Portrait of war - Natural Gallery during Blitz

Published: 03 September 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

THESE haunting images show the National Gallery following a Luftwaffe attack during the Blitz.

Amazingly the Trafalgar Square institution stayed open during the bombing raids despite being struck nine times.

On October 12 1940 a bomb fell on room XXVI (now room 10), where a collection of Raphael paintings had hung before the war, devastating the roof and floor. A second bomb struck the old boardroom, burying itself in the courtyard outside unexploded. 

A team of Royal Engineers were called in to defuse it but couldn’t prevent it from detonating a week later during a lunchtime concert at the gallery. Miraculously nobody was hurt and the musicians played on. 

Many of the paintings had been moved to Manod Quarry in Wales.

During the Blitz the gallery was perhaps best known for its legendary piano concerts organised by Dame Myra Hess, who had the revolutionary idea of turning it into a concert hall. She held over 1,000 wartime concerts, with thousands of people coming to listen at a time when all other concert halls had been closed.

A new website now tells the tale of the gallery during wartime and special concerts will take place on October 5. Visit http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ history/the-gallery-in-wartime/