Bored at work earlier and visited a good site where chaps visit old air rais shelters factories etc.got me thinking of local shelters etc
When well young we got into the old public shelter just by the zebra crossing by crayford gasworks you can see the concrete walls to the shelter but you could get in via hatch in the woods near by..........also think use to be a big one opposite Bexleyheath bus depo up on the corner by the lights.....guess there must have been loads all over the borough.......also up on barnhurst golf course there a great lump on concrete with great view over the Thames so may have been some kind of installation.....any one know any others or tales of finding places
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Think they were pill boxes rather than shelters but as a mere youth may have got that wrong.
The is a large bunker near Barnehurst golf course. Years back you could still seem a domb thing of it. A big public air raid shelter is in Burstead woods. and another was next to the Crook Log pub.
Years back i worked at MarshHam Street which was Dept Transport. If you went down in the south lift you you got out there was MOD police there !! Under that building is a place called the Citidul(sic) it goes for miles has halls off it filled with beds/cookers etc etc etc 1000z and 100z it likes up to Parliament via a net work of huge tunnels. The is a series of rooms with all the gizmos in which was where the transport / shipping was run for the First Gulf war. had to go down there once a month escorted by two OB.
I live at Vigo right next to Trossley country park. Between the wars and during WW2, the army used to practise in the woods.
100 yards from my house are trenches (some filled in some not) these were used for practise, also the woods are peppered with bomb craters, most are from German bombers releasing their bombs early before they hit the East End. These bomb holes have been marked by the park staff.
Another hidden treasure is an anti-aircraft emplacement on the hill overlooking the south, its dug into the side of the hill about 2 hundred feet up. It housed 2 anti-aircraft guns and was used to shoot down bombers and V1 (doodlebug) rockets during WW2.
A great play ground if you study Military history!!
some great pics we got onto this site as some of these guys who love to break into building sites and climb the cranes...........have alook at the whitchapel hospital one and see the guy on the helipad...under high rise great photos........18th floor.lol our security got a right bollocking over that one !!
Entrance to public air raid shelter can still be seen at Crayford and a few pill boxes on and around Dartford marshes.
If you want tunnels and bunkers then make sure you go to Point de Hoc in Normandy. German defence position that took an absolute battering from the air and was eventually captured by US rangers after an almighty battle.
By the way, if none of you have visited The Caves it's a nice morning or afternoon out and an interesting place to take the family, nice little cafeteria there too for a cuppa and sandwich after your guided tour.
Also, the house next door to us still had a concrete shelter in the garden, which they used as their shed.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/episode-guide/series-15/episode-8
Currently this programme is not on 4OD but as I recall the pill-boxes were a last ditch defensive line at the top of Shooters Hill that was designed to slow/hold up a Nazi invasion and give London time to evacuate and/or reinforcements to arrive.
The fake front to the off-license was designed as a particularly grisly way to kill a few of the enemy - as they went past it would spew out oil which would ignite and cause the lead tanks or vehicles to blow up hopefully blocking the road and buying a bit more time.
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20469&sid=df4342bcbfa52f3eaf7b14c7db42dfab
Oops! Not a secret anymore.
Another friend has got an underground shelter in his garden - not surprising that his kids are very well behaved.
Interesting book on the resistance movement set up in Southern England. Had the first choice of equipment and hide-outs built ready to go underground if an invasion had come.
Lots of bits about surviving features of the last war, brilliant forward written by Steve Hunniset who posts on here as well, Steve has an excellent blog www.blitzwalkers.co.uk which has lots of local info, when I spoke to him at H/T Tuesday we mentioned a lifers walk