1-10 Parliament Hill Mansions
On 22nd September 1940, a young woman named Elsie wrote a letter to her good friend Rene Brown, who was at that time living in the town of St Austell, on the south coast of Cornwall. Elsie lived at flat 1, 1-10 Parliament Hill Mansions, on Lissenden Gardens estate, with her husband Douglas, daughter Pat and Elsie’s parents. The Browns had moved to Cornwall just after WW1 – two parents and six children, of whom Rene’s husband Victor was one. It is thought that Elsie’s husband Douglas was a cousin of Rene’s husband Victor.
The postmark on the letter from 1 Parliament Hill Mansions is 23rd September 1940, so it is safe to assume that the letter was received and read sometime around 24th September.
Two days later, on 26th September 1940, a high explosive bomb hit the first block on the Heath side of Lissenden Gardens, destroying 1-10 Parliament Hill Mansions. 13 people lost their lives, including Elsie and her family. It was the only building on the estate to be totally destroyed across both world wars.
One of the six Brown children is still alive and now lives in Exeter. She had possession of this letter and had passed it to her nephew Chris Brown. On 19th June 2020 Chris contacted our website, which had been created just two months previously as a response to London in lockdown.
This exceptional account of ‘ordinary’ life in wartime Lissenden Gardens is ever more poignant by the catastrophic event that followed. It is heartwarming and not at all surprising to read of the estate pulling together to help each other during and after the raids. How fitting that the letter found its way back to Lissenden during another extraordinary period. The importance of letter-writing should never be underestimated.
This letter is reprinted with express permission from Chris Brown and his family. We are indebted to them all for gifting the estate such a poignant piece of history, and allowing us to share in the intimate details of wartime life at Lissenden Gardens.
A transcript of the letter is below:
I Parliament Hill Mansions
Lissenden Gardens
London NW5
September 22nd 1940
Dear Rene
Thank you for your letter. We were very pleased to hear from you as we had been wondering everso how you were getting on. Especially after hearing that the raids in South London were worse than round about here.
As you will see from the above we are still at the same address, so far. Fortunately, Douglas’ firm has not been bombed, so I feel that at any rate all the while Douglas is working in London I should stay with him & we feel Pat is better here with us. Luckily she manages to sleep through the raids. Sometimes an extra loud bang wakes her, but she is very good, & doesn’t seem to get frightened. When we have a very bad raid she comes into us to sleep. We get terrific gunfire, some nights more than others. There are very big guns on the Heath and Primrose Hill, & then of course we get the mobile guns coming round on lorries. When the big guns go, or the mobile ones are immediately outside, the whole place shakes and the windows rattle, but we have got used to the guns now & they don’t seem to bother us. It is only when a bomb drops too near to be pleasant that we don’t like it. We have had several fall round about us & on Friday Sept 13th, (the day you wrote to us) we had a Molotov breadbasket dropped here. As it happened I had just gone in to Pat to see if she was sleeping all right about 11pm when there was a loud whistle & flash outside her bedroom window which lit up the whole room. I grabbed her up quickly & rushed for my father & Douglas. They were outside in a flash & with the other neighbours were putting out incendiaries as fast as they were able. Douglas rushed round to the fire station as quickly as he could & found the A.F.S. men putting out a fire in their own station, but they were soon round & got their hoses at work on the roofs. Where unfortunately in several of the blocks higher up the road, the bombs had penetrated the roofing & had set the flats well alight.
The firemen worked hard and were able to get them out, while we were all given the order to stand by in case it was necessary for us to leave. We were very lucky not to have had a bomb through the roof of this house as apart from the top flat being completely gutted, the lower flats were swamped out by all the hoses & all last week had their mattresses & carpets hanging out on the verandahs to dry. A great number of the tenants were brought in here (this block) until the danger was passed & we ended up by my making tea for about 50 people. Our neighbours couldn’t help as they cook by electricity and that had failed.
Well, we were none the worse for our experience & I do feel that incendiaries are no longer an unknown quantity & taken in time they can be put out. A direct hit is almost sure to be fatal, but apart from an underground shelter dug about 60 to 80 feet, nothing is safe from that.
Douglas is still waiting to be called for a medical, so I am hoping it will be some time yet before he is called.
Pat still goes to school from 9am to 1pm with homework for the afternoon. When there is an air raid they carry on in an underground cellar at the school. She has just been put up into Form 1 so is feeling very pleased with herself.
My Mother is still here. She is, of course, longing to get back to her own home, but intends to stay while my Father is here. He is still at Marlborough Street & has been pretty busy there lately. He hasn’t been able to get home during this last week & has had to sleep at the station, returning home about 7am & back to work at 2pm – what a life!!
I expect you have read of the damage done in the West End but I don’t think anyone can have any idea what it is like without actually seeing it. Douglas, Pat & myself took a trip round & were appalled. John Lewis’ is just a shell & the firemen were still playing water on the ruins. I have written to Florrie to find out how it has affected her, but have not had a reply up to the moment. Peter Robinson’s is pretty badly knocked about, also Bourne & Hollingsworth. D.H. Evans & Selfridges were not so badly affected. There are big houses down everywhere. It is as if a giant had walked through the streets pushing down houses that stood in his way. It amused us in one house everything had collapsed except the lavatory & if anyone had been sitting in that they would have been safe. Well, so much for the West End & yet we hear that that the East End & South London are in a far worse plight. All I can say is poor devils. I’m sorry for them. Everything they’ve saved for & planned & bought gone with one blow & very often lives too. Life seems worth so very little these days.
And now for yourselves. I was so sorry to hear of Vic’s job closing up so completely. We did not know of it until you wrote, as Douglas took a week’s holiday at that time so did not go into the City when he might probably have heard about Copestakes. I expect you are both glad to get to Cornwall, if only for a break in the tensions at which we must all live these days. Rather strangely too Mother saw Victor at Paddington on the Wednesday you travelled, as my sister was here for a week & she & my Mother went to Paddington that day to arrange about her tickets & luggage. Mother said when she got home she was sure she had seen Victor, but not near enough to speak to him.
We were sorry to hear about Granny being poorly & do hope she is quite well again now. She is certainly better out of London as things are just now. Give her our love & tell her I will write sometime. Although I believe it is her turn to write to us really. I haven’t written to Douglas’ Mother since receiving your letter, but will tell her you are in Cornwall when I do write. I’m glad to say they’re not getting quite so many raids in Coventry now, & I hope they won’t, as they are very trying.
I think I have told you all the news, so will close now. Write when you can, as we shall be interested to hear how you are getting on, especially as it is the only way we can keep in touch with each other these days.
Very best regards to all at No.2.
Yours truly
Elsie