9th February 2019
Another Hidden London visit to break up the monotony of winter. This time to a very deep hole in the ground. I got the train from Sandhurst via Guildford and Clapham Junction to Balham (Gateway to the South) and despite it being Saturday all the trains ran within a couple of minutes on time and none were cancelled. I mention this because I'm not usually that lucky.
A 15 minute stroll up Balham High Road brought me to Clapham South station, or more accurately to the Costa opposite for refreshments, impeccably timed so that I missed the rain shower that occurred whilst I was inside. Filled up on cappuccino and cinnamon brioche bun (those are nice) and with some time to kill before the tour of the shelter was due to start I crossed the road and had a wander around the southern half of Clapham Common.
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| Clapham South shelter surface building |
The first thing you come to (ignoring the robot khazi) is one of the entrance "pillbox" buildings to the deep level shelter. Just behind it is the top of one of the ventilation system shafts.
This entrance is not the one used for the tour though, that's further south back along Balham Hill, now incorporated into a modern apartment block and known locally as the drum.
Further wandering across the common brought me to the bandstand and Mount Pond before heading back to Clapham South station to meet the Hidden London tour guides and be registered and fitted with a fetching pink paper wristband. While waiting we were entertained by the leaping beggar outside the station entrance who would occasionally and for no discernible reason jump up into the air. I'm not sure care-in-the-community is working quite as well as we'd hope. Just be glad it isn't you - unless it is you and you're reading this in which case you've dropped your lighter by the south entrance door to the station.
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| South London Women & Children's Hospital |
Across the road from the station is an impressive bit of 1920s neo-classical architecture.
A quick Google informed me that it was the
South London Hospital for Women and Children. Designed by Sir Edwin Cooper it was for women patients and staffed by women only right up until its controversial closure in 1984.It is now a Tesco store. Or at least the bits that remain that they weren't allowed to destroy are. Thankfully the Tesco branding on the exterior is unusually understated, to the extent that I hadn't noticed its new use until I looked it up.
Back to the main subject of this post and back to Clapham South station. The tour party met up under the high lantern over the station entrance and once all were present and correct lead the short distance
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| Clapham South entrance |
Inside we were given a short safety briefing - all sources of ignition are banned and anyone who thinks they might have trouble climbing back up the 179 stairs is requested to seriously consider whether they should proceed on the tour. There is no working lift. There is definitely no step-free access!
Clapham South is one of 8 deep-level air raid shelters built between 1941 and 1942 (10 were planned but two were abandoned before completion due to difficulties) after it became horribly apparent that the tube stations that people were using as air raid shelters were not adequate. There was great loss of life at Bank station and again at Balham, where the bombs shattered water and sewerage mains resulting in many of the victims being drowned in effluent which flooded into the tunnels. Each shelter was intended to house 10,000 people although that was later reduced to 8000 as it was decided that 10,000 would be overcrowded. The shelters were all attached to tube stations on the Northern and Central Lines because they utilised pre-war plans for express tube lines intended to run beneath the existing lines.
The 10 shelters were located at:
- Belsize Park
- Camden Town
- Goodge Street
- Chancery Lane
- St. Pauls (not completed due to concerns about undermining the cathedral).
- Oval (not completed because it kept flooding while they were building it).
- Stockwell
- Clapham North
- Clapham Common
- Clapham South
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| Direction sign in the tunnels |
Spiralling down the 179 steps we went (insert your own reference to the "15 storeys" gag here) to the bottom and into one of the cross tunnels.
The shelter consists of two parallel quarter-mile long tunnels connected by cross passages at the bottom of the vertical access shafts. Each tunnel is divided into four sections and each section split horizontally by a floor giving a total of 16 sub-shelters.
The tunnels are 16' diameter tube train tunnels, dug by hand, lined with iron or concrete rings. It's not what you'd call spacious accommodation.
The whole shelter was connected to a powerful ventilation system. It had to be, this was the 1940s, almost everyone smoked!
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| Upper floor within the tunnel |
In order to aid users in finding their way to their allotted space the shelters were given the names of Royal Navy admirals, 16 of them.
