Background: Newport Dwellings, Newport Place · reproduced in Roy Harrison, Blitz over Westminster, p.22
The museum of Soho · Digital archive
West End at War
Soho, the Blitz and the recovery of a lost community history archive
Between 1940 and 1945 the West End was repeatedly attacked from the air. Soho's streets, homes, churches, theatres, clubs and businesses were damaged — while residents, wardens, firefighters and volunteers kept the district functioning.
West End at War was created by Westminster City Archives with volunteers and community participants. For five years volunteers researched Second World War bomb incidents, linked them to a detailed bomb map, and scanned primary documents from Westminster's Civil Defence archive.
The original website brought together bomb-incident summaries, eyewitness testimony, maps, photographs, Civil Defence documents, contemporary artworks and rare colour film. The site later disappeared from the web.
The Museum of Soho was subsequently given an incomplete collection of project files. This digital archive brings surviving material back together, concentrating on Soho while retaining important connected stories such as the Café de Paris and Al Bowlly.
Roy Harrison’s research and Westminster’s Civil Defence records underpin the Museum’s 2026 exhibition and this digital reconstruction.
READING THE BLITZ
The bomb maps of Soho
Westminster’s Map Record of Incidents in the City of Westminster, 1940–1945 (archive reference CD 142) brings together reported wartime incidents across the period. Red and green symbols distinguish exploded and unexploded bombs; other rings and symbols record delay-action bombs, parachute mines, V1s, V2s, incendiaries and anti-aircraft shells. The large rings identify weapon type or weight rather than measured blast radius.
City of Westminster Archives, CD 142. Interpretation informed by Roy Harrison, Blitz over Westminster (1990). Click the map to enlarge.
SOHO 1940–45
Bomb incidents
The original West End at War database export has allowed the Museum to recover several incident pages that were previously known only from fragments. The summaries below distinguish recovered original pages from material that is still incomplete.
Berwick Street Market
A delayed-action bomb left a large crater at the lower end of Berwick Street Market. Contemporary reporting recorded traders returning to business around the crater.
St Anne’s Church
The original West End at War incident page has been recovered from the database. It records two high-explosive bombs on 24 September, severe fire and structural damage, and a further incendiary attack on 7 October.
At 7.45pm a high-explosive bomb struck Soho Fire Station, virtually demolishing the building. Two passers-by sheltering at the station were killed. Station Officer Leslie William George Wilson BEM and Auxiliary Fireman Frederick Mitchell also lost their lives; their bodies were recovered from the wreckage two days later. Fire appliances and vehicles were buried beneath debris and Shaftesbury Avenue was blocked.
Soho Fire Station after the bombing of 7 October 1940. City of Westminster Archives, Civil Defence photograph collection, CD/7/131.2, p.5.
A high-explosive bomb caused major damage, ignited a gas main and blocked Greek Street and Old Compton Street. The recovered page links three ARP message forms to the incident.
St James’s Residences, Brewer Street
The recovered page records forty-five casualties: five dead, twenty ambulance cases and twenty First Aid Post cases. Rescue work continued for about six hours.
Café de Paris
The database preserves the original Café de Paris article by Patrick Collins, Raquel Burchett and Peter Daniel, together with Grace Baird’s page on Ken “Snakehips” Johnson.
Newport Buildings / Shaftesbury Theatre
The recovered original page records the parachute mine that struck Newport Buildings at about 3.25 a.m. on 17 April, destroying the adjoining Shaftesbury Theatre.
Jermyn Street / Al Bowlly
The original Jermyn Street page and four linked Civil Defence records are recovered. They document the destructive blast around Jermyn Street and Duke Street in which Al Bowlly was killed at Duke’s Court.
Old Compton Street / Dean Street
The original incident page has been recovered. It records the destruction of 59–60 Dean Street, including Patisserie Valerie, and the difficult rescue operation while fire obstructed the site.
Carlisle Street
Recovered records describe severe damage around Carlisle House and Richmond Buildings, reports of trapped fire-watchers and an urgent gas escape that halted rescue work.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Reports from the Raid
The surviving Soho records are among the strongest parts of the recovered archive. These are operational Civil Defence forms: short, urgent messages written while rescue work, firefighting and road clearance were still under way. We preserve the scans as evidence and keep transcription separate; uncertain or unreadable words are never silently filled in.
Old Compton Street / Dean Street, 11 May 1941 — occurrence 1522D. About 40 people reported trapped; the surviving message includes an urgent request for further rescue assistance. Original asset record: 11_mAY_41_1522D.jpg. Westminster City Archives.Old Compton Street, 11 May 1941 — occurrence 1522G. “Fire seriously interfering with rescue work.” The report records consultation about whether rescue work could continue. Original asset record: 11_May_41_old_compton_street_1522G1.jpg. Westminster City Archives.St Anne’s Church, 7 October 1940. Incendiary report received at 21:15 after the earlier September destruction. Original asset record: 7-10-40_St_Anns_Church_IB290.jpg. Westminster City Archives.24 Greek Street, 11 October 1940. The recovered reports document blocked approaches, casualties, fire and a gas-main emergency. Database assets include 24_greek_street_icd_11.jpg, ..._21.jpg and ..._51.jpg. Westminster City Archives.Carlisle Street — occurrence 1468E. An early report notes fire-watchers trapped amid the damage around Carlisle House and Dean Street. Westminster City Archives.St James’s Residences, Brewer Street, 26 October 1940. Air Raid Damage Report 862 and its Permanent Record entries survive; one of the three images listed by the original site remains missing. Westminster City Archives.Shaftesbury Avenue Fire Station. The recovered original page links an incident file for 7 October 1940 with an Air Raid Damage Report for 95 Shaftesbury Avenue dated 16 November 1940. Westminster City Archives.Jermyn Street, 17 April 1941 — incident 1327. The recovered report records extensive destruction around Jermyn Street and Duke Street. This incident killed Al Bowlly at Duke’s Court. Westminster City Archives.
