In the Royal Academy exhibition of 1942 Wilfrid exhibited two paintings entitled The Spirit of London. The scene of devastation around St Paul’s cathedral was one with which Londoners in the period would have been all too familiar and the de Glehns were no exception. In April of 1941 their home at 73 Cheyne Walk was destroyed by a parachute bomb, which hit the Old Church and killed five ARP wardens in the process. Wilfrid has chosen a view of the great cathedral towards the damaged north side, across the demolition site in the foreground—the ruins of Paternoster Row.

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