Some civil servant had to find 16 admirals with names starting with the letters A to P.
Within the shelter were were medical facilities, toilets and showers, and canteens as well as administrative offices for the Civil Defence staff under the control of the Shelter Superintendent.
Triple layer steel bunks were installed. There's not much space between them and the bottom bunk on the lower floor is rather short due to the curvature of the tunnel wall.
The shelter had to be evacuated during the day, it was important that people carried on as normally with their lives as possible and didn't become troglodytes. Only those who had been bombed out and had lost their homes were allowed to leave possessions in the shelter. Everyone else had to drag their bedding and everything else in and out up those spiral staircases.
By the time the shelters were completed the heaviest part of the Blitz had come and gone.
The shelters were mothballed as it wasn't felt to be economically viable to run them for the much reduced number of people who would need them.
They were actually opened later in mid 1944 when the German V1 and V2 weapons were falling on London but never saw anything like the 8000 people a night that they could accommodate.
After the end of the war the shelters were used as cheap 1d/night hotels, troop accommodation for the funeral of King George VI, briefly although famously to accommodate some of the migrant workers from the MV Empire Windrush, and then in 1951 as the Festival of Britain Hotel. A fire at Goodge Street in 1956 which was being used by US troops meant the shelters were deemed no longer suitable as sleeping accommodation and closed.
Since then the shelters have found alternative use as secure archive storage. They are dry, ventilated, and have a fairly constant temperature which is suited to the storage of paper and other items.
As well as installing purpose built shelving many of the wartime bunk beds were converted to shelves by placing sheets of chipboard over the steel bed-springs.
Clapham South is a Grade II listed structure and if you can get a ticket (and if you can climb 179 stairs) it's well worth the entry fee. The Hidden London staff put on a really good tour (Pat is especially good) and you'll be surprised at just how extensive the shelter is while being quite cramped at the same time. At 6'5" tall I spent a lot of time ducking.
If you walk up past the common as I did past Clapham Common station then on the right on the corner of Carpenter's Place you can see the surface building for Clapham Common deep-level shelter. this is now Growing Underground hydroponic farm so has been spruced up a bit compared with Clapham South.
Next to it is the Maharani restaurant.
I can confirm that they do a bloody excellent curry 😊
Some civil servant had to find 16 admirals with names starting with the letters A to P.
Within the shelter were were medical facilities, toilets and showers, and canteens as well as administrative offices for the Civil Defence staff under the control of the Shelter Superintendent.
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| Wartime bunk beds |
The shelter had to be evacuated during the day, it was important that people carried on as normally with their lives as possible and didn't become troglodytes. Only those who had been bombed out and had lost their homes were allowed to leave possessions in the shelter. Everyone else had to drag their bedding and everything else in and out up those spiral staircases.
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| Newspaper article 1944 |
The shelters were mothballed as it wasn't felt to be economically viable to run them for the much reduced number of people who would need them.
They were actually opened later in mid 1944 when the German V1 and V2 weapons were falling on London but never saw anything like the 8000 people a night that they could accommodate.
After the end of the war the shelters were used as cheap 1d/night hotels, troop accommodation for the funeral of King George VI, briefly although famously to accommodate some of the migrant workers from the MV Empire Windrush, and then in 1951 as the Festival of Britain Hotel. A fire at Goodge Street in 1956 which was being used by US troops meant the shelters were deemed no longer suitable as sleeping accommodation and closed.
 |
| Secure archive shelving |
As well as installing purpose built shelving many of the wartime bunk beds were converted to shelves by placing sheets of chipboard over the steel bed-springs.
Clapham South is a Grade II listed structure and if you can get a ticket (and if you can climb 179 stairs) it's well worth the entry fee. The Hidden London staff put on a really good tour (Pat is especially good) and you'll be surprised at just how extensive the shelter is while being quite cramped at the same time. At 6'5" tall I spent a lot of time ducking.
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| Clapham Common shelter |
Next to it is the Maharani restaurant.
I can confirm that they do a bloody excellent curry 😊
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