Phoenix rises again - 62 years after Hitler’s Blitz on Exeter

Special report on Exeter’s blitz

• Exeter HIgh Street after the air raid of 1942.

• HIGH Street and Bedford Street junction before demolition.

• ALL LIT UP: Exeter Cathedral lit by incendiary bombs during the blitz in 1942.

THE decade before the Second World War, during the period affectionately known as The Roaring Twenties, Exeter was dubbed the The Jewel of the West.

It was a city that accepted immigration with open arms resulting in a culturally dynamic metropolis.

The nightlife was considered as wide and varied as anything you could find in Berlin or London and, in spite of the 1929 stock market crash, it was a city that business leaders were eager to invest in. Exeter was the undisputed cultural capital of the South West with its architecture a heady mix of the Baroque, Gothic, Tudor, Victorian and post-modern, all blending seamlessly into a city envied throughout Europe.

The High Street was adorned with shops and buildings of the most modern - and elegant - Art Deco designs, interspersed with the Tudor-style buildings and the beautiful yet imposing Edwardian and Georgian architecture.

The interior of the High Street Arcade looked like one of the last vestiges of imperial power; its intricately engineered wrought-iron frames holding hundreds of panes of glass made the Arcade look as though it had been taken straight from the Crystal Palace of the Great Exhibition, an enduring symbol of Empire.

Sadly much of what once was has turned to dust - developed and rebuilt as a result of the destruction wrought upon the city by the 19 air raids between March and August of 1942 ordered by a certain German megalomaniac.

At first glance Exeter didn't seem to be a logical target - it wasn't of any real military significance compared to, say, Coventry or Bristol. But reportedly Hitler was enraged by the RAF's bombing of the ancient German cathedral city of Lubeck, so in revenge, he ordered a series of reprisal raids on some of England's most beautiful towns. He reputedly used the Baedeker tourist guide to select the targets - and Exeter was top of the list.

The damage was immense; huge swathes of Exeter were left in ashes. Over 400 shops, 150 offices, 50 warehouses, and 36 clubs and pubs were levelled.

Over 1,500 of the city's 20,000 houses were flattened and 2,700 were seriously damaged and few of the remaining 16,000 escaped unscathed.
For the firefighters, firewatchers, police, Home Guard and ambulance crews, it was a torrid summer; the incendiary bombs tore through the ancient, largely plaster buildings like paper causing fronts to collapse into the road.

In South Street, collapsing buildings created a domino effect and ignited shops on the opposite side. In total 30 acres of the city was destroyed and many ancient buildings were damaged or burnt to the ground. The Cathedral was hit by one bomb that destroyed St James Chapel - but thankfully in 1940, the stained glass had been removed.

St Lawrence Church, the Lower Market, the Globe Hotel, Dix's Field, the College of the Vicars Choral and many more historic buildings were lost. The City Library was a charred husk and a million books and documents were incinerated while 70 per cent of the High Street - including the elegant arcade - was destroyed.

In total 265 were killed and 111 seriously injured and rebuilding the city took over 20 years.

In 1945 Thomas Sharp published his Exeter Phoenix plan on the rebuilding of the city. Many of his ideas were considered far-fetched and others were too expensive but eventually most of the damaged areas had been rebuilt. Princesshay is probably the most prominent legacy of the raids and 62 years after the awful night it is to be torn down and redeveloped.

The city was never the same again. Now most of pre-war Exeter, The Jewel of the West, only resides in photos and in memories of the survivors.

• Aspects of Exeter - A Photographic Chronicle of Change by Peter Thomas and Jacqueline Warren is published by Halsgrove and costs £19.99.

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