About the project

The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941. Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students. They will be able to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.

 

The project has scanned original 1940s bomb census maps , geo-referenced the maps and digitally captured the geographical locations of all the falling bombs recorded on the original map. The data has then been  integrated into 2 different types of applications:

 

Web-Mapping 


Screenshot of Bomb Sight Interface

You can use our interactive web-mapping application to explore and search for different bomb locations across London. Click on individual bombs and find out information relating to the neighbouring area by reviewing contextual images and memories from the Blitz.

 

You can explore statistics for different areas and see how many bombs fell in different wards and boroughs in London as well as read memories of Londoners contributed to the BBC WW2 People's War and images from the Imperial War Museum to allow you to visualise what it was like in London at such a difficult time. 

The web-mapping application has been designed for use on the most current versions of Chrome, Internext Explorer and Firefox. We are aware that there are some functionality issues if you are using Internet Explorer 7 and 8 ,  we are currently looking into the best way to resolve these - but this will take time. We would recommend that you update your browser.

Responsive Mode website

We have developed the website so that it works in responsive mode. This means that the website should resize seamlessly so that it functions on monitors of different sizes and also works on lots of different devices such as a PC, tablet or mobile phone. 
 
This means that whilst we are developing a native Android App with Augmented Reality, the website that we have developed should be accessible on lots of different types of devices. So whilst you will not be able to see the augmented reality functionality on the responsive website you can still browse the map, memories and photos. 
 
 

Android Mobile Phone Application with Augmented Reality

Android App mobile screenshots for Bomb SightYou can use the Android App with Augmented Reality view to reveal the locations of the bombs projected into the current urban landscape. As you are walking down a street in London and you see a contemporary building in amongst historical buildings you can find out if the building is built at the location of a former bomb site. The app uses the GPS within your phone to locate what street you are on and return information about the bomb locations that fell within 300m of where you are. 

The application has a map feature so you can also explore the bomb locations on your phone even if you are not in London.