A complex of tunnels was constructed beneath Kitchener Barracks during the Second World War to provide safe communications and an air-raid shelter. Some parts of the tunnels were lined with steel, others with brick. The tunnels were steel-framed. The steel-lined sections varied from 2.7 to 4.0 m in diameter and the brick-lined sections were 1.9 m wide. They were surveyed in 2013 & 2017 and found to be in good condition. (1) There are two entrances on Dock Road, both via manholes. Possibly built by the 179 and 180 Tunnelling Companies (RE) - the war diary entry of the former for September 21 1941 includes a reference to these Companies excavating the Kitchener Deep Mine (although some have suggested that the deep mine is a different, as yet unrecorded tunnel system). Although it runs under Kitchener Barracks the tunnels themselves probably served the Royal Marine Barracks on the other side of Dock Road (now the site of Medway's Gun Wharf building).

One Creative Environments, 2019, Kitchener Barracks Tunnel Status Report (Unpublished document). SKE53486.