The
Government Stand
Prime Minister,
Stanley Baldwin, published a circular entitled 'Air Raid Precautions'
inviting local authorities to make plans to protect residents in the
event of war. Some towns
responded by building public air raid shelters of brick with roofs of
reinforced concrete. Readers
may be surprised to learn this was in September 1935.
The Government
feared war with Nazi Germany when in August 1938 Adolf Hitler’s
speeches suggested the German Army would be sent into Czechoslovakia.
Neville Chamberlain ordered that Air Raid Precautions (ARP)
volunteers be mobilized, cellars and basements were requisitioned for
air raid shelters, trench shelters were dug in the parks of large towns.
By March 1940, 6 months after the outbreak of war, the urgency for
public shelters was realised. Government
surveyors supervised the building of shelters, carried out by private
builders, using Government supplied materials.
Public shelters, to accommodate about fifty people, consisted of
14in thick brick walls and 12” thick reinforced concrete roofs. The shelters were divided into various sections each normally
furnished with six bunks, openings connecting the different sections.
Local Councils
quickly tried to accommodate as many of the population in their area as
possible - the sudden excessive demand causing the resources of concrete
and bricks to run out in some areas.
Due to the Government's poorly worded construction specification
an instruction was misinterpreted resulting in a sand and lime mix
without cement being used in the construction.
Those shelters were
cold, damp, and dark with poor ventilation quickly becoming squalid and
unsanitary - the stench often added to by the chemical toilets
overflowing.
When the bombs did
begin to fall, shelters simply crumbled and people sheltering in them
died. Rumours of accidents, such as drowning through flooding,
started to circulate rendering these shelters even more unpopular.
Shortly afterwards, householders were encouraged to build
Anderson garden or Morrison indoor shelters.
Alternative
Shelters
The Anderson and
Morrison shelters were fine for those who had the room to build them.
But what of those in the cities and towns without them who still
had to go about their daily lives? The public shelters would not be able
to cope with the masses who would need to use them.
One alternative pioneered in Finsbury was to build a system of
deep shelters far beneath the surface under its garden squares to house
many hundreds of people. The
Government rejected this idea as they feared it would create a 'deep
shelter mentality' with people moving into them never wanting to leave
the safety of such a shelter. This would render the people useless to
the war effort and thus hamper war production.
Some towns and cities did build underground shelters large enough to
protect dozens of people from bombing raids. They were made by digging
large trenches, the walls and roof lined with reinforced concrete, the
excess earth placed on top for added protection.
Despite the various
schemes, many people were still forced to shelter wherever they could;
under railway bridges and in warehouses and cellars of large buildings.
Nearly 10,000 people occupied a huge railway warehouse in
Whitechapel known as 'Tilbury shelter' - an eight storey warehouse off
Commercial Road. As the
blitz intensified a virtual pilgrimage of people along Commercial Road,
carrying bedding etc, began to use the make shift centre. Daily, women and children would be waiting for the doors to
open when the work of the warehouse had finished.
Conditions were initially unsanitary, thousands of people lying
head to toe with only 4 screened off earth toilets available. Conditions did eventually improve - Londoners choosing large
buildings like those in preference to smaller, stronger buildings.
Some left the city
nightly to get away from the onslaught of the Luftwaffe.
Special trains ran from London’s Cannon Street Station to
Chislehurst in Kent where people slept in caves.
Some set up home in them and shops were established to serve the
people seeking safety. First
Aid facilities became available. Even
music concerts and church services were held there.
Notices would be put up in the station when the caves were full.
Eventually, the Government took over running the caves and levied
a charge of 1d a night or, if paid in advance, 6d per week. Children
were admitted free.
School
Shelters
Most of the
shelters provided for schools were very basic due to the need for speed
of construction and lack of funds, some being no more than reinforced
rooms, corridors or a basement against the Board of Education's April
1939 circular "Air Raid Precautions in Schools." -
"School buildings were planned and constructed as not to lend
themselves to effective precautions of this kind" - "in times
of danger children should not be assembled in groups of more than fifty
in any one protected room or compartment."
The board recommended that shelters be separated from, but within easy reach
of, school buildings and be constructed in the form of trenches with
secure roofs giving them "immunity from splinters, anti-aircraft
shell fragments and machine gun fire."
No consideration was given to a direct bomb hit!
Many schools dug
trenches in playing fields but, many inner-city schools, not having any
playing fields, couldn’t do that.
Some erected free-standing shelters, trench-like in shape, on
playgrounds. Some walls were made from brick, but mostly walls were of soil
and sandbags.
