London’s Deep-Level Air-Raid Shelters

London’s Deep-Level Air-Raid Shelters

Beneath Clapham South station are two long tunnels which were once filled with thousands of bunks. Some of the old signs and iron bedsteads are still there today.

Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer / Imperial War Museums / Wikimedia Commons — Public Domain.

Clapham South was one of eight deep-level shelters built beneath London during the Second World War. The others were at Belsize Park, Camden Town, Chancery Lane, Goodge Street, Stockwell, Clapham North and Clapham Common.

Today I want to share a little more about them.

The government approved the shelters in November 1940, at a time when London was being heavily bombed. Each was built roughly 30 metres below ground and was around 400 metres long, with space planned for about 8,000 people.

There were upper and lower levels, bunks, toilets, canteens and first-aid facilities. The tunnels were divided into smaller sections, and those sections were given the names of historic British naval commanders. With thousands of people potentially sleeping underground at once, even finding the right part of the shelter had to be organised.

Something else about the design is easily overlooked. London Transport had hopes that the tunnels might eventually become part of an express railway after the war, with trains running under parts of the existing network. That scheme never went ahead.

The shelters themselves took until 1942 to complete. The main Blitz on London had ended in May 1941, so they missed the period when the demand for deep civilian shelter had been greatest.

They still found plenty of use. Goodge Street was taken over for military purposes and was later used as a headquarters by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Clapham South housed troops from 1943, while Chancery Lane was allocated for protected government and military use.

Then came the V-weapons.

The first V-1 flying bomb hit London on the 13th of June 1944. Clapham South opened to civilian shelterers on the 19th of July, and V-2 rockets began striking London later that year.

Several of the deep-level shelters were opened to civilians during these attacks.

I find the dates themselves tell the story well enough. Approved in 1940, finished in 1942 and finally opened to large numbers of Londoners in 1944. By then the threat above ground had changed completely.

Most photographs of wartime Underground sheltering show crowded station platforms. These tunnels were something else entirely: purpose-built spaces much further beneath the streets, large enough for thousands of people to spend the night.

If you have ever been inside Clapham South or another surviving wartime shelter, I’d love to hear what stood out to you.