The discovery of a private Bournemouth WWII air raid shelter (1)

Image: © Mike Searle Taken: 28 Jul 2020

It is becoming fairly obvious that a number of the wealthier Bournemouth families perhaps in anticipation of impending hostilities had their own private air raid shelters constructed in their gardens before the outbreak of WWII. Yesterday I was privileged to have been invited by a landscape gardener working at a property at Ravine Road in Southbourne who had uncovered purely by chance, a buried structure that was previously unknown to the present homeowner. The entrance passage to it appears to have been blocked with rubble and sealed, but access was discovered via the escape hatch chamber that was uncovered during work on the patio. From there one enters a large cube shaped room about 3m x 3m x 3m that was fitted with lighting, and a 2 pin electrical socket. It is evident it was in use postwar as a store with signs of former wooden shelving on the walls. There are large metal hooks in the ceiling that may have been associated with sleeping, possibly to sling hammocks? Image

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