| During the summer of 1940, any available metal was turned over to the armaments industry for processing. Here workmen carry off garden railings from a London Park. London Boroughs, especially Hammersmith, held “Railings Weeks” encouraging citizens to collect scrap metal. Reporter and later Labour Party politician Douglas Jay (March 23, 1907 – March 6, 1996) wrote as City Editor in The London Daily Herald on July 15, 1940, “Trouble On The Scrap Front – Loss of trade with Norway, Belgium and France has! naturally curtailed the imported supplies of iron and steel available to Britain. But, apart from other overseas sources, there are big amounts of ore and scrap In these islands, and even more determined efforts might made to collect them. “In the past fortnight the Steel Control has at last prohibited the use of steel for inessential building, and the London railway extension schemes have been stopped— both mainly as a result of criticism in Parliament and the Press.” “The scrap campaign Is still being organized mainly by voluntary methods. A fairly good yield is coming in, and about 1,000 tons of railings a week are being collected at the moment without compulsion.” “Tramlines & Merchants – One big hold-up is over tramlines in London. There are altogether in Britain 100,000 tons of tramlines – of which 60,000 are still uncollected and of this 40,000 are in London.” “The Control is offering six pounds a ton for these rails, but the local authorities do not seem to think this enough to cover cost of collection.” “Might not the Ministry of Supply at once decide what price is suitable, and order immediate collection?” “But the worst bottleneck on the scrap front is still the insistence of the scrap merchants that all supplies should pass through their hands, and thus yield them a commission.” “This is quite inexcusable at a moment when the merchants haven’t the facilities for handling the supplies that could be collected.” Here case for compulsion if ever there was one.” By September 1941, the collection of public railings and defunct tramlines’ rails was not enough to supply British factories with steel. Also, some of the scrap was unsuitable for war production and was a performative public exhibition to get the public to “do something” for the war effort, even if their scrap drives collected metals that could not be used in aircraft or tanks. Nevertheless, the hunt for scrap was widened to private homes. Hyde Park was stripped of its fences by Royal Decree. Government buildings were stripped of hundreds of tons of metal scrap. A goal of 500,000 tons from houses that survived the Blitz was set by the Ministry of Works. That fall, councils across the United Kingdom ordered a survey of all iron and steel railings in their district so they could be scheduled for scrapping. 40,000 tons of scrap metal a week was needed. Safety railings and cattle control railings were exempt, as well as public interest and artistic merit. Claimants were given 2 weeks to file an appeal. The term “Railings,” includes “iron and steel railings, posts, chains, bollards, gates, stiles, and similar materials.” Th lack of hacksaws and oxyacetylene torches made the use of hammers necessary. Also, since skilled metalsmith were employed in the armaments industry, less skilled workers were collecting the scrap with those hammers. This led to many damaged masonry walls. By 1942, 100,000 homes across the United Kingdom were losing railings every week. Complaints poured in, as there was no masonry crew following the metal workers removing the railings for scrap to fix the walls. After the war the railings were sometimes replaced with surplus metal stretchers, many of which are still in place. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2086.jpg |
| Image Size | 586.34 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1823 x 1352 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | July 21, 1940 |
| Location | |
| City | London |
| State or Province | London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
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| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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