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Britons felt most keenly the destruction of the Guildhall, medieval town hall of London where for six centuries the great and illustrious have been honored with pageantry and much of the history of the British Empire has been made. Within the charred shell of its Gothic walls black-faced workmen pried under massive oaken beams searching for the familiar old figures of Gog and Magog, 14½-foot wooden grotesques who guarded the Guildhall.
Londoners recalled a famous Elizabethan prophecy that if Gog and Magog were ever destroyed, London's City would go too. Lost was the Guildhall's greatest treasure—the 11th-Century parchment charter granted the City of London by William the Conqueror.
A stooped, burly figure wearing a black Homburg hat and puffing a cigar strode through the City's ruins. When he came to a puddle of water several inches deep he waded through it. "Stick to it, Winnie," shouted the people as they recognized their Prime Minister. "We won't crack up!" "No sir," he replied, "we won't crack up."
A grey-haired old newsvendor called her papers in the midst of desolation. "Me move?" she said. "I've 'ad this stand for 50 years and it'll take more than a fire to make me give it up."
Firebomb Fighters. As in 1666, Londoners again rolled up their sleeves and went to work clearing away debris and opening traffic lanes. The fire had revealed plainly the need for more fire-watchers and equipment. Many buildings, including the Guildhall, might have been saved had not the watchers taken Sunday night off.
In a fighting speech to the nation, Minister of Home Security Herbert Morrison roundly condemned "irresponsible property owners" who had not even placed watchers over their own premises and announced that if necessary the Government would use compulsion to acquire an adequate number of spotters. Incendiaries, he emphasized, can be easily extinguished with sand or removed, and this work must be done by civilians in order to leave the fire brigades free to fight bigger blazes. Boy Scouts 15 and 16 years old were mobilized last week as spotters and women were also asked to join the new organization known as "Firebomb Fighters." "Fighting firebombs is dangerous work," said Morrison, "but the time is long gone by when women can be kept away from dangerous work in defense of their country." Eight nights later when the Nazis attempted a repeat performance, men, women and boys swarmed over buildings extinguishing three-pound incendiaries as they landed. "We want more!" they chanted exultantly as the Nazis finally gave up and went home. To insure adequate supplies of water for future fires, plans were under consideration for sealing basements and storing millions of gallons at strategic points throughout the city.