In the years leading up to the Second World War the Government ordered the production of hundreds of thousands stretchers. They were built using two metal poles and wire mesh as metal would be easier to clean and disinfect and would be sturdier than wooden or fabric stretchers. Some 600,000 were estimated to have been built and were used to carry injured civilians during The Blitz.
Post-war, many of London’s council estates were without railings, either due to bombing or the requirement of metal however the Civil Defence had thousands of metal stretchers which were obsolete. These were taken by councils and wielded together to replace the lost railings. Some still survive today, mostly on estates in Southwark.
Thousands of Londoners would have walked past these over the years oblivious to what they would have been used for. In 2017 campaigners launched The Stretcher Railing Society to raise awareness of these fascinating relics and to try and preserve them.
