Image Bank
Swansea
Ben Evans Store in flames
When towns were bombed, things that people were accustomed to over many years vanished overnight. Places where they had worked, learnt, lived and worshipped were gone.
Ben Evans store was the pride of Swansea. It was a very decorative five- storey building, crowned with a dome, on a big site in the town centre. People loved its revolving door, deep carpets, its restaurant and hairdressing salon, and the fact that you could buy almost anything there.
On the 21st February 1941 it was destroyed. It was a huge shock. Not many bombs actually fell on the shop, but the fires across the town grew fierce, and spread like a forest fire, eventually breaking through the fine facade. From a mile away people saw the dome crumble and fall.
The photograph shows the morning after, as firemen cooled the smouldering shell.
Activity: What's the story?
Look at the picture and read, listen to, or print the story.