Air Raid Shelters in East Dulwich

[Sue]

I found out last week that a large part of my tiny garden has a smashed up air raid shelter underneath it - I'd always wondered why the garden was on several levels, despite its miniscule size.

Did every house in ED have its own shelter? Seems rather excessive! I live in a terraced house and at least one set of neighbours also have one beneath their (equally small) garden.

[GSJ57]

We had one in our house in Rodwell Rd. If dug away the dirt you could still see the steps leading down to it, this was in the sixties.

[Townleygreen]

I believe most houses were offered an Anderson shelter if they had a garden big enough. It was made of currugated steel. You had to dig down to construct the sheltering/sleeping area. Is this what you have?

People who had a garden that was too small got a Morrison shelter which was like an armoured table you could sit under. You could use it as a table. It went inside the house - obviously.

[Marmora Man]

When I was a lad, growing up in East London almost all the terrace houses we lived in still had an Anderson shelter - usually by then doubling up as a damp, smelly and intriguing (to a 5 year old) shed cum storage area. Our garden, from memory, was about 15' wide x 50' long backing onto a Tube Line.

[computedshorty]

We had one.

But we did not get to it when the bomb dropped burying the shelter damaging our house that we were still in.

Consisting of fourteen sheets of corrugated iron, the shelter formed a shell 6 feet (1.8m) high, 4? feet (1.4m) wide and 6? feet (2m) long. It was buried to a depth of 4 feet (1.2m) and then covered with at least 15 inches (0.4m) of soil.

The Anderson shelter was issued free to all earning less than ?250 a year and at a charge of ?7 for those with higher incomes. Eventually 2 250 000 were erected and, in British fashion, made homely with bunks inside and flowers and vegetables planted in the protective bank of earth.

[Sue]

Townleygreen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>. It was

> made of currugated steel. You had to dig down to

> construct the sheltering/sleeping area. Is this

> what you have?

>

xxxxxxxx

Guess it must be, but a previous owner of the house must have smashed it up, but then just left the rubble there and shoved a load of soil on top.

I remember as a child in the fifties going to houses which still had the air raid shelters in place, but as it was not long after the war that wasn't surprising.

I just would have thought they'd have either removed it completely or kept it as it was for storage, rather than smashing it up!

[indiepanda]

My mum grew up in the East End during the war and they had a shelter in their back garden - thought it was pretty standard. Though fortunately they weren't in it when a bomb flattened it. Had got fed up of cold nights in a damp shelter - gather my mum was under the kitchen table and the rest of the family in the under-stairs cupboard and they all survived, would have died if they'd been where they meant to be.

[copleston_charlie]

Your original question asked if every house had one. I guess if your house had a cellar, maybe people would have sheltered in that?

[Susan]

yep we have one in our back garden on Crystal palace rd....now has an apple tree growing above it!

[computedshorty]

This picture shows a shelter ready to use.

To use a cellar most of these were situated under the staircase, at the opposite side of the house, so a four story Semi house there would be a chimney stack of eight chimneys in one very large and heavy block towering above the roof, when these were damaged by bombing they would fall to the other side of the house where the staircase was above the cellar, It is well known that a staircase has just two resting points to support the staircase, this is the most volatile place in a house structure, as proved after bombing.

[computedshorty]

These Brick Street Shelters were built in Basano Street, one in Jennings Road just behind the Heber Arms Gardens, two in the Dulwich Library Gardens, the one near the trafic lights facing Vals was later made into a Public Toilet.

Underground shelters in Dulwich Park were dug under the field just to the left entering Court Lane Gate, they were entered down a slope with a brick canopy then grassed over.

These were the same design as those facing the old Kings Arms at Peckham Rye Trafic Lights, exept that they had a Tarmac cover to stop rain penetration.

[Loz]

Graffiti was a bit tame in those days, computedshorty!

[damzel]

We've got one in our garden on Landells Road. It's half under ground and half above, concrete with arched roof. Small steel door and a metal rung ladder to get in it. I've always been too much of a coward to get in but my niece and nephew love it when they come over. The previous owners built a brick out-house on top and pebble dashed it - hilarious. Still trying to think of something we could use the shelter for.

[WrightC]

Susan Wrote:

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> yep we have one in our back garden on Crystal

> palace rd....now has an apple tree growing above

> it!

Mystery solved! I also live on CP Road; a few years ago I had my garden landscaped. The gardener came across a metal ladder buried (2 ft down) in concrete at the back of my garden. At the time I wondered what could it be..

I also have an Apple tree growing above it now, very strange..

[Freddy1929]

We lived in the Walworth Rd area during the war, got bombed out on about 5 occasions, went to every school in the area (due to bomb damage!) we had an Anderson Shelter, my Dad grew marrows on the roof, some of them got shrapnel wounds!They did taste fantastic though, mind you there wasn't much choice around!

At the start of the war my Mum made us go into the shelter every night, she would take the tin box with all the 'valuables' in, though they wouldn't have been valuable to anyone else! As the war went on we went down less and less except one night during the V1's (or V2's)my Mum insisted we all went down the Shelter, and low and behold the house came down, though the V bomb came down quite a way a way, haven't Mums got fantastic intuition when it comes to their kids safety.

Though War can be a terrible thing, as a kid growing up during that time, it was fantastic fun for a young boy, the bomb sites were great playgounds, we reinacted all the great battles of the time, collected shrapnall, had our own little Gangs (very different from Gangs today). I had my first kiss on top of a pile of rubble, yes we had girls in our Gang,though when we were younger we hadn't realised girls were different and as we began to notice they were different they left our gang and became young ladies who didn't want to play with us!

I was evacuated on two occasions (and thats a whole different story...) but my mum came and got me on both occasions as she felt if any one of us was going to die we would all die together,she was worried that if she died who would look after us, being 'in care' in those days was very different.