Journey time Bellingham to Blackfriars in 1940

[WXMAN]

I hope this is the correct forum to place this thread, but my apologies if not.

I am trying to reconstruct the last journey of a young clerk who was killed at 8.50 am on 8 October 1940, when the bus in which she was travelling along High Holborn was hit by a bomb.

Her home was in Bellingham and I am assuming she travelled by train to Blackfriars, before catching a bus to Kingsway, her place of work. From my inexpert research I do not think there would have been any other alternative for her to travel other than by train.

I appreciate scheduled rail times were sometimes affected by the effects of bombing raids, but is there any way in which I can find either a 1940 timetable or simply the scheduled time for the journey.

 

[30907]

The 1938 Bradshaw reprint helps here, as suburban services were not hugely affected by service cuts and speed restrictions initially.

The Catford Loop service was every 20 minutes, leaving Bellingham at 06, 26, 46, with extras at 7.40 and 8.32 (neither of which are relevant). Journey time to Blackfriars was 21 minutes and Holborn Viaduct 23min. As there were/are frequent buses along High Holborn, I would have expected her to have gone there rather than Blackfriars, and either way to have caught the 8.06.

Her most likely alternative, depending on her home address, was the 74 tram from Downham, which ran across Blackfriars Bridge and on to the Embankment, but in that case I would not have expected her to use a bus at all.

 

[WXMAN]

My thanks for your quick reply, 30907, and an expert's look at my thinking - which was based simply on the idea she had to get off a train and onto a bus somewhere to end up in High Holborn. In my ignorance I'd assumed Blackfriars was a terminal as I couldn't see any rails on Google Earth. This clearly isn't my area of expertise!

Her address was 71 Farmstead Road, Bellingham, which on Streetmap appears about equidistant from Bellingham and Beckenham Hill stations

She was definitely on a bus.

 

[30907]

My thanks for your quick reply, 30907, and an expert's look at my thinking - which was based simply on the idea she had to get off a train and onto a bus somewhere to end up in High Holborn. In my ignorance I'd assumed Blackfriars was a terminal as I couldn't see any rails on Google Earth. This clearly isn't my area of expertise!

Her address was 71 Farmstead Road, Bellingham, which on Streetmap appears about equidistant from Bellingham and Beckenham Hill stations

She was definitely on a bus.

Times from Beckenham Hill would be 2 mins earlier.

Holborn Viaduct closed in the 80s and was replacecby City Thameslink

 

[WXMAN]

Ahh, it all begins to make sense, 30907, thank you. The only photos I've sourced of a damaged bus in High Holborn on the date in question show it to be facing east near the Chancery Lane Underground station (http://blitzincidents.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/high-holborn-morning-of-8th-october-1940.html). 'My' girl died in the incident described as being at High Holborn by Chancery Lane, which I've taken to be near the junction of Chancery Lane with High Holborn.

 

[30907]

Ahh, it all begins to make sense, 30907, thank you. The only photos I've sourced of a damaged bus in High Holborn on the date in question show it to be facing east near the Chancery Lane Underground station (http://blitzincidents.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/high-holborn-morning-of-8th-october-1940.html). 'My' girl died in the incident described as being at High Holborn by Chancery Lane, which I've taken to be near the junction of Chancery Lane with High Holborn.

Do you know she was ON the bus? I ask, because as an economy-minded young adult I walked to work from Holborn Viaduct station to the top of Kingsway daily for several weeks and it's only about 3/4 mile.

Sorry, you've said she was!

 

[WXMAN]

Thank you for shaking me out of my entrenched ideas; the honest answer is 'No'. As I indicated in my initial post, I had formed the idea she had caught a bus at Blackfriars to get to Kingsway, so having seen accounts of lives being lost on buses it seemed the obvious conclusion.

Your reference to being 'economy-minded' would fit my girl, Joan Hill, very well. Her mother was a widow and worked as a domestic servant, while Joan, who left school at 16, would have been receiving only a basic wage as an Air Ministry clerk. Consequently the pair would have to have been careful with their money.

Her death certificate records she died at 'Chancery Lane and High Holburn', implying she was in Chancery Lane but close to the junction with High Holborn. That would actually fit with your idea about walking. Her destination was the Met Office Headquarters at Victory House and, by turning down Chancery Lane from High Holborn and walking past Lincoln's Inn Fields, she could possibly have saved a few minutes journey time.

 

[Cowley]

It's interesting reading about this. It's one of those stories where the tragedy of one young lady losing her life reminds you of the difficulties of all those living through the war.

 

[PeterC]

Do you know she was ON the bus? I ask, because as an economy-minded young adult I walked to work from Holborn Viaduct station to the top of Kingsway daily for several weeks and it's only about 3/4 mile.

Sorry, you've said she was!

Having worked in the area I agree that she was more likely walking.

EDIT
From Holborn Viaduct the most direct route is along High Holborn then cut through Great Turnstile and along the north side of Lincolns Inn Fields. The alternative route through Lincolns Inn itself is slightly longer but more pleasant.
Turn into Grays Inn Road then after a few yards cut through a private looking gateway into Lincolns Inn itself. The down side is that there is only one exit on the west side at New Square opening onto the south side of the fields.