Editing Rotherhithe (section)

===Second World War===
Like the rest of the London Docks, the Surrey Commercial Docks were targeted by the [[Luftwaffe]]. On 7 September 1940, on the first day of the [[London Blitz#First phase|London Blitz]], the [[Scots Pine#Names|deal]] yards of Surrey Docks were set ablaze. The raid ignited over a million tonnes of timber in Quebec Yard, causing the most intense single fire ever seen in Britain.<ref>{{cite book|first=Peter |last=Stansky|year=2007|title=The first day of the blitz: September 7, 1940| edition=illustrated |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-12556-6|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=t5inp5IAhksC&pg=PA81 81]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Harris |first1=Clive |last2=Bright |first2=Neil |year=2010 |title=A Guide to Wartime London: Six Walks Revisiting the Blitz |edition=illustrated |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=9781848841727 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wrItyApr7bUC&pg=PA69 69]–70}}</ref>

The bombing of the old Rotherhithe Town Hall during the Second World War gives an indication of how heavy the bombing in Rotherhithe was. The first damage to the building occurred when Luftwaffe bombs landed nearby in April 1941, and there was more bomb damage in February and June 1944. Later the same month (June 1944) the Town Hall was severely damaged by a direct hit from a V1 [[doodlebug (flying bomb)|doodlebug]]. In November 1944 it was further damaged by near misses, and was finally destroyed by one of the last V1s to land on London.{{sfn|Blackman|2009}}

[[Haakon VII of Norway|King Haakon VII]] made many of his famous radio broadcasts to [[occupation of Norway|occupied Norway]] from [[The Norwegian Church in London|Saint Olav's Norwegian Church]] in Rotherhithe, where the Norwegian royal family were regular worshippers during their exile.<ref>[http://www.southwark.anglican.org/thebridge/0912/0912p8.pdf The Diocese of Southwark, ''The Bridge'', December 2009 - January 2010: Scandinavia in Rotherhithe] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928095639/http://www.southwark.anglican.org/thebridge/0912/0912p8.pdf |date=28 September 2013 }}</ref>