Second World War surface air raid shelter on the edge of playing fields on the SW side of Dover Road School, Northfleet. It was built c. early 1940 to provide air raid protection for the pupils of the school. The shelter is a rectangular brick building (18.5m x 5 m x 2.3 m high), with a flat concrete roof and a poured concrete floor. It is accessed from two airlock entrances at either end of the long northern elevation. Both have surviving timber airlock frames. The entrances lead into a sequence of three shelter rooms. The ceilings of the rooms are of square section corrugated steel, on the top of which the concrete of the roof was laid. The walls of the rooms display traces of the original electrical lighting circuits and metal hooks for hurricane emergency lanterns. Wall batten back rests and anti-gas shutters over ventilation shutters remain. The shelter was decommissioned at the end of the Second World War in Europe in 1945 and subsequently became a school store. In 2000 the shelter became a school museum.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey : Within a closed and secure school perimeter
Tourism Potential : It has the potential for interpreting the Second World War more widely through inter-school visits
Condition : very good
Date of visit : 04/01/06 (1)

<1> Victor Smith and Andrew Saunders, 2001, Kent's Defence Heritage (Unpublished document). SKE6956.