This is a section that I really need some help with finding sites - does anyone know of any

air raid shelters to photograph? Do any of you have one in your back garden?

email me on: derelictlondon@yahoo.co.uk (ps. the above sign is a reproduction of an original sign

and is for the benefit of the London at War Museum at London Bridge)

Want present day pics of your old haunts? Researching your family tree and need location pics? Pictures taken to order - low cost - any job considered (not just derelicts!). Much cheaper than professional photographers

Contact: Paul at derelictlondon.com

The British government decided after the first world war that should a similar war happen again, it

would be prudent to have a second secure location for the most senior ministers to escape to and

Why Neasden? This part of Neasden was home to a very secret Post Office research centre

created in the late 1920s and early 1930s. This was where Tommy Flowers carried out the research

that led to the design and construction of the first electronic computer, Colossus, at Bletchley Park.

His computers played an essential part in cracking the most challenging of the German military codes.

Winston Churchill's secret bunker was really secret throughout World War Two (1939-1945). There are War

Rooms under Whitehall, where Churchill held cabinet meetings and slept but he also had another bunker,

40 ft below ground in sleepy Brook Road, Neasden, NW London.

The bunker, codenamed Paddock, was an alternative to the Cabinet War Rooms at Whitehall, which would not

have survived a direct hit. This bunker was deep enough to be completely bombproof. Paddock was meant to

be Churchill's last refuge if the World War 2 Battle of Britain had been lost. It was designed to accommodate

the entire war cabinet and 200 staff. It cost £250,000 to build the bunker in 1938 - that would be about £80

Paddock was so secret, that Churchill only described it as "near Hampstead" in his memoirs. But he used it

just once for a war cabinet meeting because he thought it was too far away from the city and he found it rather

A steel clad door is the only clue to Churchill's secret wartime bunker . Families live next door in homes built by

Stadium Housing Association. In 1997, a housing development company bought the land.They spent £15,000

on the bunker including pumping out two feet of water that had settled in the sub-basement when the fabric of the

structure was damaged during the construction of the new houses above. Pumps were fitted and lighting installed

The Post Office workers used parts of the upper floor for a social club in the 1960's. The gap in the wall of the middle

pic was the bar serving area! This area was also used as a recording studio. It was built to withstand the biggest bombs

of the day, but water leaks in everywhere. There are no toilets underground & the kitchen is tiny. Yet it has a large map

room, cabinet room, sleeping quarters for Churchill, separate areas for Army, Navy, and Air force. A room is dedicated

The coat hooks are in the War Cabinet Room. There was dry rot fungus up to two feet deep hanging from the walls and

ceilings when the room was re-opened. It’s been cleared but it’s growing back here and in most of the other lower level

rooms. Churchill held just one meeting here on 3 October 1940 with twelve other ministers and three chiefs of staff.

He is believed to have slept in the room next door where a rotting bed was found in one corner.

Threads of long thin stalactites hang from the ceilings.They are hollow calcite straws caused by calcium

leaching out of the concrete. In some places stalactites on their way down have met stalagmites on their

(left pic) telephone exchange room - The main distribution frame still stands with numerous racks of relays still in place.

- each batch of relays has a metal dust cover, some of which are labeled

(right pic) the generator room - the control panel - the original diesel-powered generator is still present

Portable "Consul" Air Raid Shelter - Imperial War Museum, Lambeth

These could accomodate two people and give protection against shrapnel and falling masonry during air raids.

Often used at railway stations where staff had to guide passengers to safety before taking shelter themselves.

After the heavy bombing of mid-1940, in the October of that year it was decided to build these shelters.Eight

shelters were completed in 1942 around London all beneath existing underground stations and seven on the

Northern Line. Each consisted of two parallel tunnels 1200 feet long and divided into two floors.

