London Blackout, February 1944

  • el
  • pt
  • These pictures were taken by LIFE Magazine photographer David E. Scherman in and around Piccadilly, London, during the wartime Blackout, February 1944.

     

     

     

     

    For daily Retronautics, join us on:
    Related Capsules:

    8 comments to London Blackout, February 1944

    • VonsterVon

      flipping amazing images…love Phylis…woo woo! love the lovers and the poor soldier who banged his head. really want to download some of these to keep…how do I do that again Mr R?

    • Here you go V, use this link and see the related images…

    • Iain H

      Oh my! You can hear the big bands playing so clearly to that set of pictures. Absolutely fascinating - there’s such an air of surreptitiousness that pervades the pictures, simply due to the blackout. I wonder if anyone has any colour pictures from the era - would there have been problems taking colour images without any light sources at night?

    • Ray Martin

      Great pictures. I love the unbridled joy of the girl dancing the jitterbug

    • Corporate photographer London

      The covent garden opera house shot is an amazing glimpse back- is it still around? Grant

    • Jon

      Are these pics infrared?

    • Scott

      The pictures of the tube escalators are interesting. It appears everyone is just standing-not walking down them. I’m curious if the practice of walking down escalators had not started yet, or if everyone just wanted to pose for the camera.

    • Ruth

      These are fantastic! Had no idea the Opera House was a nightclub in the war. Incidentally, David Sherman teamed up with Lee Miller and headed to France & Germany after D Day capturing events such as the liberation of concentration camps on film. Sherman took the famous picture of Lee in Hitler’s Munich apartment, scrubbing herself in his bathtub. Apparently she took a matching shot of Dave!

    Leave a Reply

      

      

      

    You can use these HTML tags

    <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>