World War One: explosions at the Edmonton munitions factory

Based on childhood recollections of a working class area in north London.

Although our school in Silver Street was near the munitions factory, I don't think we children ever thought about the dangers until one evening when there was an explosion there.

My parents and a friend had gone to the Pictures [the cinema]. This was the only time I knew them to do so, so I suppose that something special was being shown or that some sort of treat was due. They told my brothers and me to get ready for bed while they were out. My brother Jim went out into the garden to the food safe to get some milk for cocoa and he came running in scared. My brother Ted and I went to see what had happened and saw immediately that the whole sky was lit up. Just then my parents came back. They were breathless and obviously scared. My mother hurriedly told us to get our clothes on quickly to get away.

She later told me that the moment they came out of the Picture House [cinema] they were struck by the crowds of people with children hurrying in the opposite direction. They said that there was a fire at the factory. So my parents rushed back home as fast as they could. When they got near to Lopen Road, though, where we lived, they were stopped by the police who told them that it was a danger zone. My mother insisted, saying that they must get through because their children were at home, and the police let them through.

My brothers and I dressed quickly and hurried with our parents to a railway bridge where my father thought it would be safe to stand. All of a sudden there was another explosion. My mother's friend screamed and ran, and my mother ran to get her back. Apparently the friend had been on duty at the Silvertown explosion and had never recovered from what she had seen.

Eventually the sky started to lose some of its colour and my parents decided that it would be safe to return home. This time, the police let us through.

There was a smaller explosion at the factory one afternoon when my father was on duty. He would not talk much about it, because it had obviously affected him deeply. He did say, though, that you couldn't tell whether the bodies were men or women because their hair, clothes (and presumably their private parts) had been blown off.