Show Notes
As the Blitz comes to an end, London refuses to be silenced.
In this episode, we move through the final raids of 1941 into the uneasy calm of “The Lull”, where music, performance and cultural life carried on amid loss and devastation. We hear how jazz and swing — banned by the Nazis as “degenerate” — became acts of resistance, and how Ken “Snakehips” Johnson, a Black, gay bandleader at the height of his fame, was killed when the Café de Paris was bombed.
We witness the destruction of Queen’s Hall — London’s leading concert hall and home to the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. Its loss displaced musicians across the city, sending major orchestras elsewhere, including to the newly built Walthamstow Assembly Hall.
Set against wartime Walthamstow — bombed, damaged, yet still building — this episode explores what endured while buildings burned, and why music mattered more than ever.
Selected audio excerpts featured in this episode: 'The war over Walthamstow: the story of Civil Defence 1939 1945' by Ross Wylde © Waltham Forest Council (historical reference) Film clip: The Battle of Music (1943), UK wartime feature film depicting the London Philharmonic Orchestra during the Blitz Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 Pamphlet: It Shall Not Happen Here: Anti-Semitism, Fascists and Civil Liberty, by Elizabeth Allen, 1943. Held by the Imperial War Museums, London “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!” (Baer / Rose / MacDonald), performed by Ken “Snakehips” Johnson and His West Indian Dance Orchestra “Free”, performed by The Crazy Gang All other music by Simon Mills
Audio excerpts are used under UK fair dealing provisions for the purposes of criticism, review, and historical illustration. Full rights remain with the respective rights holders. War Hall is an independent production. If we ever make a profit, half will go to War Child, with the rest supporting our small team. If you’d like to help us make future episodes, you can join our Patreon — even the smallest contribution helps us pay artists fairly.
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Some clips are used under fair dealing and fair use for historical illustration. All rights remain with the original rights holders. Used with permission where required.
Music and sound design by Simon Mills.
Produced by Alison Williams, Professor John Thomas, and Susie Williams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from War Hall
Meet the voice of War Hall. In this special bonus episode, Professor John Thomas interviews the indomitable Angela Allen – legendary script supervisor and voice of War Hall: A Theatre of the Mind. Angela reflects on an extraordinary life in cinema, from sheltering in the London Underground during the Second World War to working on The Third Man in post-war Vienna, travelling through the African jungle with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and becoming the trusted right hand of director John Huston. Along the way, she worked with Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Arthur Miller, Truman Capote, Ava Gardner and many of the twentieth century's greatest creative figures, helping shape some of cinema's most iconic films. Now in her nineties, Angela looks back on a remarkable career spent breaking barriers in an industry dominated by men—and on the dream she was never able to fulfil - becoming a director. In this second part of our interview, Angela takes us on a journey from Paris to Reno, to the set of The Misfits... The voice you hear in War Hall has been shaped by a lifetime spent reading scripts alongside cinema legends. It is a voice of gravitas - and beauty - a voice straight from the golden age of cinema and sound. War Hall is an independent production. If we ever make a profit, half will go to War Child, with the rest supporting our small team. If you’d like to help us make future episodes, you can join our Patreon — even the smallest contribution helps us pay artists fairly.
Discover War Hall: A Theatre of the Mind—an immersive documentary podcast uncovering the extraordinary true story behind Walthamstow Assembly Hall, a concert venue built during the Blitz that became one of Britain’s most significant recording spaces.
When we began War Hall – A Theatre of the Mind, the political climate felt uncomfortably close to the 1930s. Nationalism was rising. Division was deepening. We found ourselves asking why we were tracing where the bombs fell during the Second World War while the present felt increasingly unstable.
As Walthamstow Assembly Hall opens in March 1943, culture, ceremony and civic pride take centre stage. Concerts, fairs and beauty contests unfold beneath glitter, blackout restrictions, anti-aircraft fire and a war that is still very much alive.