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Original Text (Annotation: EPW001876 / 161539)
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The Walrond Memorial Smack Boys' Home and Fishermen's Institute, on the Ballast quay, was erected in 1875: it contains all the necessary appliances for securing the comfort and accommodation of smack boys when ashore: the buildings are of a Gothic character, freely treated, and contain office, dining room, reading-room, large room for meetings, dormitories on the separate bunk system, rooms for the manager and necessary offices: it will accommodate 38 boys, each having a separate bed and apartment.
It stood from 1875 until 18th February 1941 when it received a direct hit and was destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid which took place between the hours of 03.00 and 05.44. That same night shrapnel from a German High Explosive bomb punctured and ignited the Gas Holder on Admiralty Road, which lit up the skies and until the Civil Defence and Fire Brigade bods cooled down and extinguished was a marker for the following German bombers.
28 HE bombs and 100 Incendiary Bombs hit GY that night, 6 falling on the Quayside, 1 hitting and destroying this building.
This is what this beautifully constructed building looked like in the early 1900's '