Anderson air raid shelters were the most widely used domestic shelter during the Second World War, but the corrugated iron roofs of the shelters were collected by the authorities at the end of the war, so very few now remain. However, the shelter at the back of one house in Vauxhall is still in good condition, including the frames of the bunk beds on which people rested:
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The owners of the shelter welcome visitors, including school parties, and may be contacted via the webmaster. These photos are of a visit by a school party in 2006.
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And here is a wonderful model shelter made by Laura Jamieson from New Malden following her visit in 2007. |
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In November 1938, Chamberlain placed Sir John Anderson in charge of Air Raid Precautions (ARP). He immediately commissioned the engineer, William Patterson, to design a small and cheap shelter that could be erected in people's gardens. Within a few months, around two million of what became known as Anderson Shelters were distributed to people living in areas expected to be bombed by the Luftwaffe. Made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measuring 1.95m by 1.35m, the shelter could accommodate six people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top.
Anderson shelters were dark and damp and people were reluctant to use them at night. In low-lying areas they tended to flood and sleeping was difficult as they did not keep out the sound of the bombings. And, if there was a toilet at all, it took the form of a bucket in the corner. Another problem was that the majority of people living in industrial areas did not have gardens where they could erect their shelters. It is therefore not surprising that a November 1940 survey discovered that only 27% of Londoners used Anderson shelters, 9% slept in public shelters and 4% used underground railway stations. The rest of those interviewed were either on duty at night or slept in their own homes.
There is now a strong body of opinion which criticises the Government's decison to provide Anderson shelters rather than building deep bomb-proof public shelters of the sort promoted by Ramon Perera, who had overseen the building of a large number of such shelters in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). British engineer Cyril Helsby helped Perera escape to Britain as Barcelona fell to Franco's troops in 1939, but neither could persuade the British establishment to invest in more substantial shelters which would have saved many lives. It is possible that Ministers thought that factory, transport and other workers might opt to stay in truly safe shelters rather than return to work after bombs had stopped falling, even though there was no evidence that this had happened in Barcelona. The full story was told in a TV de Catalunya "30 Minuts" documentary, produced in collaboration with Justin Webster Productions and first shown on Spanish TV in 2006.
Click here to see a short instruction film about how to build an Anderson shelter from the kit delivered to your home.
There are numerous wartime photos of Anderson shelters on the web, accessible, for instance, by using Google/Images.
