Tag: Clapham South

London’s Deep Level Air Raid Shelters Part 2

If you read the first part of this adventure you know that I discovered and took photos of three entrance ways to two of London’s eight Deep Level air raid Shelters (DLS). I had not really intended to go much further than that until the day I decided to go to Clapham Common for a walkabout.

Exiting the tube station and crossing the street to the east side of the road I ran smack into another entrance way.

The small plaque on the wall on the left confirms what this is a Clapham Common Deep Level Shelter entrance.

I really hadn’t expected this and wasn’t sure which entrance I was seeing. Given that there are four shelters south of the Thames and that each shelter has two entrances I had now discovered four of the eight shelter entrances. My blood was up for the hunt.

Since the original plan had been to walk north along Clapham High Street I decided to keep going to see what I could see. It was almost 3/4 of a kilometer before I passed the Clapham North tube entrance and further on encountered another deep level entrance, this one quite obvious and lovingly decorated.

Now I’m really very curious as I don’t know what I’ve just discovered. These two entrances are too far apart to be from the same DLS so they must form a north or south entrance to one of the other shelters.

I’m very quickly back to Google Earth to see what I can see. Using the Clapham South entrances as a guide I have a rough idea of how far apart they might be and that is about 600 feet. Using the entrance I discovered at Clapham Common I go 600 feet south and 600 feet north and on the north projection I can clearly see the outline of an entrance. Going to street view it’s quite obvious, so why did I walk past it without seeing it. The answer is simple…I was walking on the same side as the shelter and it’s just another wall at that point.

Photo taken from the west side of Clapham High Street, Clapham Common Deep Level Shelter north entrance.

It appears that I’ve uncovered the northern entrance to the Clapham Common DLS.

So what about the other one I discovered further up the road. This one has to be related to Clapham North as it’s too far away from Stockwell. Once again I’m at Google Earth extending a line north and south 600 feet. I can’t find anything that vaguely looks like the shape I’m looking for but the line 600 feet south is very close to the Clapham North tube stop. More research is needed to figure this out.

Meanwhile I’ll extend a line 600 feet from the Stockwell entrance to see what I can see. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but eight tiny….no…no… I’ve found the Stockwell south entrance from the air. It’s west of the high street behind some buildings and by going to street view on the street next over I can just make it out. It will need some exploring to find.

My internet search continues and reveals that the Clapham North south entrance is indeed near the tube entrance. It’s actually behind a bunch of buildings and it may not be possible to get a photo. A street view only shows a number of buildings and a high gate and fence. It also appears from the internet material that the only things left standing on the ground are the two ventilator shafts.

In summary to this point, I’ve discovered the north and south entrances to the Clapham South DLS, the north and south entrance to the Clapham Common DLS, the north entrance to the Clapham North DLS and the north entrance to the Stockwell DLS. Next challenge is to find the two remaining spots, Clapham North south entrance and Stockwell south entrance.

I’m soon off again starting at Clapham Common heading north this time on the west side of the high street. Soon enough I have my photo of the Clapham Common north DLS entrance.

As I approach Clapham North tube stop I veer across the road and down a side street to flank the next objective. There’s the large metal gate blocking the view that I want but the gate also has an opening for the huge chain that’s just big enough for my camera. The result??

This is all you can see of the Clapham North south DLS entrance. To the right is a second ventilator shaft.

As I move along the street I see a crack in the wood fence and I’m able just to see a second ventilator shaft. The crack is too small for a good image but I’m confident that I’ve found the Clapham North south DLS entrance.

Next stop is Stockwell but the Northern Line is experiencing delays due to activity further south and it takes 30 minutes before a train arrives to go to Stockwell. I could have walked it in that time.

Once at Stockwell I’m off around the corner and down the little side street that has seven police cars parked in a line. There is either a police station near or they’ve just raided the creche in the leisure centre.

Stockwell DLS south entrance.

I’m in luck and the picture is better than I expected. I certainly didn’t get the same picture from street view with Google Earth.