Each 100ft underground and contained 8000 bunks, canteen and hospital facilities.In order to avoid a repetition

of the devastating effects of the direct hits at tube stations such as Bank, the heads of the staircases were

protected by heavy concrete blockhouses. (The bomb at Bank bounced down the escalator and exploded on the

Designated as an emergency command post in anticipation of London by V1 & V2 rockets

In 1948 the Deep Tunnel at Clapham South provided temporary accommodation for 236 Jamaican immigrants

that sailed to Britain on "The Windrush". Brixton was the nearest Labour Exchange so many settled nearby.

Became a youth hostel during the festival of Britain in the 1950's

A bunker built for highly-placed army officials, including the American General Eisenhower. Most of the D-Day invasion

was planned from the depths of here. It continued in use as an army transit centre until it was damaged by fire in 1956.

The Pillbox is one of the most easily recognisable survivors of the 1940 anti-invasion defences. They were designed

as local strongpoints and intended for a garrison of from one up to ten men who would have been armed with rifles, light

or heavy machine guns. Some were equipped with a mounting to use one or more machine guns in an anti aircraft role.

With very thick walls, they were difficult to destroy by artillery barrages. It was possible to fire through narrow slits in the wall.

When viewed from the road below this pillbox looks a little out of place!

Any places you think should be on this site? Let me know!

Also info (however trivial) or stories/personal memories on any of the buildings would

(Near the site of) Thames Ammunition Works - Slade Green/Erith

These pics were taken on the marshes just west of the Dartford bridge - this is the site of the Joyce Green Aerodrome

in World War 1 and the Thames Ammunition Works in World War 11

The Dartford Area was the most heavily bombed area per acre in Britain. Dartford was the front line for the German

bombardment of Britain. Planes which could not make it to London often dumped their bombs on Dartford before returning

home. Flying bombs (V1 Doodlebugs and V2 rockets) fell short of London on many occasions. Over 13,000 houses were

damaged by bombing and some 150 people were killed. Local A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions) officials kept records of

incidents, and records kept by Fire Watchers and Home Guard gave an idea of how many bombs fell. An estimated 2

million incendiary bombs were dropped in the Dartford Rural area.

Matthew England writes: "The site is a heavy anti aircraft battery with two defending pillboxs and other various buildings,

I think one is a shelter and one a plotting room. This site can be viewedon google earth at 51 28' 29.57" N 0 12'10.29" E.

There are also records about this site in the Archaeology Data Service web site ADS record ID - CBA -DOBNAI-3073

is one and another on the Defence of Britain database record no 3073."

Believed to be about 200 years old - used by the Victorians to store ice in the warm summer months.

Sign for air raid shelter in a housing estate. There is no other evidence of the shelter.

Some rare signs in a residential street pointing to a public air-raid shelter.

"A couple of years ago we found a large (10'x8') raised slab in the garden

after removing some "decorative" crazy paving and a wishing well. The old

man who we bought the house from assured us the "feature" was only a patio.

After digging round it we found what I can only describe as a sunken

pillbox. Not just a concrete slab but a completely cast re-inforced

concrete building that protruded up from the ground about 18 inches. Which

meant it had to go so we could put in a shed and decking.

It took me a week with a pnuematic drill to remove the roof and get the

walls level with the rest of the garden. What a nightmare. The roof was

approx 12" thick with scaffolding tubes running through the concrete.

I could find no local history as to what the bunker was or who would have

paid for it during the war. Also around the back of the garden is the remains

of a large section concrete wall and some further brickwork under the flowerbed

It seemed far more substantial than the usual civilian Anderson shelters

more like the Pillbox at Old Ford on your site. We even found a .303

But as the local council didn't have record of it and the armt records

couldn't find details of anything we demolished it.

Shame as it would have made a good photo on Derelict London"

"Some years ago while wandering around the Rockingham Street area of the Elephant & Castle

I came across some blocks of flats with unusual metal fencing on low brick walls. The metal

parts of the fences seemed vaguely familiar until I realised that they were made of WW2

emergency stretchers made of bent tubes with wire mesh stretched between. Attached is a

drawing made from memory of what they looked like."