Staveley Road, W4

At 18.43 on Friday 8 September 1944, a V2 missile launched from Wassenaar, Netherlands in Holland landed in Staveley Road, near the junction with Burlington Lane.

The V2 on Chiswick resulted in three deaths. Three year old Rosemary Clarke who lived at number 1 Staveley Road, Ada Harrison aged 68 of 3 Staveley Road and Sapper Bernard Browning, who was on leave, and on his way to Chiswick Station. 19 were injured.

The missile had taken seven minutes to reach Chiswick from Holland, travelling at around 3000mph. This is regarded as the world’s first recognised ballistic rocket attack, although another V-2 had previously landed in the outskirts of Paris earlier in the morning.

Eleven houses were completely destroyed and another fifteen had to be extensively rebuilt. The general public was not notified about the existence of V2 rockets until November.

Sixteen seconds after the V2 attack occurred in Chiswick, another V2 landed in a rural location in Epping Forest landing harmlessly.

Staveley Road covered the original site of Chiswick Park Farm and was built between 1927 and 1931 as part of the Chiswick Park Estate.




Leave a Reply