The London County Council (LCC) Bomb Damage Maps are a detailed record of damage to the capital’s built environment caused by aerial bombardment during 1940-1945. An iconic and multi-layered source for London’s experience of war and its aftermath, it conveys complex survey data in the tradition of Leake’s Great Fire map, Milne’s land use map, Mylne’s geological maps and Booth’s poverty maps.

Created within the Architect’s Department LCC, the bomb damage maps record cumulative damage to buildings in the County of London caused by air raids and V-weapons during the Second World War. Because of their origins in 1916, the maps give us a glimpse of a ‘lost London’, before post-war redevelopment schemes began to shape the modern city.

The full set of maps is made up of 110 hand-coloured 1:2500 Ordnance Survey base sheets originally published in 1916 but updated by the LCC to 1940. A key to the damage can be found in the description for each map.

Used by Patrick Abercrombie and John Henry Forshaw in drawing up the County of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) to rebuild the capital in the post-war period, the maps are a key source for studies of post-war town planning in London and the UK.