Southwest City, Phone 1: both bombs, Jack and the four escapees
Complete the phone chain with the correct door interactions, alley equipment and pursuit through Bermondsey and Brixton.
- Phone
- Leftmost of four phones in Southwest City
- Prerequisite
- When We Were Very Small introduction
- Main task
- Two door bombs → Jack → four escapees
- Time pressure
- First delivery 20 s; final pursuit 90 s total
- Edition
- London 1961, PC
- First door bomb
Dock explosives to West Southwark; plant on foot and retreat.
- Second door bomb
Fresh explosives in West Brixton; doorway in Southwest Bermondsey.
- Jack and the crates
Speak first in Northwest Brixton, then collect armour and the machine gun.
- Clear the meeting
Fight the instructed enemies without hitting Jack.
- Four escapees
Return to the car and follow the targets as they are reported.
An editorial overview. The sequence shows mission phases, not a city map drawn to scale.
The correct phone and the correct attempt
In When We Were Very Small, the introduction sends you to four neighbouring phones in Southwest City, west of the starting area. This guide covers the leftmost phone. Its number describes its position, rather than a compulsory mission order: the other phone jobs can be selected independently. Prepare a fast car whose cornering you understand. An already damaged vehicle is a poor starting point for the two deliveries and the later pursuit. Explore the rear approach to the first hideout before answering; searching for its entrance while the timer is running is expensive.
Understand the route as one chain
District names remain in English so they match the game. The target arrow gives a direction, rather than a guaranteed driveable street connection. This overview identifies destinations and approaches without inventing street names.
| Leg | District / landmark | Required change |
|---|---|---|
| First charge | Northeast Bermondsey, near the docks | Collect explosives; then head west |
| First hideout | West Southwark, behind the building beside the railway | Leave the car and approach the door |
| Second charge and door | West Brixton → Southwest Bermondsey | Collect fresh explosives; plant on foot again |
| Meeting | Northwest Brixton, Jack at the back of the alley | Keep the car accessible outside the alley |
| Pursuit | Bermondsey → Brixton, then west and east | Return to the car; follow each current target |
Step by step
Read the new message after each explosion. Completing an intermediate objective is not an instruction to wait outside the old building for more enemies.
- Drive from the phone to the explosives near the docks in Northeast Bermondsey. Collect the indicated charge and prepare to leave immediately: taking it moves the mission into the first delivery.
- Drive to West Southwark. The first bomb delivery is documented as a 20-second leg. Aim for the rear approach alongside the railway rather than searching the street-facing wall for an opening.
- Stop where you can get out quickly without trapping your car directly against the planting point. Walk to the indicated door. Arriving in the car does not perform the required planting interaction.
- Once placement is acknowledged, retreat from the building immediately. Do not stand beside the doorway waiting for another radio message. Keep your car away from the immediate blast area as well.
- Follow the next instruction to the second explosives in West Brixton. Then drive to the second hideout in Southwest Bermondsey. Treat its countdown as a separate stage; do not assume that remaining time from the first delivery carries over.
- Leave the car at the second hideout and reach its door on foot too. Retreat again as soon as the charge is placed. The subsequent message about a meeting, rather than simple arrival at the house, advances the chain.
- Drive to the meeting in Northwest Brixton. Do not immediately shoot into the group: first you must meet Jack Parkinson at the back. Keep the alley entrance clear and leave the car positioned for the later return journey.
- Walk to Jack and trigger his conversation. Then collect the armour from the left crate and the machine gun from the right crate. Do not fire through Jack; killing him fails the mission.
- Fight the gang members you are now instructed to kill. Having armour is not a reason to remain stationary and absorb every shot. Keep your eventual exit in mind while lining up your attacks.
- When the escape message arrives, get back into the car. A single 90-second pursuit covers all four escapees. The first is northeast of the meeting around the Bermondsey docks; the second is then south near the Brixton bus station.
- Next eliminate the target reported to the west around West Brixton, and finally the last target reported to the east. After every kill, reassess the new arrow and message. Finish on the success confirmation, rather than a personal count of the original meeting group.
Read the countdown and the exit correctly
The important savings come at transitions: arrive at explosives facing a useful direction, already know the rear doorway, and avoid leaving a car across the alley before meeting Jack. Historical accounts disagree about the second bomb delivery allowance, so follow the displayed countdown. Modified installations can differ as well. A different number is not, by itself, evidence that you answered the wrong phone. Planting at a door is followed by an explosion; completing the interaction is therefore not enough unless you also leave the danger area. During the pursuit, approaches that let you see the target reduce unnecessary corrections. Frantically ramming into a tight corner can cost more time than a controlled, brief weapon attack.
Diagnose a stalled chain
First identify the last instruction the game actually acknowledged. This separates a missing interaction from a slow journey.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Useful correction next attempt |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing happens at a building | You remain in the car or approach the wrong face | Reach the rear / indicated doorway, get out and walk to it |
| You die after planting | You stay beside the charge or the car parked against it | Let placement register, then immediately gain distance |
| The meeting unexpectedly fails | Jack was bypassed or hit | Complete his conversation and collect equipment before fighting |
| The car is awkward to reach after combat | Your arrival blocked the alley entrance | Park outside the narrow approach before the meeting |
| An escapee seems missing | Targets receive new instructions in sequence | Read the text and arrow after each kill instead of searching the old location |
FAQ: replay, the chapter target and PC scope
Must I complete Phone 2 first? No: the introduction opens the phone jobs. Does killing the fourth escapee finish the entire game? It completes this phone chain first. The chapter has a separate target of 100,000 points; its ending is tied to that threshold, rather than automatically to this single phone. Can I simply reload an unrestricted checkpoint inside the mission? This guide describes the original continuous PC chapter attempt and does not rely on such checkpoints. Driving on after failure does not restore the lost chain; plan a fresh chapter attempt if you want to complete it in full. London 1961 was a PC release, not a PlayStation or Game Boy Color mission pack. The old FAQ portal’s PlayStation filing does not change its platform. PC controls can be reassigned, so use your configured enter/exit action. Mods and external save states are outside the original sequence described here.
Source-researched; no own playthrough. Contemporary FAQ, mission documentation and a PC video reference were compared; the London 1969 manual supports shared basic functions only. Sources disagree on the second bomb delivery (20/25 seconds); use the timer displayed by your game.
Recommendations and interpretation are editorial. Information may change after the date shown above.