When I first heard about the stretcher railings outside some south London estates, I was keen to see them. The fences are made from recycled World War II stretchers. I realised I had been past some of these black steel and mesh railings lots of time without knowing what they were.
The stretchers were mass produced for World War 2. They were a simple design of cast iron poles with wire mesh. The four "indents" are the "feet" so the stretcher could be rested on the ground. They were used by the Air Raid Protection officers. During the Blitz, an injured person would be put onto a stretcher and carried off to safety.
The stretchers were quick to produce in quantity and were easier to clean then conventional wood or material stretchers. After the war, a large stockpile of these stretchers remained. And as a lot of London's housing estates had lost their railings which were converted into weaponry, London City Council decided to use the stretchers for new railings. They were welded together, fixed onto poles, and embedded into concrete.
There are several places in London where these railings can be seen. I firstly went to Peckam/Camberwell, on Peckham road near St Giles Church, there are housing estates on both sides of the road with these railings.
I then went to look at some in Deptford. They are on Brookmill Road at Mereton Mansions, near Deptford Bridge station. Google Street View image -
See more on Atlasobscura and also Look Up London.
Interesting!
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