Restored Stoke Newington World War II memorial set to be unveiled on Remembrance Sunday
A war memorial commemorating civilians who lost their lives during World War II including the Coronation Street bombing in 1940, has been restored. - Credit: Archant
A war memorial commemorating all the civilians who died during the Second World War has been lovingly restored after a three-year fundraising campaign.
The community raised £17,000 to revive the memorial at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, which commemorates the lives of civilians who died during the conflict. The majority of the 113 people named on the memorial are those who died in an air-raid shelter in Coronation Avenue after a bomb ripped through it on October 13, 1940 and are buried in communal graves in the cemetery. Other places people died include Green Lanes, St. Matthias Square, Lidfield Road, Londesborough Road, Defoe Road and Hermitage Road.
The memorial will be unveiled at the cemetery in Stoke Newington High Street on Remembrance Sunday, November 10.
It is “the third and final” part of a campaign which has also seen a plaque erected in Stoke Newington Road to commemorate the 160 victims, and a book published about the tragedy.
Camilla Loewe, co-ordinator of educational charity TimeLine and a Stoke Newington resident, said: “We were keen for people to know, and be aware of, local history. This was one of the worst bombings during the war.”
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Ms Loewe stressed that the only reason that the campaign had been a success was because of the backing of the Gazette and the support of people both here and abroad.
She said: “People have given very generously and we have had a lot of events to raise money, including auctions, jumble sales and children making and selling cupcakes. We even had a bring and buy sale held by people in their 80s.”
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Ms Loewe also appealed for anybody connected to the bombing to get in touch.
“We would like to tell them what’s happening,” she said.
Grace Storeman, 86, of Stamford Hill, welcomed the news. She was aged 12 at the time of the bombing and visited the street the next day with a girl who lost her mother, father and sister in the attack. She said: “I think it’s wonderful because it needed to be brightened and tidied up. It was not in a good state.”