The dossier also records transcription uncertainty, archive limitations and the relationship between the original West End at War page narratives and the surviving report scans.
AN AFRICAN AIR-RAID WARDEN
Ita Ekpenyon
E. Ita Ekpenyon was born in Creek Town, Calabar, Nigeria, in 1899. A teacher and later headmaster, he came to London in 1928 intending to study law. By the outbreak of the Second World War he was living at 146 Great Titchfield Street and training for Civil Defence work; his surviving St Marylebone service card records wardens’ service from 5 February 1940.
Ekpenyon became a Senior Warden responsible for his sector and was later promoted to Deputy Post Warden. His duties included patrols, blackout enforcement, shelter management, first aid, rescue work and keeping local population records so wardens could judge who might be trapped when buildings were hit. During the Blitz he also made broadcasts for the BBC Empire Service’s Calling West Africa programme.
His own account, Some Experiences of an African Air-Raid Warden, was first published by Sheldon Press in 1943. The original West End at War project later republished the account as a 45-page educational publication, adding the St Marylebone bomb map, Civil Defence organisation, message forms, material on shelters and training, and sections on race, empire and wartime unity.
The recovered West End at War database now gives us much stronger provenance. It preserves original pages including A Nigerian Air-Raid Warden in St Marylebone, Unity & Division and West Indian & Africans in Civil Defence, together with Ekpenyon’s service card and several photographs credited to Winifred Ekpenyon. The archive also identifies footage of Ekpenyon marching with fellow St Marylebone D2 sector wardens in 1941.
The surviving West End at War film uses Ekpenyon’s own words, read by Nigerian actor Wale Ojo, alongside rare colour footage filmed by A. E. Reneson Coucher OBE, family photographs and animation made by children and parents working with Westminster Archives and animator Tom Hillenbrand.
The original West End at War database preserves two connected strands of the story: Grace Baird’s page on bandleader Ken “Snakehips” Johnson and the later Cafe de Paris article by Patrick Collins, Raquel Burchett and Peter Daniel. The latter describes the club’s wartime reputation as one of London’s safest and most glamorous night-time venues before the catastrophic raid of 8 March 1941.
The Museum can also show the surviving official record alongside those recovered community-history pages. Westminster incident 1213 records the attack at about 9.45 p.m.; the final report records 34 people killed, about 50 ambulance cases and about 30 first-aid cases.
City of Westminster Archives Centre, Air Raid Damage Report CD/3/1213.
17 APRIL 1941
Al Bowlly — Jermyn Street and Duke’s Court
The West End at War database preserves the original Jermyn Street SW1 page by Yi Luo together with four linked Civil Defence records: a request from the Devonshire Club, a casualty message, a fire report and the Air Raid Damage Report for the incident.
Westminster incident 1327 records the explosion around Jermyn Street and Duke Street at about 3.10 a.m. The blast killed singer Al Bowlly at his home in Duke’s Court, 32 Duke Street. The surviving report records seven deaths in the incident, ten ambulance cases, two first-aid cases and five people trapped and released.
City of Westminster Archives Centre, Air Raid Damage Report CD/3/1327. Recovery status: original Jermyn Street page and four report-form records recovered.
MUSEUM OF SOHO ORAL HISTORIES
Voices of wartime Soho
Read the oral histories and listen to the recordingLeo Zanelli · Edith · Win Lister · R. J. Pugh · Gaston Vignaud
The 2026 exhibition brought the documentary record together with the Museum’s oral-history archive. Leo Zanelli recalled arriving in Soho in 1939, his Italian father’s internment, disruption at school by a parachute mine, the bombing of St Anne’s Church and bomb sites becoming children’s playgrounds. Edith remembered the blackout, shelters, incendiaries, Café de Paris, shrapnel in Brewer Street and the Brewer Street market bombing. Win Lister, Mr R. J. Pugh and Gaston Vignaud add further memories of raids, shelters, rationing and keeping Soho businesses open.
Listen to Voices of Wartime Soho — the Museum of Soho oral-history montage created for the 2026 West End at War exhibition. The Museum preserves the 24-bit / 48 kHz WAV master.
Guide to the Museum of Soho’s West End at War audio montage.
The original West End at War website brought together the work of Westminster City Archives, volunteers and community participants to tell the story of the West End during the Second World War. Although the original website later disappeared, much of its historical material survives.
The Museum of Soho is bringing that material back together, with particular emphasis on Soho: bomb incidents, Civil Defence records, maps, photographs, eyewitness accounts and the voices of people who experienced the raids. Important connected stories, including the Café de Paris, Ken “Snakehips” Johnson, Al Bowlly and E. Ita Ekpenyon, are also retained.
Original eyewitness accounts, community memories and testimony are preserved in their own wording, with authorship and provenance retained wherever known. Museum commentary and later historical research are kept separate from the original testimony.
Credits & provenance
West End at War was originally developed by Westminster City Archives with volunteers and community participants, supported by a Heritage Lottery Fund project marking the 70th anniversary of the Blitz.
Digital reconstruction and Soho research: The Museum of Soho. Individual photographers, contributors, archives and rights-holders will be credited against each object wherever known.
Principal provenance used for this reconstruction includes Westminster City Archives / Westminster City Council, the surviving West End at War learning resources and film, contemporary Westminster Libraries material, The National Archives research guidance, and Museum of Soho research and oral-history holdings.
