Agency and Locality in the London Blitz

This book takes a fresh approach to the London Blitz by viewing this time through individual local boroughs of the metropolis. The term ‘London Blitz’ means that culturally we have become accustomed to understanding that the actual blitz experience was the same wherever in the capital one happened to be, despite some areas being hit more than others. This book illustrates how there were many London blitzes, not one, influenced by a myriad of metropolitan localities, and giving rise to an agency of locality that helped to shape the lived blitz experience. By walking through the streets of London, this book conducts a local area analysis, witnessing the blitz through six London localities, representative of the assorted administrative, economic, and socio-political variables prevalent in wartime London. Covering air raids alongside topics like the provision of shelters, homelessness, and communal feeding, it shows how any history of the London Blitz must acknowledge that it was an experience reflective of a varied metropolis.

“Darren Bryant convincingly shows how Londoners' prospects during the Blitz were defined by just where in the capital they were living. Using case studies to point up surprising differences between one local district and another, he transforms our understanding of the experience of The Bombing War. Remarkable.”

—Jerry White, Emeritus Professor of Modern London History, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

“Darren Bryant has provided a significant addition to the literature on the Blitz. Through his meticulous exploration of sources, particularly at a local authority level, he has revealed the complexity of 'the blitz experience' in London. His work reveals in great depth and with great clarity how many different elements were at play and how they interacted with each other to shape the impact of the Luftwaffe's aerial assault on the capital.”

—Mark Connelly, Professor of Modern British History, University of Kent, UK

“This book will change how you think about Londoners and the Blitz. In a fascinating and deeply researched study, Darren Bryant shows how local circumstances created very different experiences of bombing. I richly recommend the book not just to those interested in the Blitz, but to anyone interested in London's past and the wider history of civilians under fire in the Second World War.”

—Daniel Todman, Professor of Modern History and Head of the School of History, Queen Mary University of London, UK

Darren Bryant was awarded his PhD in History from Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.