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“Lost” bomb shelter found after hole appears
January 9, 2012 11:37 PM
A forgotten Second World War air raid shelter which protected hundreds of people from German bombs has been discovered.
Council workers made the discovery after a hole appeared in the ground in Carshalton Park in south London. Investigations revealed that the hole was an escape hatch leading from the buried bomb shelter.
It is believed that the shelter consisted of a rectangle of four corridors, approximately five feet across, which would have housed up to 1,000 people sitting on wooden benches.
Sutton Council has now launched an appeal for information from any residents who may remember when the shelter was open.
Cllr Graham Tope, Executive Member for Community Safety, Leisure and Libraries, said: "It's potentially a significant find which could shed some fresh light on wartime Britain. We understand the Government of the day ordered it to be built for people who couldn't afford an Anderson shelter in their garden or who didn't have a garden.
"We would love to hear from residents who know more about it - or who even took shelter in it during a raid."
Carshalton was hit a number of times by German Luftwaffe bombers during the war and also suffered a number of V1 rocket strikes.
Preliminary investigations suggest the rediscovered shelter is in good condition and officials now plan to excavate it further. The area has been cordoned off ahead of excavation work being carried out.
Council worker Tom Webb was first on the scene after the hole was reported. He said "When we first got a call saying that a hole had appeared I thought that it would just be a missing manhole cover, but as soon as I got down to the park I realised that it was much more. Once it was safely cordoned off, I went straight back to the office to find out what was down there. Using information from satellite images and old council minutes, we discovered that an air-raid shelter capable of holding 1,000 people was built under the park, possibly to help keep people in a nearby cottage hospital safe."
Typically air shelters of this type were made from concrete slabs submerged in the ground with the spoil from the excavation thrown on top.
The main entrance down several steps took a zigzag form to prevent any debris being blown into the safe area when the bombs fell.
Photographs and information about the shelter could be featured in a future exhibition at the nearby Honeywood Museum, which is due to reopen later this year after a major refurbishment.
In 2010, a similar air raid shelter was discovered when a five metre hole appeared in Sutton Green. A large number of residents subsequently contacted the council with information about it including people who had sheltered there during bombing raids.
Anyone with information can contact Maura Collyer on 0208 770 5070 or by emailing parks.serviceenquiries@sutton.gov.uk
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