A Second World War air-raid shelter, substantially underground, survives in the Watling Street Car Park, beside the eastern boundary wall of the old Municipal Buildings (Now Chantry Hall. A list of public shelters made at the end of January 1942 includes an ‘emergency concrete-trench shelter’, here, to house fifty persons (a very small number for this class of shelter). This was very well placed to serve as a shelter for the adjacent civil-defence Control Centre in the Municipal Buildings. In mid June 1943, alongside various recommendations for the improvement of protection at the adjacent civil-defence Control Centre, this ‘public shelter’ was allocated to the use of the Report and Control Centre behind the Municipal Buildings, and was made gas proof. The roof, at this time, was ‘not of the standard required for protection against incendiary bombs with explosive noses.’ It was ordered ‘that the earth roof covering should be removed and an additional concrete carpet laid on the existing roof which would make it the equivalent of at least 8" thick. This new layer [was] to be reinforced and the reinforcement passed into the reinforced slab of the new annexe and carried over the roof and down the wall on the opposite side’ (i.e the shelter was now to be linked directly to the Control Centre). These alterations may explain the presence of extensive brickwork, as well as concrete, in the extant superstructure of the shelter.
Owner : Public
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : good
Date of visit :

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). SKE14870.

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). Ske14870.