London Metropolitan Archives

How second world war bomb rubble was used to make 135 football pitches in east London

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 3, 2024

During the second world war, German forces dropped 28,000 bombs and almost 3,000 V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets on London.

Key Points: 
  • During the second world war, German forces dropped 28,000 bombs and almost 3,000 V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets on London.
  • Within the London County Council area (roughly covering today’s inner London), more than 73,000 structures were totally destroyed.
  • City authorities were faced with the gargantuan task of figuring out quite where to put the millions of tonnes of rubble.

When rubble choked the city of London

  • Between December 1940 and 1946, 2.2 million cubic metres of concrete, brick and stone rubble were dumped on Hackney Marsh and 270,000 cubic metres on Leyton Marsh, raising the ground level by three metres.
  • The rubble lies hidden under plants and soil with only occasional surface fragments of concrete and the odd brick hinting at the site’s wartime origins.
  • Venture to neighbouring Leyton and Clapton and where the rubble came from becomes far more visible.
  • Street after street showcase gaps where houses are missing in otherwise neat terraces.
  • It effectively choked the city, blocking miles of roads and rendering vital services inoperable.
  • By the end of September, the city-wide War Debris Survey and Disposal Service was established.
  • The service turned its sights eastwards, to the wide-open marshland of east London.
  • A 1942 memo written by the Ministry of Home Security (now held in the London Metropolitan Archives) notes:
    Sites for tips should be studied and selected.

How Hackney Marshes became a footballing utopia

  • Though unmarked by commemorative plaques, the pitches themselves have become a vast footballing heritage site, the “utopia,” as founder of Hackney Wick Football Club Bobby Kasanga has put it, “of grassroots football”.
  • The Hackney and Leyton Football League, founded when the pitches opened in 1946, remains London’s largest and oldest league.
  • UK photographer Simon Di Principe used to go to the marshes as a kid, with his mother, to watch his father play.
  • The marshes endure as a subtle reminder of the losses the people of London incurred during the second world war.


Jonathan Gardner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The UK has relatively few armed police – but their specialist squads are hotbeds of 'warrior culture'

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Armed police are relatively rare in the UK.

Key Points: 
  • Armed police are relatively rare in the UK.
  • Just 4% of the 142,526 officers in England and Wales are armed (compared to all 708,000 in the US).
  • Some of the worst actors in recent UK policing, including Wayne Couzens and David Carrick, have been part of these specialist squads.
  • My research has shown that these elite special units are hotbeds of the most warrior-like aspects of street police culture.

Militarising the police

    • Studies suggest the influence of militarisation on local police departments reinforces the most aggressive aspects of warrior street police culture.
    • In militarised police departments, both supervisors and peers expect police officers to err on the side of control and order maintenance, even if it involves the use of violence.
    • Studies show a positive correlation between a police department’s acquisition of militarised equipment and its use of deadly force.
    • Read more:
      Where stop-and-search policing with a firearm became routine

      The military approach is at odds with what UK police are supposed to represent, and further erodes public confidence in police.

Holding officers to account

    • The current legal mechanisms to hold police to account for misconduct are insufficient.
    • And when police departments are seen as mishandling misconduct incidents, this can be perceived as a lack of desire by the institution to hold offending officers to account.
    • While the outcry among armed officers suggests that increased accountability impedes their ability to do their jobs, the reality is that mechanisms to hold officers responsible for misconduct – even when a death has occurred – are few and far between.
    • Rather than contesting close scrutiny, officers should embrace being held to the highest legal standards.

ClearOne Returns to CEDIA 2021 to Showcase Aura Line of Professional Work from Home AV and Collaboration Solutions

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, August 5, 2021

ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO), a global market leader enabling conferencing, collaboration, and network streaming solutions, today announced its return to CEDIA 2021 to demonstrate its award-winning line of Aura professional quality, work-from-home audio and video collaboration solutions at Booth #4560.

Key Points: 
  • ClearOne (NASDAQ: CLRO), a global market leader enabling conferencing, collaboration, and network streaming solutions, today announced its return to CEDIA 2021 to demonstrate its award-winning line of Aura professional quality, work-from-home audio and video collaboration solutions at Booth #4560.
  • (Photo: Business Wire)
    The future of work and learning requires the set-up of professional quality audio and video collaboration solutions in the home, ClearOne Chair & CEO Zee Hakimoglu said today.
  • According to Hakimoglu, builders, architects, designers, contractors, and CEDIA professionals need to embrace the important role they play in offering best-in-class conferencing and collaboration solutions for this new world.
  • Professional quality audio and video collaboration solutions are needed everywhere more than ever before, in the traditional office work environment and now in the work-from-home environment.