* “Saving St Paul’s: The Watch & the Second World War” exhibition – Cathedral Garden (2025)

In keeping with my London Shoes intention to publish a sequence of short n’ sweet/small but perfectly formed, blog articles – here’s another quick and easy read piece that Shoes followers may find interesting.

The other day my London Shoes ventured out to one of London’s most recognisable tourist sites …..St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The reason for  Shoes’ visit was not to step inside this wonderful historic Cathedral, because at £26 a throw, even I have to say that’s just too much to fork out for a landmark that, in my younger days, used to be free entry.  No – the Shoes visit to this iconic historic London landmark, was specifically for the purpose of checking out its:- “Saving St Paul’s: The Watch and the Second World War” exhibition.

The exhibition is set in Cathedral Gardens, and as such, entrance to the event is completely ‘free’ of charge……extremely unusual for St. Paul’s and London these days.

This year (2025) see’s the 80^th Anniversary of the end of the WW2 – and although this globally famous Cathedral took a few ‘hits’ from German bombs – the areas and building surrounding St. Paul’s suffered devastating damage and destruction.

It could be said that the secret to the survival of St. Paul’s Cathedral from the incessant enemy attacks, might not have been just down to luck – but more likely  to be the bravery and dedication of a group called of volunteers known as the “St Paul’s Watch”, who dedicated themselves to save the famous Cathedral from the fate suffered by all the surrounding buildings.

As soon as WW2 was declared, St. Paul’s Cathedral knew that it was at ‘high risk’ of attack from enemy bombings – especially incendiary bombs and the fires they created, which could wipe out the Cathedral fixtures & fittings very quickly, if fires took hold.

So – in an attempt to mitigate the risks as much as possible, a little St. Paul’s Watch in-house ‘fire brigade’ was put together.

St. Paul’s having its own little fire brigade wasn’t something new – they had actually formed something similar back during WW1, when aerial attacks from Zeppelins was a big threat to the London landscape.

The WW2 St. Paul’s Watch team were made up of around 300 volunteers who came from all walks of life:- clergymen / architects / surveyors / retired ‘locals’ – their job was quite simple, it was to keep a watch over the Cathedral, put out any fires as quick as possible – and generally keep the iconic building safe and protected.

The incendiary bombs that were dropped on London were only small in size – but when they burst into flames upon impact, they could not be extinguished with water; because in doing so it would cause them to explode. So – they had to be put out with sand within a time space of no more than 10 minutes, otherwise the bomb would burn through the roof and fall into the Cathedral below.

Therefore, during every night throughout WW2, the St. Paul’s Watch crew had to be on look-out in strategic positions throughout the Cathedral, so that they would be able to leap into action, should/as/when an incident occurred.

To ensure everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet (so to speak) these Watch ‘night shifts’ followed a set routine – and everything witnessed/noticed and attended to – was logged for reference purposes. Communication was maintained with everyone on ‘Watch’ and a the ‘base’ via certain telephone locations situated in the St. Paul’s dome and its crypt. There was also a telephone link up with the local fire brigade station.

A First Aid room was set up in the Church crypt – where a small team of first aiders supported by volunteers from London hospitals – any major injury/first aid stuff that needed more space to be ‘worked’ on – was dealt with at the ‘Watch’ HQ located on the upper levels of St. Paul’s.

The ‘Watch’ was on duty when St. Paul’s took 2 direct ‘hits’ from German bombs. One was on the 10^th Oct 1940 when an incendiary bomb hit the eastern end of the Cathedral – and the other was on 16^th April 1941 when the north transept to a direct hit.

St. Paul’s Cathedral had loads of near-misses throughout the WW2 bombings – the worst near miss was on 12^th Sept 1940 when a large explosive bomb landed just a few metres from the Cathedral’s–West Steps. Fortunately, it failed to explode and so it was excavated by army specialists and taken far away to be detonated safely.

Having dealt with loads of bombs and 2 direct ‘hits’ –- the ‘Watch’ team was disbanded at the end of WW2 – having succeeded in their task of keeping the historic,  iconic, globally recognised St. Paul’s Cathedral safe and secure.

To commemorate and honour, and pay homage to the bravery of the men and women of the ‘Watch’ team – their incredible  story is told by way of numerous ‘story-boards’ and photos positioned in a circular display within Cathedral Garden – and this free outdoor exhibition “Saving St Paul’s: The Watch and the Second World War” is on display until the end of October 2025.

So – to summarise – a small but really interesting little exhibition, presented in a really engaging way – and definitely worth a visit, if you’re up in the City, the weather is kind and you’ve got an hour to spare.

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See below the entire gallery of photos taken to accompany this London Shoes blog article