GEC Telephone Works - Gosford Street

According to the book "Air Raid" by Norman Longmate, the White Friars Street / Gosford Street factory was destroyed by an "oil bomb which falling into a lift shaft, started a fire which gutted the building, burning out all floors". The same books also mentions that there was some sort of ant-aircraft gun mounted on the roof of the building which, although it probably never hit any enemy planes, was a great morale booster to the nurses in Gulson Road Hospital next door.

Thanks for that DBC The building also had a steel-frame which I suspect was cut-up and removed some time later. I've discussed this with a former nurse from Gulson Road Hospital who used to walk home that way but she cannot remember if the shell of the building was still there in the 1950s. The Nuffield factory next to GEC actually made anti-aircraft guns but for whatever reason totally escaped the bombing except for a few broken windows!

The book mentions two other factories in Gosford Street:- "The Morris Works got off comparatively lightly, with two direct hits, by a 250 kg and a smaller 50 kg bomb, each of which penetrated the concrete roof and top floor and detonated in the fourth storey. A factory called "Mechanization and Aero Ltd" (part of the Nuffield Group) received some damage, but the book does not say how bad that was. I wonder if that's the one with just a few broken windows?

It shows how looks can be deceiving as it was the (former) Morris works which I thought had escaped with just a few broken windows. Nuffield's other factory was the former Alpha Motors works on the opposite side of Gosford Street. An eye witness in the "Memories" section here mentions an entire factory wall in that area being blown into the street but there was no sign of anything like that by the time I lived there.

My granddad William Henry Whitehead was foreman at the Nuffield Mechanization (Morris works) Gosford St in WWII. Too small to see here he is in the centre back of the photo, besuited and facing the camera. He had an office above the workshop, and I have a small oak table he had made for it.

Any of these Prof? There are Whitehead-Callan's in my family

Thanks Heathite. 22 Hugh Road is the one, and 176 Siddeley Avenue is my parents.

55 Stepney Road is my great-grandfather.

For those with an interest in GEC Spon Street there is a video following the production of tv's in 1960 on YouTube. Edited by Midland Red, 7th Jun 2019 10:10 pm (Link clarified)

My (maternal) grandmother worked at GEC Helen Street during the late 50s and early 60s. Last year I was talking to a gentleman, he lives in Lewes, East Sussex, who became a apprentice there around the same time. He asked if I would like a couple of items and duly sent me his GEC Coventry apprentice lapel badge and introduction letter.