Back to work in the City

30th December 1940: Office workers are determined to show that 'London can take it' - even though 1,500 separate fires have ripped the heart out of the capital

Another iconic image of St Paul’s, taken by Cecil Beaton on the 30th December. The western bell towers of St Paul’s Cathedral in London seen through an archway after the heavy incendiary raid of 29th December 1940.

Londoners woke up on the 30th of December to begin to assess the damage in the bombed-out City of London. Many fires were still burning and everywhere fine historic buildings lay in ruins. The scale of devastation, extending three miles from St Paul’s Cathedral, was hard to comprehend. Much of the heritage of the world’s prime mercantile centre, stretching back centuries, had been destroyed,

A lane filled with rubble in the City of London.