Page 15 - BIG_11 Larkfield Road.qxp_Layout 1

BA Brief History of
11 Larkfield Road
Like much of London, the south west suburb of Richmond suffered greatly during the Second WorldWar.A number of raids saw the deaths of 98 civilians and around ten thousand buildings were severely damaged.
Between 9 September 1940, when high explosives fell on Mount Ararat Road, and March 1945 when one of the lastV2 rockets exploded in Richmond Park, the affluent London suburb suffered over 450 separate bombing incidents.
The worst period of enemy attacks was the winter of 1940/41, with the single worst incident taking place in the autumn of 1940 on 20 September. It was on this fateful day that multiple landmines were dropped on Peldon Avenue (now known as Peldon Court, Sheen Road) and Courtlands. As a result of this attack all of the houses in Peldon Road were completely destroyed.
In late November 1940 numerous bombs were again dropped, this time right in the centre of Richmond.As a result theTown Hall was set ablaze and the Public Library also very severely damaged. On the same night there was a direct hit with many casualties on the British Legion Poppy Factory on Petersham Road.
During this sustained period of enemy bombing Larkfield Road managed to escape any serious damage, but it was a near miss with a bomb falling just to the north in the vicinity of Kew Road.The Second World Bombing map (opposite) shows exactly where the bombs fell in the vicinity of Larkfield Road during the Blitz of October 1940 to June 1941.
World War Two
(opposite) Richmond World War Two Bombing Map and above, various bomb damage in and around Richmond