The Board of
Education laid down strict requirements for shelter interiors. Shelter
floors should slope, with a sump at one end with a pump or bailing out
facility. Flooring should be of wooden duckboards, cinders or ballast. 28
inches of seating on wooden benches was to be allowed for each child,
arranged so that they sat along one or both shelter walls.
Walkways to be a minimum of 24 inches between a double row of
seating and 18 inches for a single row.
The height of the shelter was to be at least 72 inches.
Each shelter was to possess a gas curtain over its entrance
making the interiors "reasonably gas proof" although the
carrying of gas masks by all was still required.
Some schools had
the opportunity for perhaps a little more innovation when establishing
their air raid shelters. Simon
Langton Grammar School in Canterbury took advantage of the old
Whitefriars Hospital site it was built on. A number of underground passageways and galleries below the
playground and buildings were converted to air raid shelters.
One side of a typical shelter would be sectioned off and fitted
with slatted seats, bunks, or toilets.
The Underground
Rail Network
Long before war
broke out, Government policy had not allowed London's Underground
stations to be considered as public air raid shelters. Herbert Morrison, Minister for Home Security, was afraid children
might fall on the tracks and be killed.
There were, of course, other reasons. The Underground was never
designed to accommodate large numbers of people.
Diseases could spread quickly when people crowded together.
Many stations did not have adequate toilets or other amenities
for large numbers of people.
Morrison was afraid people would stay there all day as well as night so
everyday working life would cease and morale would be affected.
Londoners on the other hand had different ideas. When the time
came, they used the Underground.
‘The time came’
for London’s 9 million people when, on the 7th September 1940,
Air-Marshal Goering directed the Luftwaffe to destroy London.
This was the start of ‘The Blitz'.
The following
night, with many Public shelters overcrowded and nowhere else to
shelter, huge crowds of East Enders gathered outside Liverpool Street
Underground station, determined they were going to shelter in the safety
of the Tube station below. At
first, the authorities refused to let them in but, as the crowds refused
to leave, the gates were eventually opened.
Morrison's first fears were unfounded. Even when families found
themselves bombed out of their own homes they made a new home on the
Underground and daily life continued as usual. The vast majority of
people determined that life should go on.
It was, perhaps, their way of helping Britain win the war.
After September the
8th 1940 the Government decided to make the Tube a better shelter.
On September 21st the Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly line was
closed to trains, the tracks covered in concrete, sleeping places and
toilets provided. Many of
the tube tunnels were reinforced to withstand bomb blasts.
Floodgates were fitted to prevent the Thames from flooding any
tunnel that might be damaged. 79
stations were fitted with bunks, first aid clinics, and chemical
toilets.
On November 25th 1940, deep Tube stations at Lambeth North received the
first of 22,000 triple-bunk beds. From
29th October there were 124 canteens installed throughout the
Underground system with food delivered by special trains.
On 2nd November 1940 season tickets were introduced for people to
reserve their place in the Underground.
Deep Level
Shelter Tunnels
In 1940, when the Underground became
overcrowded as shelters, work began on building ‘deep level
shelters’.
Eight Underground shelters were
built by London Transport for 64,000 people, planned to be convertible
into new Underground lines after the war.
The new shelters took around 18 months to complete but,
eventually, the Government gave up on the idea of using them as public
shelters fearing they would be too expensive to maintain. For most of
the war, they were used for military purposes but five of the new
shelters were re-opened to the public
when the V1 flying bomb attacks started.
1
in 6 stay at home.
Despite the Government’s
efforts to shelter the public many people still preferred to shelter in
their own homes without adequate cover.
In November 1940 the Government took a Census of central London to see
where people were sheltering.....
-
4% were sheltering in the Underground
system.
-
9% in public shelters.
-
27% in domestic shelters, such as
Anderson or Morrison shelters.
-
60%
of Londoners still preferred to stay in their own homes,
sheltering in cupboards, underneath stairs, beds or wherever else they
felt safe
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It
would be interesting to know where locals residents sheltered.
It was once said that, statistically, the safest place in
Whitstable was .……………..on the beach!
Response
to Brian's Question....
We are not sure of all
the nooks and crannies used as shelters but we do know the place of
safety for the Fallon family on one occasion....
During one night-time air raid, my parents and I sat in the
living room. On hearing a screaming bomb descending, we all dived
under the heavy oak dining table. The funny thing was only
our heads and shoulders to waist level were protected - the rest
of our bodies all "hung out" to take whatever might come!!!
Mollie Fallon
London - Formerly Whitstable |
The end was in sight!
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