At Victoria Station ............... on the morning of December 23 1940

This is platform 16 in Victoria Station on the morning of December 23 1940 just hours after the all clear had sounded on what had been the first night of the Manchester Blitz.

Now the story is pretty well known and so rather than retell the events of the two nights with the dismal record of death, and the destruction of property I will just linger on these two pictures.

I wasn’t there and given that the events were 77 years ago there will be few who were.

But the photographs vividly convey the damage, from the collapsed and twisted metal to the empty roof devoid of glass.

And of course there would have been that powerful smell of smoke which got everywhere and would cling to your clothes long after you had left the scene.

The images come from the collection of David Harrop and were I think press photographs.

Of course there will be people with up todate pictures of Victoria Station but I leave it up to them to post them as a comparison

Pictures; Victoria Station, December 23 1940 from the collection of David Harrop