19th January 1917: The Silvertown Explosion
On this day in 1917 an explosion occurred at a munitions factory in West Ham. Known as the Silvertown Explosion, around fifty tonnes of TNT detonated, killing seventy-three and damaging up to 70,000 properties - including the Savoy Hotel seven miles away, whose windows were blown out. The blast was heard as far away as Sandringham, one hundred miles from Silvertown.
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