Report - Air Raid shelter, St Valerie's hotel, Minnis Road, Birchington, Kent

[Airfix]

This can not really be described as an explore in the sense that I there is no access to the shelters. But I thought it was worth sharing in case anyone from East Kent may have more information on the site.

Background

St Valerie's hotel is sited on Minnis Road in Minnis Bay in East Kent and I would describe it as originally a Victorian seaside hotel, now converted into apartments. By the side of the hotel on the corner of Ethelbert Road is a piece of originally undeveloped land which looking at old maps seems to have only been developed into a block of flats in the 1980's. But behind this block of flats is sited an air raid shelter with two entrances both securely bricked up which are located against a block built wall. I have not been able to find any other history on the site.

Explore
As I said not much of an explore, had a look around the top of the site to see if there is any evidence of emergency exits but nothing found although a garage block has been built on the top side.

 

[obscurity]

I had always heard about an air raid shelter here but never properly looked into its actual existence as I was aware it would only be small. This is really interesting. Thanks for posting
Would be intersting to see if much of it survived after the development directly above.

 

[Paul Edwards]

Also Minnis Bay almost certainly a shelter!

 

[Airfix]

Have you seen inside is it locked down.

 

[Paul Edwards]

No I have not investigated any further than the photos I have taken. its in a private garden overlooked.

 

[Paul Edwards]

On further investigation today I am beginning to wonder if they are actually shelter entrances to St Valerie's hotel and not the bottom half of staircases that led to the alley way above, This theory is based on the fact there is reclaimed land beyond the width of the existing alley above where these "shelter entrances" are.
I can see one similar adjacent building that still has their staircase leading up to the original width alley.
The staircases bottom halves could have been left in place as buttresses for the infilled block wall that accommodates the reclaimed parking space for at least two cars.
Will add some photos later to try and show my theory.
Or they could be shelters!

 

[Seffy]

Not a report as such like you say, but a lot of people find stuff like this very interesting regardless. It's often teamwork and collaboration that gets us into these places anyway.

 

[Airfix]

On further investigation today I am beginning to wonder if they are actually shelter entrances to St Valerie's hotel and not the bottom half of staircases that led to the alley way above, This theory is based on the fact there is reclaimed land beyond the width of the existing alley above where these "shelter entrances" are.
I can see one similar adjacent building that still has their staircase leading up to the original width alley.
The staircases bottom halves could have been left in place as buttresses for the infilled block wall that accommodates the reclaimed parking space for at least two cars.
Will add some photos later to try and show my theory.
Or they could be shelters!

I'm not sure I based my photographs on what someone else had identified after they highlighted other WW2 structures in that area of Thanet, including the one you showed on your photograph.