The bomb was found by builders in the middle of a housing estate, leading to the surrounding streets being locked down.
After someone noticed police officers outside, the management was told the area was to be evacuated within the next hour. Traffic was closed and houses, businesses and schools were evacuated.
Rebecca Sherwood, headteacher at Kintore Way Children’s Centre centre, said, ‘The children behaved really well, they had a sense of the seriousness of the situation even though they don’t really understand the concept of an unexploded World War Two bomb.’
All other buildings available to the nursery in case of an emergency were in the same area. However, after several phone calls Ms Sherwood found the Spa Secondary School in Bermondsey, who agreed to welcome the 147 children present at the centre on that day.
The staff texted the parents to get them to collect their children, but some had to stay for lunch, so the school provided children with lunch and cooked pasta. The nursery’s chicks had to stay at the secondary school overnight.
The children enjoyed the change of environment and were treated very well by the host school, Ms Sherwood said.
‘This could have been a difficult day but the parents were happy at how smooth things went,’ she added.
People were not allowed back into their homes in the evening so the setting was closed on Tuesday.
Families were ordered to leave their houses in the morning for safety as army experts prepared to defuse it.
People living in the 200-metre blast zone were told their lives would be at risk if they failed to leave, as any explosion would have destroyed and damaged the surrounding buildings.
The bomb is thought to have been dropped in 1941 during the Blitz by Luftwaffe planes. It was safely removed and detonated near the river Thames in Kent.
The setting re-opened as usual on Wednesday morning.
Kintore Way Children’s Centre was awarded ‘Outstanding’ for its early years provision in February. It cares for 240 children aged six months to five years old.
