“What London Saw”: Gawkers, Sensation and Zepp Sunday

Invited speaker: (Dangerous Crowds) in Pre-Modern and Modern History conference, Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento, September 12-14 2024

Crowds on the road to Billericay trying to see the wrecked Zeppelin. 1916. Alamy

On the night of 3 September 1916, over Cuffley, Hertfordshire, a German army airship (Zeppelin) was shot down by 2nd Lieutenant William Leence,fe Robinson from a biplane, bursting into flames and crashing in a field near the Plough Inn, but not before launching over twenty bombs across London and its surrounds. The following day over 10,000 gawkers arrived at the site to take souvenirs of the wreckage and photograph the site. Motor buses from neighbouring towns conveyed troops to the area to control the crowds just as they did on the occasion of the Zeppelin crash at nearby Potters Bar. As The Times journalist, Michael MacDonagh observed, “The train I caught was packed. Despite the rain and a “thick, clammy mist,” joyful crowds had already gathered at the site two miles from the station.” The Cuffley event, however, brought the madness of what was called ‘Zepp Sunday’, an event that was seared into public imagination and the media.

This paper considers these events and the sensation of the crowd as spurring an unprecedented media flurry, which drove the production of visual and material culture from Zepp brooches to postcards and stereoviews as part of a major public propaganda campaign.