I had been doing a bit of research on another explore and stumbled across a newspaper article from 2012 stating that a long forgotten air raid shelter had been re-discovered when one of the entrance hatches had fallen through leaving a hole in the ground which the council were in the process of re-sealing.
Roll on to 2016 and my curiosity got the better of me, so I wondered down to have a look. The park itself I found pretty interesting, with a grotto (sealed) in one corner of the park and several off-shoot tunnel entrances to some kind of sewer. There is also what looks to be some kind of dried out lake in the middle of the park. Anyway I managed to find an entry point into the air raid shelter and was pretty impressed with what I found.
The air raid shelter is buried below the ground and made of concrete with a supporting steal frame. Although there was very little left in terms of artefacts and a small amount of fire damage, overall the place left in near original condition, with no graffiti on the walls and some wiring and light fittings still intact. There were originally 3 main entrances which have all been back filled and several other emergency entrances (now capped). The layout consists of 6 main passages with each section being numbered and some of the original shelter signs still visible on the walls (albeit no longer legible). There are still remnants of the separated male and female toilets
Overall I thought this was a pretty decent explore, and have shown this to a few other since who were also impressed.
Roll on to 2016 and my curiosity got the better of me, so I wondered down to have a look. The park itself I found pretty interesting, with a grotto (sealed) in one corner of the park and several off-shoot tunnel entrances to some kind of sewer. There is also what looks to be some kind of dried out lake in the middle of the park. Anyway I managed to find an entry point into the air raid shelter and was pretty impressed with what I found.
The air raid shelter is buried below the ground and made of concrete with a supporting steal frame. Although there was very little left in terms of artefacts and a small amount of fire damage, overall the place left in near original condition, with no graffiti on the walls and some wiring and light fittings still intact. There were originally 3 main entrances which have all been back filled and several other emergency entrances (now capped). The layout consists of 6 main passages with each section being numbered and some of the original shelter signs still visible on the walls (albeit no longer legible). There are still remnants of the separated male and female toilets
Overall I thought this was a pretty decent explore, and have shown this to a few other since who were also impressed.
History
Air raid shelters were created just prior to World War Two.The government at the time wanted all local councils to arrange for surveys to be made in their areas to ascertain suitable premises in shopping, business and other areas where the public were likely to congregate more than seven minutes’ walk from the homes.
Built and more or less completed by the end of September 1939 just a few weeks after the outbreak of the war. One of multiple public air raid shelters build by Sutton council.
(http://carshaltoncentral.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/01/13/carshalton-park-air-raid-shelter/)
Corridor with emergency exit ladder
Original light fitting
Fire damaged corridor with remnants of burnt benches
Original shelter sign on the wall
Males toilet
Female toilet
Corridor number 4
One of the main entrances back filled.
Air raid shelters were created just prior to World War Two.The government at the time wanted all local councils to arrange for surveys to be made in their areas to ascertain suitable premises in shopping, business and other areas where the public were likely to congregate more than seven minutes’ walk from the homes.
Built and more or less completed by the end of September 1939 just a few weeks after the outbreak of the war. One of multiple public air raid shelters build by Sutton council.
(http://carshaltoncentral.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/01/13/carshalton-park-air-raid-shelter/)
Corridor with emergency exit ladder
Original light fitting
Fire damaged corridor with remnants of burnt benches
Original shelter sign on the wall
Males toilet
Female toilet
Corridor number 4
One of the main entrances back filled.
