"Exeter Is the Jewel of the West. We Have Destroyed That Jewel."
Those chilling words were reportedly spoken by a German pilot after the raids of May 1942. Whether the quote is precisely accurate or not, the sentiment was devastatingly true. In the space of a few terrifying nights, Exeter — one of England's most beautiful and historically rich cities — was torn apart by incendiary and high-explosive bombs.
If you walk through Exeter today, you might notice something curious. The city centre has an unusual mix of architectural styles: medieval lanes sitting next to 1950s concrete, Georgian survivors flanking post-war shopping precincts, ancient city walls running behind modern car parks. It can feel disjointed, even puzzling, if you don't know the story behind it.
That story is the Exeter Blitz. Understanding it doesn't just explain the city's appearance — it deepens your relationship with the place you live in, work in, or visit. And for those of us who believe that connection to place matters as much as connection to people, it's a story worth knowing. If you want to see the city's surviving heritage for yourself, our walking tour of hidden gems covers many of the buildings and streets mentioned here.
The Baedeker Raids: Why Exeter Was Targeted
The bombing of Exeter wasn't random. It was part of a deliberate strategy known as the Baedeker Raids — named after the famous German tourist guidebooks. In April 1942, the RAF had bombed the historic German city of Lubeck, destroying much of its medieval centre. In retaliation, the Luftwaffe targeted English cities chosen specifically for their cultural and historical significance rather than their military value.
Baron Gustav Braun von Stumm, a spokesman for the German Foreign Office, reportedly declared: "We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide." Exeter, with its magnificent cathedral, medieval streets, and centuries of architectural heritage, was a prime target.
The main raids hit Exeter on the nights of 3rd and 4th May 1942, though smaller attacks had occurred in the preceding weeks. The assault on the night of 4th May was the most devastating. Waves of bombers dropped high-explosive bombs followed by thousands of incendiaries, turning the city centre into an inferno.
The Baedeker Raids also targeted Bath, Norwich, Canterbury, and York — all cities chosen for their historical and cultural importance rather than any strategic military value. Exeter was the first to be hit.
What Exeter Lost
The scale of destruction was staggering. According to the figures collated by Exeter Memories and the Heritage Hub at St Sidwell's, around thirty acres of the city centre were devastated; some 1,500 of the city's 20,000 houses were obliterated entirely and 2,700 more badly damaged; over 400 shops, nearly 150 offices, 50 warehouses and 36 pubs were destroyed; and the human cost was 156 lives lost and 583 people injured.
But the cultural losses were perhaps even more profound. Exeter lost buildings that had stood for centuries and could never be replaced.
Bedford Circus
Perhaps the single greatest architectural loss was Bedford Circus, an elegant Georgian crescent designed in 1773 — often compared to the crescents of Bath. The bombs and fires of 4th May gutted the buildings. What makes this loss doubly painful is that historical evidence suggests parts of Bedford Circus were structurally intact after the bombing and could potentially have been repaired. Instead, post-war policy called for complete demolition and rebuilding. The site was cleared entirely, and Bedford Circus was lost forever.
Deller's Cafe
Deller's Cafe on Bedford Street, which opened in December 1916, had gained a reputation as one of the finest cafes in England. The building featured in numerous architectural journals throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Its interiors were considered unique — not just in Exeter, but possibly in the entire country. Like Bedford Circus, the remains of Deller's were completely demolished after the war rather than reconstructed.
The High Street
Two thirds of Exeter's High Street were destroyed on that single night. The historic streetscape of timber-framed buildings, many dating back centuries, was consumed by fire as incendiaries ignited building after building. The flames spread so quickly that firefighters, already stretched thin, could not contain them.
Churches, Libraries, and Landmarks
St Lawrence Church, the Globe Hotel, the College of the Vicars Choral, and St Catherine's Almshouses were all lost. The City Library was destroyed along with over a million documents and books — an irreplaceable archive of Exeter's history reduced to ash.
