Public Air Raid Shelters - August 2015

Me and Konrad have been out a lot in the early hours recently! A surplus of time has allowed us to do various explores and recces, some win, some fail. Lots of skulking around in the dark and late night trips to 24h Tescos for sandwiches and cans of Monster have seriously messed up our sleeping patterns and caused problems! Not to mention getting up close and personal with some of the UK's finest local dog toilets and Konrad somehow mistaking poo for a handle But in the end it was all worth it...

For these gems of the night...

We managed to get some lighting on in this one, but didn't keep it on long for fear of detection.
Switch 'Em On! by Slim Jim, on Flickr

People passed by, but they never realised that there were two blokes underground no more than a few feet away from them. We weren't even that deep either. Neither of these shelters were dug, they were more likely cut and cover jobs, as they were only 3' or so deep beneath the ground.
Lights On by Slim Jim, on Flickr

The root systems of trees have worked they way down into the tunnels over the years. The gizmo sitting further up the tunnel is actually a fountain pump!
Pump by Slim Jim, on Flickr

Further up, obviously added to the shelter later on, is a section made from prefab concrete blocks! Very cool!
Prefab by Slim Jim, on Flickr

Little bit of video to give more of an idea of scale and design.


On to another shelter...

We were very paranoid on this one. It was slap bang next to a busy street full of drunks and we were surrounded by houses. We'd been scouting a location down the road earlier on and no one was asleep. Dogs were howling, taxis were cruising, drunks were shouting, lights were on everywhere and DSS tenants were hanging out of sash windows. Cue speed and a bit of adrenaline...

Nice set of Elsans, with collapsed doors.
Taken With Great Haste! by Slim Jim, on Flickr

We swung round the place, taking hasty shots.
Hidden From The Drunks Above... by Slim Jim, on Flickr

The place is mint, touched by nothing other than a bit of the usual chalk scrawling and time.
"POLICE NOTICE" by Slim Jim, on Flickr

Quick walkthrough for that one. Apologies for the poor lighting, I didn't even take the time to grab my video light I just walked through, got shots and left! It was way too busy to mess about:


Thanks for looking!

Love that sort of stuff. Top job...

Yeah, right up my street as well. Cheers.

I really enjoyed these except the poo "handle" of course, thanks for the wet wipes!

Nice shots lads. Love that prefab one mate. Cool report

Nice work SlimJim, I love old air raid shelters.

Awesome chaps - loving the tree roots

Very nice! There must be hundreds of shelters buried and forgotten, the odd man-holder cover being the only clue. Most municipal parks in cities had cut and cover shelters like this.

krela said:

Very nice! There must be hundreds of shelters buried and forgotten, the odd man-holder cover being the only clue. Most municipal parks in cities had cut and cover shelters like this.

Click to expand...

Cheers Indeed, there are a fair few, if you've got the eye for them! I check most parks I pass now You see surface/semi-buried ones as big humps on parks and recreational grounds often too. Schools come up trumps too. I worked at a school years ago that had a surface shelter and the groundsman kept and preserved all the bits from it, including a nicely preserved gas curtain! I've known even a pub to have a small shelter in it's beer garden.

Excellent report guys thanks for sharing.