This section of the website commemorates the World War One Zeppelin strike on Camberwell, next to Albany Road – in an area which is now part of Burgess Park.
The story of Burgess Park in WW1
Revealing the impact of World War I on people’s lives and society
Almost one hundred years ago, on October 19 1917, a Zeppelin bomb landed in Albany Road/Calmington Road, Camberwell. It killed 10 people, injured 24 and demolished three houses, a fish and chip shop and a doctor’s surgery. The Friends of Burgess Park project Zeppelin 1917, which took place in the autumn of 2017, uncovered the stories of local heroes, and pieced together the details of the dramatic raid right over what is now Burgess Park.
A major programme of events was produced to commemorate the centenary, during October 2017, and the events have been reported on in these blogs. The pages which follow this are based on the Zeppelin 1917 exhibition, produced by local volunteers.
The Zeppelin 2017 commemorations featured:
Exhibition – A timeline of the raid and archival display – open Saturdays during October 2017, with opening talk by Zeppelin expert Ian Castle on Saturday 7 October. Read all about it in our Blog
Hidden Heroes – Talk by Stephen Bourne, author of Black Poppies, on the black community and the Great War, Saturday 14 October 2017. Read the Blog
Animated Walk – Created by actors using research by local volunteers, to animate the history of WW1 and the Zeppelin Raid on Calmington Road in October 1917, on Saturday 21 October. Read the Blog
Family events – Drop-in family events including art workshops with Art in the Park, Cuming Museum object handling, stories and rhymes with Vanessa Woolf, Saturday 7th and Thursday 26th and Friday 27th October.
We’re very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for assisting us with a grant of £9,800 towards the commemorations. We also acknowledge a big debt of gratitude to all the volunteer researchers who helped put the exhibition together, the staff of the Imperial War Museum, Cuming Collection and Southwark Archives for their tremendous input, and to Theatre Delicatessen in the Old Library, for hosting many of the events.
Move on to the exhibition: 
