Bethnal Green

On 3 March 1943, Londoners hurried into Bethnal Green Underground station, used as an air-raid shelter, after an air-raid siren and the unfamiliar sound of new anti-aircraft rockets nearby. On a poorly lit staircase of 19 steps, a woman carrying a baby and a bundle tripped near the bottom. Those behind her fell over her, and within seconds the stairwell was completely blocked. Crucially, the hundreds still pressing in from the street above could not see what had happened — and kept pushing down. About 300 people were crushed together in under a minute. 173 died, most of them women and children. In a dense crowd, the people causing the deadly pressure usually can't see the danger they're creating. They aren't panicking or malicious — they simply don't know the front has stopped. This is why staff with eyes on the whole flow, and the power to hold people back, save lives.