The Woolwich Arsenal Bike

Woolwich Arsenal in 1943, Robert Sargent Austin

Living in London during the war years, meant the ordinary people had to use their wits to survive because there were so many shortages of all things which today we would take for granted. Public transport was erratic, and often cancelled for obvious reasons, and during those days, the most common expression ever used as a response to a complaint was, “Don’t you know there’s a war on?”.

To get about therefore, most people used bicycles, which were in any case the most common form of transport, much more so than today. But because of the emphasis on war materials and basic supplies, spare parts and new bikes were hard to come by, and a sizeable ‘black market’ existed in bikes and their spares. So just like most of the population, Uncle Bill used to cycle to Woolwich to work in the famous Arsenal.

A typical scene in ‘The Arsenal’ – What a target!

Throughout the war years, The Woolwich Arsenal was an easily located prime target for The Luftwaffe, and later for the V2 rockets, and so it was a very dangerous place to work.

Production of shells!