Well, that just about wraps up all of the Deep Level Shelter entrance ways that are south of the Thames. At some point on my bucket list will be a tour of the Clapham South DLS as these apparently are offered by arrangement. We’ll see about that.

I’ve already communicated my successful findings to my Facebook friends but they wouldn’t be friends if they thought I should quit here, so I’ve been challenged to see if I can find and photograph the eight DLS entrances north of the Thames.

Stay tuned, the adventure is hardly over.

London’s Deep Level Air Raid Shelters Part 1

I came to London, England on December 15th 2021 for a brief Christmas visit with family but circumstances have kept me here until late February. I’ve taken advantage of this “holiday” to do a bit of exploring of the City of London and I’d like to share one of the more interesting discoveries that does not typically appear in the guidebooks.

I’m staying in Balham which is in south London and in chatting with my son-in-law discovered that during the Second World War (WWII) the Balham Tube/Railway Station was bombed and 68 people were killed, one of the worst single bombing tragedies in London during the war.

This lead to other local oddities from the war and Neil pointed out a structure in Clapham South that is an entrance way to a Deep Level Air Raid Shelter. This, of course, piqued my curiosity as I knew that both my Mom and Dad had been in London during the Blitz and would have been very pleased to find a deep level shelter. I do know that Mom was a frequent night visitor to one of the tube stations during the Blitz.

An internet search revealed a number of facts about these shelters, specifically that there were eight of them, four located south of the Thames River and four located north of the Thames River. The shelters essentially follow the same route as the Underground Northern Line and had initially been built with a sense that they could be used as part of a future high speed tube line. This didn’t happen. It was also the case that construction began in 1940 but they were not completed until 1942 and by that time the blitz was essentially over. Each one of the shelters was approximately 1,200 feet long and could hold up to 8,000 people. There were two entrance ways, one north and one south and each entrance way also had at least one large ventilation shaft.

The locations south of the Thames are Clapham South, Clapham Common, Clapham North and Stockwell. In a rough line that would cover about three kilometers along Clapham Road and provide accommodation for 32,000 people. North of the Thames they were located at Chancery Lane, Goodge Station, Cambden Town and Belsize Park. This group would cover about six kilometers and again provide shelter for 32,000 people.

The Deep Level Shelters (DLS) did come in handy later in the war when the German’s launched their V1 and V2 attacks on the city. Some of them also served after the war as temporary shelters for immigrants, accommodations for the military or as a deep level communications centre (Kingsway Telephone Exchange) during the cold war.

I was very curious about the entrance way structures as it appeared that they could all be seen at street level so I started to do a bit more internet research and aerial searching using Google Earth. From the air these structures have a very distinct shape and I was able to spot the one at Clapham South very easily. Google Earth is a great way to do such reconnaissance. You can spot what looks like a likely subject then go to street view to see if the aerial view matches whats on the ground.

Using this technique I also discovered the southern entrance to the Clapham South shelter. Neil informed me that there is one at Stockwell and it too is quite easy to spot using Google Earth. Not content to find them on a map I wanted to see them up close so I’m soon off up the Northern Line to Clapham South then Stockwell.

The distinctive ventilation shaft is on the left.

The southern entrance way to the Clapham South Deep Level Shelter has been integrated into the lines of the building that has been built over and around it.

A ride up the Northern Line to Stockwell and just outside the tube station is the entrance way located at the Stockwell Memorial Garden. The building itself has been decorated by high school students as a memorial to Britain’s war dead…and apparently James Bond.

The Bronze Statue is also part of the Stockwell Memorial Garden and is the first statue of an African-Caribbean woman in the UK. It celebrates both motherhood and the mother’s ethnic origins. The theme is taken from a poem by Caribbean poet Cécile Nobrega who lived in Stockwell and wrote the poem “The Bronze Woman” about 50 years ago.

This has been most interesting to me but I’ll leave it there for now. You should know however that this adventure has really just begun.

Until next time.