Stretching: The Truth
Fences across South London, including these ones on Brookmill Road in Deptford, enjoyed a past life as medical stretchers during World War II.
A new campaign group, called the Stretcher Railing Society, is trying to raise awareness of their historical significance before they are ripped up by developers.
The Standard reports:Wow- never knew these existed! Here they are on Brookmill road (courtesy of Googlemaps) pic.twitter.com/6xlRGvR45B— Cassie James (@FlyingOffHandle) August 15, 2017
Peter Eaves, of the Museum of the Order of St John, which has an original stretcher, states: "At the end of the war, the authorities were left with an enormous stockpile of stretchers.
“Railings across the capital had been removed at the beginning of the war in an effort to fuel the desperate production of munitions and war materials.
“The ARP stretchers were a handy expedient. Across London, particularly in the south-east and east, the stretchers were welded vertically together, complete with their kinked poles and wire mesh middle and fixed into position.”
