#deep level

Clapham South Deep Level Shelter

Just a short walk down the street form Clapham South tube station sits the Drum: a squat cylinder painted to blend in with the smart office block behind it. This is one of a few visible signs of what lies beneath the surface – for the Drum is the entrance to one of the deep level air raid shelters.

At the height of the Blitz in 1940, tube stations were already being used as shelters from the bombs – providing more effective protection than back-garden Anderson shelters. The government decided to construct purpose-built, deep-level tunnels running under what is now the Northern Line (and in a few other locations too), with an idea that once the war was over, the tunnels could be joined to provide an express underground service (which of course, never happened).

By the time the shelter at Clapham South was constructed, in 1942, the worst of the Blitz was over, so it remained closed; however, with the launch of V-1 and V-2 bombs from 1944, the shelter was opened to the public. It could hold up to 8000 people, and came complete with bunk beds, a canteen, and a cohort of staff to ensure everything ran smoothly.

After the war, the deep-level shelters were used as accommodation for a variety of purposes – Clapham South was used to billet troops, as a hotel for visitors to the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the Coronation in 1953, and notably as temporary home for immigrants arriving from the Caribbean aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948. Though many of the immigrants only stayed in the shelter for a short time, a lot of them found homes in the nearby area – the beginnings of the area’s Afro-Caribbean community.

Deep Level - Warning