As war in Europe loomed, in 1938 the Government knew it had to provide people with protection from air raid bombing if Britain was attacked.
Named after Sir John Anderson, these bomb shelters could accommodate six people. They had 8 vertical steel corrugated sheets and 6 curved sheets, bolted together at the top, sunk three feet into the ground and covered with 18 inches of earth. The entrance was protected by a steel sheet with a door and an earthen blast wall. If constructed correctly, they could withstand a hundred-pound bomb falling just six feet away.
Many Emsworth residents built their own air raid shelter in their back garden. They cost £7 (roughly £410 today) to buy.
By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Anderson shelters had been installed in the gardens of around 1.5 million houses in all those areas most expected to be targeted by the German Luftwaffe. A further 2.1 million were installed over the course of the war.
During World War II the UK suffered very intense bombing and over 50,000 people were killed in these attacks. But, thanks to Anderson shelters, the deaths caused by air attacks were estimated to have been reduced by 90%. Showing how effective they could be, this one in London is still intact after an almost direct hit!
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Spurred by posters to dig on for victory (below), inventive gardeners made an Anderson shelter productive. Inside the shelter, in the dark, they could ‘force’ (grow) rhubarb or raise mushrooms. Outside, over the roof, they made the most of the soil heaped on top of their shelter and planted marrows. These huge, tasteless monsters were stuffed with breadcrumbs and flavoured with herbs, fat and any savoury leftovers to make a typical thrifty wartime favourite called ‘mock goose’. As oranges to make marmalade were also unobtainable in the war, people made their own jam from marrows, apples and ginger!
As soon as you heard the local air raid siren everyone headed quickly for their garden shelter. People were often confined for long hours, especially during the long Blitz in 1941, so they played games, told stories and some even took a gramophone and records with them to play music, to cheer themselves up.
People were free to decorate and add comfort to their shelters. Metal grid bunk beds could be purchased, but beds and benches were often home-made from cheaper wood. As a way of boosting wartime morale, some communities even held competitions to determine the best decorated shelters in the neighbourhood!
An Anderson shelter wasn’t a comfortable place to be. They got waterlogged in winter and were freezing cold and a deeply unpleasant place to be, even when sheltering from bombing. A 1940 survey found only 27% of Londoners stayed in their Anderson shelter, 9% slept in public shelters, 4% used underground stations and the rest (60%) stayed in their homes.
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Spain utilised the shelter model of engineer Ramón Perera, larger and sturdier than Anderson shelters. Perera’s shelter proved effective with Barcelona only suffering 2,500 casualties from 194 bombing raids. This earned Perera the nickname ‘the man who saved Barcelona’. Despite confidential reports expressing regret at the decision, the British government ignored Perera’s expertise and rejected his shelter model in favour of their own cheaper Anderson shelter.
Because many people wouldn’t use their Anderson shelters an indoor 1.8m steel cage air raid shelter was created in 1941, named after Home Secretary Herbert Morrison. The Morrison shelter also saved many lives, with over a million in use by 1945. It meant people could now sleep in their own homes with far greater safety and a bit more comfort!
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Often doubling as a kitchen table, Morrison shelters came flat packed for DIY assembly. This was not as easy as it sounds, with over 300 parts, and you almost needed an engineering degree to put them together!
At the end of the war local authorities collected up all the corrugated steel sheets used in the Anderson shelters, although people who wanted to buy their shelter could for a small fee. Of the 3.6 million shelters built for use in WW2, just a handful remain intact and in place today. The concrete base of one still exists at Emsworth House, a care home on Havant Road Emsworth PO10 7JR, although you aren’t able to visit the site.
- Experience an air raid shelter for yourself at Tangmere Museum – click here