Wwii Anderson Air Raid Shelters

[Coppit]

My Dad dismantled ours as it was always damp and after sawing up the floorboards, set it up on the house foundations about 18" below the floor.

Does anybody know if this was unusual?

[Old_Geezer]

I think many have been dismantled but I'm unsure many have been set up again on the house foundations.

[Peter Pedant]

God can you imagine crouching in one during an air raid ?

Mine was in the back garden so I dont really understand the question
I think the design was to pile earth up half way the 'wall' and so it condemned every shelter to be dank dark and reeking of cat pee

[Khandro]

PP // dank dark and reeking of cat pee// not ours, firstly there were very few cats around, and we were at least 18" below ground, it was covered with the earth dug out to form the hole in which it stood, very cosy!

[dustypuss]

Good god ! isn’t he about 70 years to late?

[Mamyalynne]

Interesting project here from a Primary School , a little repetitive in the middle but you can whizz through.


I'm sure my Gran said they had competitions over whose shelter was the best kept or planted up too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUnnu8u_NHs

[chokkie]

when I was much younger, we used to live with my grandparents in a big house on the seafront of a coastal town in the south-east. They had a large back garden, right at the far end of which was a building that we used to call "the terrace". The middle bit was basically three sided and open to the elements (obviously) and housed the washing line. On one side of this structure was a little room which we used to call the shed (but it was brick built), and on the other was another room, with a flight of steps leading down to an underground air-raid shelter. I didn't like going down there because it was dark and there was no light .... not to mention probably full of spideys and other creepie crawlies ..... I suppose it could have actually been the coal cellar, but because the house was on the Thames estuary, it was more likely to have been an ARS so the family could shelter there in case of a enemy raid over the sea. Anyway, just thought I'd put my ten penn'orth in to this chat ... Chox.

[Peter Pedant]

I thnk there are a few which are grade 2 listed ....

[Peter Pedant]

// it was dark and there was no light .... not to mention probably full of spideys and other creepie crawlies ...//

my brother used to shout" down the stairs after me - " Ghost, appear ! Ghost appear !" which made thigs worse...

[Coppit]

I can still remember the sunny day a man came to dig the hole etc, and Mum giving him a piece of fruit cake.
Our 1935 £525 house (£700k now), was in NW London built on what had been an athletic ground and if dug down about 18" a cinder track was still there. That is probably why ours didn't fill with water as did my uncle's ca. 300 yds away, all on London clay.

There was ample room inside for two bunks one side, and a bed on the floor on the other, but the remaining space in the living room was cramped, but less so than my nearby aunts' who had a Morrison shelter.

I came home from school one day to find the shelter all gone . the flooring replaced - and my secret stash of cigarettes discovered!

[Mosaic]

At least he never found your porn....

[Coppit]

Porn in 1945/46? at age 11? Compared with today it was an age of innocence and there was then a word, seldom encountered today - chaste.