Slough Poem by John Betjeman

I would have thought that there are enough bombs falling already, without actually inviting someone to drop them.1937, same year as Guernica, if I am not mistaken.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough To get it ready for the plough. The cabbages are coming now; The earth exhales.

Slough became home to 850 new factories just before the outbreak of world war two. The "Trading Estate", first seen in Slough, was quickly reproduced throughout Britain, prompting the poem in 1937.

Betjeman was struck by the "menace of things to come" but later regretted the poem's harshness. Betjeman was alarmed at the desecration of industrialization and modernity in general.

A grand reflection of the future possibilities of Slough. No despondence here, just the excitement of a new beginning. Wow! Rgds, Ivan