In the early 1940s, the Germans were making slower progress than they would have liked in the Second World War and British air raids on Germany were increasing. The Germans had the idea of damaging historic British cities primarily to try and impact on the morale of the nation and they initially targeted Exeter, Bath, Canterbury, Norwich and York. Bath was hit between the 25 and 27 April 1942 with substantial damage being done to buildings, as well as the injuries that were caused to people.
This building is the former Labour Exchange, which had only been completed in 1938, and it was badly damaged during the air raids. They patched the building up as they wanted it to continue in use, but after the war it was just left without the first floor and nothing much happened until around fifteen years ago. It was then decided to bring the building back into use, but they wanted to do something as a memorial to the Baedeker Raids. I think that it’s a nice looking transformation of the building which has retained some of the historically important elements whilst also bringing the structure back into use.
And so, in memory of the 417 people in Bath who lost their lives during the Baedeker Raids on the city, this part of the wall was retained with the original war damage.
The memorial plaque which was a little hard to read, although I like its style and how they’ve recreated damage to the plaque as well. The text reads:
“IN MEMORY OF THE 417 PERSONS KILLED IN THE WORLD WAR II BAEDEKER RAIDS OF 1942
In 1938 Bath City Council demolished 43 houses and cottages to build this building. A much-needed Labour Exchange building, a place for people to find employment. During the preceding decade many people simply had no work and the depression of the 1930s was shown by how many 1932 onwards. When World War II broke out in 1939 the building was extremely busy looking after the unemployed.
On 26 April 1942 in the early hours of the morning a 500kg bomb hit the area. The bomb directly hit the ground where the garden is now placed. The Labour Exchange was badly damaged by the impact and the Labour Exchange staff were very brave working as they must not stop providing badly needed services to the bombed-out homeless on the north side of James Street West, opposite the Kingsmead North junction.
Wartime records show that the new Labour Exchange was badly damaged by this second blast. The buildings walls immediately crumbling from the first attack, workers through the rubble, there more than one attempt to rebuild it. Despite this and the efforts the fire in the roof spread and burned out the whole of the top floor.
It was recorded that the scene of the building as it stood after the first night attacks continued on fire and the damage can still be seen on the restored replacement building.
The main building was severely damaged, the following morning now there were, are badly damaged. The story of the depot shows was heavily asked to make a temporary roof and the need of the bombed-out families and community. The Labour Exchange continued to provide more jobs during the War period, including in areas of sharp demand making sure they were short they suffered misery.
This became even more important when wartime demanded such industry, many local companies and big businesses opening up, employment for functions that assisted the war efforts and the Labour Exchange had to help them find suitable jobs.
For a long period after the war the Labour Exchange was housed in the library space. In 2002 it was designated as a Grade II listed building. Having lived one of the last surviving examples of the “made do and mend” necessities of wartime when workers, tools and materials were both in very short supply.”