tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post8268999922306499163..comments2024-02-20T01:04:40.373+00:00Comments on Demolition Exeter: "Exeter is the Jewel of the West, and We Have Destroyed It"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-12988984064619362652016-05-26T04:57:53.375+01:002016-05-26T04:57:53.375+01:00Hello,
Firstly, my highest respect for this impres...Hello,<br />Firstly, my highest respect for this impressing blog and the incredibly detailed knowledge displayed. My aunt used to live in Exeter for several years there with husband and kids, and my parents return there almost annually for vacation. Fortunately the ridiculous but sad Baedeker blitz didn't manage to destroy nearly as much as intended. My hometown Bremen has a similar story to tell - a lot of medieval buildings were in fact already torn down in the 19th century, well before the British area bombings of WWII, which nevertheless wrecked havoc to many non-strategic parts of the city - not to mention countless other historic German city centres. I still feel resentful towards Britain (in a fuzzy sense) from time to time for the unparalleled area bombing and the subsequent loss of heritage during WWII. Stupid Germans really, showed the Brits how it's done in Coventry. I haven't entirely bought into the common narrative of the British area bombing being without alternative back then, though. The United States thought differently, as we know. It's a shame Harris got his own statue, unveiled by no less a figure than the Queen herself.<br />A German readerNiklasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-75496438442070079072015-05-25T20:57:35.656+01:002015-05-25T20:57:35.656+01:00@ Anonymous of 31 January
1) You've got to al...@ Anonymous of 31 January<br /><br />1) You've got to allow for the limited effective range of radar at the time.<br /><br />2) Improvements and developments in radar performance as technology improved were prioritised to the areas of greatest risk ~ which was not perceived as being the South West of England.<br /><br />3) Selection of the targets attacked by the Luftwaffe would have considered the strength of the defences.<br /><br />4) Occupied Brittany to Exeter was only 100 miles as the crow flies over the Channel ~ and the approach is almost perpendicular to the coast. They weren't flying along the coast from Calais ~ which have been much more risky because of the concentration of detection and defensive capability.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12265483293526972460noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-58797418589771271832015-01-31T15:02:04.354+00:002015-01-31T15:02:04.354+00:00What I find puzzling is that given the distance th...What I find puzzling is that given the distance the German bombers had to travel(compared to flying over the SE of England from Calais) fighter command were not able to intercept them . Radar would have picked them up flying over the much wider western end of the channel giving the air defences much more time than happened during the Battle of Britain. Any ideas?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-17433127840223364352013-05-11T22:23:27.641+01:002013-05-11T22:23:27.641+01:00I do actually cover the bombing of Lubeck in March...I do actually cover the bombing of Lubeck in March 1942 in another post and provide a link to it. In that post I make it quite plain that the bombing of Exeter was a direct consequence of the bombing of Lubeck. I don't think anything in either post could be accused of "repeating war time propaganda".<br /><br />If everything was as clear-cut as you suggest then there would be no on-going debate concerning the morality of the Allied strategic bombing campaign, when there clearly IS.wolfpawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06806875968340034510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-78818426360686994772013-05-11T22:03:21.943+01:002013-05-11T22:03:21.943+01:00Exeter was bombed in 1942 not for a " variety... Exeter was bombed in 1942 not for a " variety of reasons" but as retaliation for the British policy of area bombing. In March 1942 Harris targeted the town of Lubeck a town with no military value but one with plenty of medieval houses which would burn nicely. From Wiki "Although a port, Lübeck was mainly a cultural centre and only lightly defended. The bombing on 28 March 1942 was the first major success for RAF Bomber Command against a German city,[1] and followed the Area bombing directive issued to the RAF on 14 February 1942 which authorized the targeting of civilian areas."<br /> War breeds hatred and repeating war time propaganda shows ignorance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-17388766221644806792012-06-28T23:57:40.561+01:002012-06-28T23:57:40.561+01:00The historical significance of some of the old hou...The historical significance of some of the old houses in the West Quarter was fully understood in the 1930s even as plans were being laid to demolish them. It was suggested that some of the better ones could be retained and refurbished, acting as a draw for tourists coming to the city. Unfortunately nothing came of the plan and nearly all of the most picturesque properties were destroyed along with nearly everything else which predated the 19th century.wolfpawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06806875968340034510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-27878903705377726152012-06-18T16:22:38.524+01:002012-06-18T16:22:38.524+01:00From the rather good 'The Secret history of ou...From the rather good 'The Secret history of our streets' on BBC2 last night - a strangely familiar tale!<br /><br /><br />Class was at the heart of The Secret History of Our Streets, a dispiriting tale of how town planners transformed a happy, booming south London community into a wretched one. Poor Deptford. And yet on Charles Booth's social map of 1899, its high street bore the rating of "middle class and well-to-do": grainy pictures showed aproned traders standing outside shops piled with wares, hung with geese and aglow with wellbeing – the Oxford Street of south London. Now look at it, with its tragic, fluttering stalls and cider drinkers and filth and betting shops and Costcutter. Older traders and residents remembered the post-austerity years after the war when they'd never had it so good – crowds in the market, owner-occupiers, spotless streets, polished doorsteps, curtains at the window, self-respect. What went wrong?<br />Cut to the council offices of the late 1950s, and bow-tied men with toothbrush moustaches and drawing boards and anglepoise lamps, their voices grave as they exhorted efficiency and logic and sharper pencils. The city must be a machine, they cried, rationalised and re-engineered in glass and steel and concrete! Armies of environmental health inspectors declared war on the old slums with compulsory purchase orders, their miserable stigmatised occupants bulldozed off to remote soulless estates to die of loneliness and boredom. Walls fell to the sound of Jimi Hendrix, high-rises sprang up that no one wanted to live in. It was a familiar story.<br />How odd, though (wondered the makers of this excellent programme), that the same Victorian and Georgian houses deemed fit only for demolition here and in London's other industrial communities were found to be so perfectly sound and dandy in the likes of Chelsea and Kensington (and, indeed, change hands for millions of pounds today)? The answer – recently unearthed from the council archives – was that the Deptford houses (or at least the ones they looked at) weren't condemned by inspectors at all. "No disrepair," said one report. "No damp. Just needs improvements."<br />So what was the agenda behind this duplicity? A blind zeal for European modernism? Arterial roads? A dislike of Deptford? Whatever the grand experiment, sticky facts were swept under the carpet. In a week in which Britain has been encouraged to look upon this era with reverence and flag-waving, you could only think this wasn't our finest hour.p6stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00011623926122804568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-5611431891914549232012-06-09T17:50:20.031+01:002012-06-09T17:50:20.031+01:00I'm gutted. What was the council doing when al...I'm gutted. What was the council doing when all these historic buildings fell victim to urban redevelopment?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-61610806280338296112011-06-19T16:26:35.460+01:002011-06-19T16:26:35.460+01:00On the 4th May I understand there were also 3 hous...On the 4th May I understand there were also 3 houses in Monks Road demolished. The middle house was occupied by my father's cousin who was staying with her step mother's family. Her parents lived in Elmside which was close by but I believe they survived.Thank you for the information you have posted. SueAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-21120573631364325102011-03-16T22:39:17.387+00:002011-03-16T22:39:17.387+00:00Thanks for the feedback!Thanks for the feedback!wolfpawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06806875968340034510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6882578413887103850.post-81307562737164144072011-03-16T18:35:44.906+00:002011-03-16T18:35:44.906+00:00Excellent, thanks, will link to this.Excellent, thanks, will link to this.RobPhttp://www.robpendleton.co.uknoreply@blogger.com