiming the plot really but the ground in that location, is usually gravel made up over clay, so they put the foundations down deep. There's usually a cellar, either the place they used to put the coal or a flat. London is more or less built on a marsh, so ground movement is not that uncommon, it took decades to rebuild some bombed locations because of the problems stabilising the ground. So I just kinda pulled that possible explanation out of my head, cos it seemed plausible. I think there's a tree there now, possibly planted deliberately to draw excess water from the foundations or maybe it was that pigeon again, dropping some undigested birch seeds on the spot.
DeleteMerry Christmas and a Happy New Year, DSE.
ReplyDeleteThanks kid, I've hiding from the internet over the last week or so, so I missed this. I hope Christmas is going well for you and best wishes for the New Year too.
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