Category: London’s Deep Level Air Raid Shelters

As threatened, here’s the final part of my adventure discovering and photographing the entrance ways to London’s Deep Level Air Raid Shelters.

I should preface this by telling you that finding the remaining eight entrance ways that are north of the Thames was not that difficult. The previous internet research and aerial searches using Google Earth made it quite simple to identify the entrance ways to Belsize Park, Camden Town, Goodge Street and to some extent Chancery Lane. The Chancery Lane shelter is actually not under the Northern Line but under an extension that went to St Paul’s and is now part of the Circle Line. It lies east of the Northern Line. More on that particular shelter later.

Another thing that made the search easy was the mapping software I use on my phone. I use Locus, which is really intended for hikers and bike riders, but which I find perfectly suited for other forms of transit. Locus was the main map based GPS app that I used during my three week trip to Italy. One of the beauties of it is that the maps are resident in the phone and I only need a GPS connection to pin point where I am and where I might want to go. As it turns out, while setting way points for the north of the Thames adventure, I discovered that Locus had already identified several of the sites as points of historic interest. Wish I’d known that a few weeks ago.

Tuesday dawned a bit overcast with a threat of rain but I set off up the Northern Line anyway. I decided to go to the furthest northern station first, Belsize Park, and work my way south, possibly with a walk between stations. This is part of London that I’ve never been to and I didn’t venture very far from Haverstock Hill which is the main road.

The northern and southern entrance ways are on the same side of the road as the tube station. The northern entrance is a few yards off the street but with easy access down a small alleyway.

The southern entrance on the other hand sits right on the street and is quite obvious. You will note the “Abbot Datastore” name and logo on the side. Most of the shelters were sold by the government to Transport for London (TfL) in the 1990’s and some, like this one, are used for archival storage.

It started to drizzle as I made my way back to the tube stop and apparently rained while I was traveling south to Cambden Town. When I emerged from that station the sky’s were clear and the crowds were abundant.

You don’t have to wander far from the tube stations to find the entrance ways. The north entrance at Camden Town is just up the High Street and east along Buck Street.

The south entrance is a bit trickier to find as it’s on the opposite side of the street down a narrow walkway and hidden beside a car park. It has a sturdy metal fence guarding it but I was able to squeeze the camera through the rails.

My daughter Cat had advised that if I was going to Camden Town I should wander around a bit as it is quite the funky part of London. She was absolutely correct and I will be putting together a slide show on my YouTube channel at some point but this is just an example of the sites you see along the High Street and Regent’s Canal.

A good amble about then I’m off south on the tube to Goodge Street Station. This station has a series of “lifts” (elevators) to whisk you from street side to track side. I passed the stairwell which advised there were 189 steps leading back up to the top…and the Deep Level Shelters are below that.

At this point we are on Tottenham Court Road and the north entrance is just up the street. It’s located beside the American International Church and they seemed to be having some sort of fund raiser as there were food stalls and quite a few people milling about eating off of paper plates.

The southern entrance is almost across the street from the station just down Chenies Street and it is currently used by Iron Mountain for archival storage of film.

The building is called the Eisenhower Centre to commemorate the fact that this, in 1942, was the headquarters of the Allied armies. This entrance was the access to this HQ. In the lead-up to D-Day, it was a signals installation used by the US Army Signal Corps, one of several in central London. There is a suggestion that Eisenhower used this site but it’s a bit of a controversy whether he was actually ever there. The locals seem content with the story though so there you are.

The monument in front of the building pre-dates the building of the shelter and is a Grade II listed memorial to The Rangers, 12th County of London Regiment, which dates from shortly after the First World War and includes additional inscriptions relating to the service of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) in the Second World War.

At this point in my day I was getting a bit peckish and thirsty. I know where the Fitzrovia Pub is on Goodge Street and although they have Timothy Taylor Landlord on tap, there not serving food. The landlady very kindly directs me back to the high street and along to the Rising Sun…not the House of the Rising Sun as that surely spells disaster.

The Rising Sun is a quiet corner pub with a nice pint of Greene King Ale and scampi’s and chips…so all is well in the world. As I sit by the window watching Tottenham Court Road go by…the rain comes down, umbrella’s out and hoodies up. Fifteen minutes later it’s over and the sun has come out. That settles it for me…I need to walk off the pint anyway so I’m off on foot searching for the Chancery Lane tube stop.

It’s a pretty straight forward hike, down Tottenham Court Road to Oxford Street, east on Oxford to New Oxford and on to Holborn Road. I’m looking for 31-33 Holborn Road as this is the site of the original Chancery Lane Station.

I decided to take a side bar walk down Kingsway and over to Lincoln’s Inn Fields as I promised Neil the picture below. He had worked in the Chancery Lane area for years and went past the corner frequently but never spied this wee gem. It is suspected to be the same shop that Dickens wrote about as it dates back to 1567 and was in an area known as Clare Market. The building is now owned by the London School of Economics which has grown immensely around it.

The old tube station, Chancery Station House, is now an apartment building and home to some tax accountants. The station itself was the west entrance to the deep level shelters.

To the left of the station is Fulwood Place, a narrow walkway leading to Gray’s Inn Gardens. If you walk a few yards down that lane then turn around this is what you see.

This ventilation shaft is about all that’s left of the original entrance system and the reason for that is in the 1950’s the Chancery Lane shelters were converted to a deep level communications centre known as the Kingsway Telephone Exchange. This secure site was in response to cold war antics at the time.

The image below is a 1959 Land Registry plan that shows, in pink the layout for the west part of the Kingsway Telephone Exchange. Note the pink box at the corner of Fairfax House.

I believe that this entrance way, the only one on the north wall of the back of the old station, is that area in pink on the plan.

There is another ventilation shaft which formed part of the eastern entrance and it is further east and south on Furnival Street.

This section of the land registry plan shows this entrance at 39 Furnival Street.

The plan also shows a tunnel leading across the street on an angle to this building on the corner of Furnival and Took’s Court. The main body of the exchange is below this building.

The plan also shows a tunnel going from the southwest corner of the building, on an angle, to Took’s Court. I believe that this “fire exit” on Took’s Court may be part of that tunnel exit.

So, there you have it. Another busy day of walking, photo shooting, pint drinking and scampi snacking.

I hope you have enjoyed the adventure. I certainly did and it made for a most interesting way to spend holiday time in a place you don’t really know. I’m now a tube traveler “sans pareil” and I know a few more things about London than many Londoners. As a reward there’s a pint of Fuller’s London Pride waiting for me and I don’t like to keep things waiting.

Ken