The Cathedral's Narrow Escape
Exeter Cathedral, miraculously, largely survived. A single high-explosive bomb hit St James's Chapel on the cathedral's southern side, demolishing it, but the main structure endured. Had the cathedral been lost, the character of Exeter would have been altered beyond recognition. Its survival remains one of the war's small mercies.
The Rebuilding: Thomas Sharp and Exeter Phoenix
After the war, the question of how to rebuild Exeter became intensely political. The city council commissioned the renowned town planner Thomas Sharp to design the reconstruction. His vision, published in his 1945 book Exeter Phoenix, was ambitious and forward-looking.
Sharp proposed a modern city centre with wide pavements, pedestrian areas, and carefully framed views of the cathedral. He wanted to preserve the ancient Roman city walls while creating a contemporary urban landscape that reflected the optimism of the post-war era. His plan for a pedestrian shopping street aligned upon the cathedral's towers was particularly bold.
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) on Queen Street has permanent displays exploring Exeter's history from prehistory through the Blitz and beyond. Their gallery handling sessions let you engage with wartime artefacts directly. Entry is free.
What Was Built
The reality, as with most grand plans, involved compromises. The council lacked the funds to implement Sharp's vision fully, and the rebuilding dragged on for roughly two decades, hampered by shortages of labour, materials, and money. But some of Sharp's ideas did take shape.
The original Princesshay shopping precinct, built in the 1950s, was the first pedestrian-only shopping street in the United Kingdom — a direct result of Sharp's planning. It was widely regarded as one of the most successful elements of the post-war design, offering a clear sightline towards the cathedral towers.
Princesshay itself was then redeveloped again in the 2000s into the modern open-air shopping centre you see today, retaining the pedestrian character but replacing the post-war buildings with contemporary architecture. Whether this second redevelopment improved or diminished the area is still debated by Exeter residents.
The Post-War High Street
The High Street was rebuilt in the utilitarian style common to 1950s Britain — functional concrete and brick that prioritised speed and economy over beauty. Buildings that survived the Blitz but stood in the way of the new plan were often demolished anyway. Between 1950 and 1980, nearly half the High Street buildings that had endured the bombing were knocked down by the city council for redevelopment.
This is why the city centre can feel architecturally disjointed. The medieval lanes around the cathedral sit beside stark post-war blocks. The 1969 Civic Centre, a brutalist structure near the bus station, is an example of the bold modernism that replaced what the bombs had taken. You either admire it for its confident period character or wish something else had been built. There is no middle ground.
What You Can Still See Today
Despite everything, traces of the Blitz and its aftermath are woven into Exeter's fabric if you know where to look.
The City Walls
Exeter's Roman and medieval city walls survived the bombing remarkably well. Almost 70 per cent of the original circuit — around 1,700 metres — remains visible today, some sections standing up to 2.5 metres high. Walking along them, you pass from ancient stonework into post-war rebuilding and back again, seeing exactly where the old city ended and the new one began.
The Cathedral Close
The area immediately around Exeter Cathedral retains much of its pre-war character, giving you a sense of what the wider city might have looked like had the Blitz not happened. Mol's Coffee House on Cathedral Close, a striking timber-framed building dating from the early 16th century, survived and still stands today. It is a building to look at rather than a café to visit — the name is historic, not a menu.
RAMM
The Royal Albert Memorial Museum, founded in 1868 and housed in a striking Gothic Revival building of local red sandstone, came through the war intact. Its galleries tell the story of Exeter and Devon from prehistory to the present day, including the Blitz. It was named UK Museum of the Year by the Art Fund in 2012, after a major refurbishment.
RAMM periodically runs Second World War and Exeter Blitz gallery handling sessions, where visitors can handle authentic and replica wartime artefacts — household items, military equipment, and objects that reveal the impact of the air raids on everyday life. Check the museum's What's On pages for what is currently scheduled.
