Monument record TR 15 NW 828 - Second World War communal, surface air-raid shelter on the site of All Saints’ Church, Canterbury

In mid 1940 it became clear that there was insufficient air-raid shelter accommodation in Canterbury and a scheme was drawn up for eight new communal surface shelters, each to house fifty persons. This seems to have been modified, slightly, and the resulting shelters were based on modules each housing forty eight. These were to be built of brick and concrete. One of these shelters, intended to house 192 persons, was built on the site of the former All Saints’ Church on the corner of Best Lane and the High Street, just south-east of the King’s Bridge. The parish had been annexed and the church dismantled; Faculty permission does not seem to have been required but the Emergency Committee seem to have had to ‘take possession of the site’. In August 1940, the tender of Mr G.A. Stone accepted to build the shelters, and this one seems to have been completed by mid October – if not rather earlier. Toward the end of March 1941 a concrete floor was provided. Simple decontamination facilities were provided at the shelter in early April 1941, and the roof was strengthened with reinforced concrete in February 1942.
Owner : Private
Publicly accessible : No
How accessed for survey :
Tourism Potential :
Condition : Destroyed
Date of visit :

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). SKE14925.

Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee, 01/01/39, Canterbury City Council Emergency Committee Minute Books 1 to 6 (Unpublished document). Ske14925.