How the Blitz Changed London

In East London you can usually tell where German bombs fell in World War II by the age of the buildings. For example in my street the majority of houses were built in the Victorian age. All the homes built in the later half of the 20th Century were all built on homes destroyed by falling bombs during the war.

The Economist has added a new factor to my bomb site detection observations - building height. In How the Blitz Changed London The Economist notes that the destruction of buildings in London during the blitz allowed the city to build bigger and taller buildings after the war - in the long run 'supercharging' the city's economy.

At the core of The Economist's article is a map of London which uses red markers to show the locations of all the German bombs that fell on the city during World War II. On this 21st Century map all the buildings are shaded to show building heights (the darker red the building the taller it is). The Economist's central argument is that after the war taller buildings could be built on the locations of destroyed buildings. This is evident in the fact that now the heavily bombed City and East London areas of London have some of the city's tallest buildings, drastically "expanding the amount of commercial floor space".

The Economist's conclusion that German bombing enabled the City of London to build taller buildings has the ring of truth about it. The argument is based on work by Gerard Dericks of Oxford Brookes University and Hans Koster of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, which show that the heaviest bombed areas of London now have the highest density of workers. However I would like to be able to explore the Economist's map for myself. It is a shame that after building such a wonderful map of bomb sites and building heights that The Economist won't let us actually play with it. 

If you do want to explore a map of London bomb damage for yourself then check-out the Layers of London map, which includes an overlay of the London County Council Bomb Damage Maps. You could also try the Bomb Sight map (although the map isn't loading for me today)