The Polish night-fighter squadron stationed at RAF Exeter during the war, which helped defend the city during the Blitz raids, is a chapter of Exeter's wartime story that many residents don't know — worth asking about when you visit.
The Royal Clarence Site
One site still bearing the scars of wartime loss — compounded by more recent misfortune — is the former Royal Clarence Hotel on Cathedral Yard. Widely described as England's first purpose-built hotel, it was damaged in the Blitz and later restored. Then, in October 2016, a devastating fire gutted the building entirely. The site is now under restoration, with plans to return it to use — though it is an active building site rather than somewhere you can visit, so admire it from Cathedral Yard and no closer. The restoration is worth watching: it's a story of a building that has survived two catastrophes and, hopefully, will emerge again. Our Exeter hotels guide covers what is planned for the site.
Bomb Crater at Hoopern Fields
Local accounts place one tangible relic of the bombing near the university: a bomb crater in Hoopern Fields, close to the Washington Singer laboratories — a quiet, grass-covered hollow that few people recognise for what it is. It is not signposted, and we have not been able to confirm it first-hand, so treat it as a curiosity to look for rather than a destination.
Walking the Blitz Route
The best way to understand what happened to Exeter is to walk it. The city's Red Coat Guided Tours run a dedicated Blitz walk — a free guided tour that traces the path of the bombing raids through the city centre.
The walk starts from the Devon War Memorial on Cathedral Green and is led by one of Exeter's volunteer Red Coat Guides. They bring photographs of the damage, share anecdotes from people who lived through the raids, and explain how each part of the city was affected and subsequently rebuilt. The Blitz walk is a commemorative tour tied to the May anniversary rather than a year-round fixture, so check the schedule before planning a trip around it.
The wider Red Coat programme — covering many different aspects of Exeter's history — runs far more frequently than the Blitz walk does, and the tours are free. Check the Exeter City Council website for the current schedule and meeting points, and note that the Blitz walk itself is not part of the everyday rota. The Red Coat Guides run various other walking tours throughout the year.
Why This History Matters Now
There is a reason we are writing about the Blitz on a website dedicated to bringing people together over food. Understanding the place where you live — its scars, its stories, its compromises — is part of building a genuine connection to it. When you know why the High Street looks the way it does, why Princesshay exists, why there are sudden gaps in the historic streetscape, you see Exeter differently. You see it with something closer to empathy.
The Blitz also tells a story about community. In the aftermath of the bombing, Exeter's residents pulled together in ways that defined the city for a generation. Neighbours sheltered each other. Volunteers dug through rubble. The city rebuilt — imperfectly, sometimes controversially, but it rebuilt. That spirit of resilience and togetherness is something worth remembering, especially when the world feels uncertain.
Exeter today is a city shaped by loss and recovery. Its mix of medieval, Georgian, post-war, and modern architecture tells a story that few visitors notice but that every resident benefits from understanding. The next time you walk down the High Street and wonder why the buildings don't quite match, you'll know. And knowing is the first step towards truly belonging somewhere.
If you are exploring Exeter's history further, the best pubs in the city are often excellent places to hear locals share their own stories of how the city has changed — and to start building connections of your own. The Gandy Street and Cathedral Quarter survived the raids largely intact and remains the most atmospheric part of the city. The Underground Passages beneath the High Street are medieval tunnels that predated the Blitz by centuries and emerged unscathed. And the Roman history of Exeter shows that the city has been rebuilding and reinventing itself for nearly two thousand years.
For those who want to explore the Blitz heritage in depth, the Exeter Memories website has photographs, first-hand accounts, and detailed maps of the damage. The Heritage Hub at St Sidwell's also has an excellent collection of local wartime history. And during Heritage Open Days in September, many of the buildings mentioned in this article open their doors for free — it's the best time of year to see them.
Our guides to Exeter's best neighbourhoods and what's on in the city are good places to continue exploring.