Links - The Gallery in Wartime:
http://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/sho...oductID=300952
http://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/wartime/content.html
http://images.google.se/imgres?imgur...MoXD-Qba0aSGAg
Watch this video:
Youtube:
"The Blitz. Bombed roof. Gallery at War:
One bomb completely destroyed Room XXVI (now Room 10)On 7 September 1940, the Blitz began in earnest. The City and the East End bore the brunt of the bombing but other parts of London and the south-east were also severely affected.
The National Gallery was hit by bombs nine times between October 1940 and April 1941. The worst occasion was on 12 October 1940 – a high explosive bomb fell on the Gallery totally destroying the room where the Raphaels had hung just before the war.
On another occasion, an unexploded time bomb was discovered in the wreckage from an earlier attack. It later exploded while a lunchtime concert was being held at the other end of the building. Witnesses say that the musicians playing at the time of the explosion didn’t miss a beat."
"Myra Hess and the lunchtime concerts:
Myra Hess had meant to stop playing the piano for the duration of the war. Soon after war was declared, she held a tea party for some friends. That afternoon she intended to play for one last time before locking the lid of her grand piano. The friends, some of whom were refugees recently arrived from mainland Europe, begged her not to give up playing. The idea of the National Gallery concerts was born.
Starved of entertainment, crowds flocked to the Gallery for the lunchtime concerts. These performances were an opportunity to hear the foremost musicians of the day. Many were given by Myra Hess herself. Favourites in her repertoire were Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann. The aim was to make classical music accessible to all. The entrance price was set low at one shilling.
The concerts were a huge success. Even in the darkest days of the Blitz, they were nearly always full".
"On the night of 16 November 1940, incendiary bombs destroyed Hamptons, a department store next door to the National Gallery. The ruins were demolished after the war and the site remained vacant. For several years it served as a car park".
