Massive World War 2 Air Raid Shelter Under Liverpool And The Durning Road Disaster Memorial.
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- info taken from
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Where there was space on a factory building site, an external shelter was likely to be the favoured solution, reducing the likelihood of the staff air raid shelter being crushed by the building above collapsing on it or the escape route being blocked by post-impact debris. At the Littlewoods site in Edge Hill, the shelter was built at the eastern edge of Wavertree Park and was aligned parallel to the factory building to allow rapid filling via several gateways. The factory itself is an attractive 1938 art deco building, which surprisingly for its date was not built with an integral heavily protected basement shelter. Littlewoods was one of the most famous shopping catalogue companies formed in 1928, though like many factories its production was turned over the military ends during the Second World War. It was then used for various activities in support of the war effort, including printing National Registration forms (on the outbreak of war 17 million were printed here over 3 days), assembling the floors of Halifax bombers, and by the code breakers of MC5, the government office that intercepted mail to and from suspected enemy agents.
Merseyside was the second most heavily bombed part of Britain after London, and its air raid shelters would have seen a great deal of use during alerts and raids. The Littlewoods shelter is approximately 300m long, aligned on a northerly axis parallel to the Littlewoods building. In plan it resembles a chain of rectangles (with pairs of shelter chambers roughly 12m and 9m long along the four sides) joined by 9m long corridor galleries. It had 13 entrances evenly disposed along its length to facilitate filling from the west side of the factory - these sloping entrance passages joined the connecting corridor galleries at right angles giving excellent blast protection. The shelter was semi-buried using a cut and fill method with earth banked on top of it for bomb splinter protection, and may have begun as a Munich crisis trench rapidly dug during a few tense weeks in September 1938. Many of these were then lined with precast concrete wall and roof panels which were slotted together to give a degree of dryness and an illusion of permanence. Littlewoods’s shelter though is built with much stronger reinforced concrete and the clean timber board marks indicate higher quality and more expensive construction than normal. The shelter appears on a 1940 map
Its great treasure though is the remarkable series of portraits of men and women at the south end. Several wear helmets and their quality suggests that they may have been painted from life, perhaps to entertain the occupants during the tedious wait for the All Clear. There are men and women, and one portrait even appears to cleverly work round a pre-existing stain on the concrete surface. These appear to be the work of one artist, maybe even one of the MC5 experts since graphic skills were used by MC5 to adjust and add false information to letters before sending them on. It is likely that they are sketches of co-workers at the factory, and some individuals are identified by their initials. Most are of women, while the men shown are either in uniform or middle aged, one appearing with a bow tie and one with a pipe.
Elsewhere cigarette lighter writing on the ceiling indicates the dates 1942 and 1943, after the main blitz and before V1 attacks, in the era of occasional one-off raids. Otherwise signage is limited to black stencilled bay numbers and “Turn Right and Duck” signs.
There would have been benches, and shadows and fixings along the walls showed where they would have been fixed on both sides. Pairs of empty toilet cubicles were provided in short offshoots off the shelter chambers., though today all of the shelter’s Elsan chemical toilets have been gathered together in one pile, possibly with the intention of collecting them at some stage.
one of the best war time shelters i've been in,the writings on the wall are just amazing.
this place is certainly no secret many other people have been in here before me .......one i've always wanted to see and now im glad i have.
the drone is fine and flying again just prop damage.
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Jus a supporting point for people who find/see The Memorial ... yes go into Clint Road, you will see a turn off, its called Old Collage Place go into it and you will find a garden on the right hand side with a unlocked gate, go in its in there.!.
My Grandma’s twin sister and her son was in that shelter at Durning road school- they got out alive. Apparently the bomb it the roof of the shelter which burst the gas pipe and the boiler exploded. My Mum wasn’t sure if they sat by the boiler or in front anyway the water missed them. A lad had just been talking to them and moved, if he’d had stayed with them he would have been alive. Mum’s Uncle George ( who was a air raid warden with my Granddad) went looking for them, those who were dealing with the rescue said that they weren’t there and told him that they might be at home. He went home and there the pair of them were sitting at the table with blackened faces he got down on his knees and thanked God they were alive.
Am sat here engrossed and got really chocked up at the drawings. Those ladies and gents were actually down there as those bombs dropped posing for the artist. Absolutely brilliant. Well done lads can't wait for future vlogs
Jeez that intro was something else so much history down there the drawings etc im speechless 10/10
Cheers bill wasn't sure if it was slightly overkill?
Wow amazing I have lived in liverpool all my life didn't know nothing about this great video kid 👍
Thanks kev glad you liked it cheers for watching
Know worries I enjoy it very much keep up the good work 👍
Thanks kev
....as soon as you turned right.....I was fuckin lost!....brilliant vid lads...
ha ha yeh it all looks the ssme down here great mooch though
thanks for watching glad you like the vids
Last year, I was in the Botanic Garden when I saw the Entrance you entered through, was so so tempted!!!
Them drawings need to be preserved for gods sake !
Agreed
This is incredible!..Thanks for this..I worked on at Wavertree Technology Park for a couple of years and had no idea these tunnels existed
I worked in Dawsons Music too.The old peacocks shop in williamson St.
Where the gents toilets were situated,there was a hatch and when you went down,there were obviously tunnels that had been bricked up
One rumour was they were for the war..Another rumour was they led all over the city and mainly to the banks in the city centre
A customer came in and told me that he was lorry driver in the 50's and one tunnel was used for moving goods to a shop,which i think is now the santander on the corner of Whitechapel..He told me the shop was the equivalent of Harrods
Be interesting to see if anybody knows about all these tunnels,and if there are more air raid shelters that can be accessed
Thanks barry brill info that bud cheers for watching glad you liked it
It’s not Santander that’s on the corner of North John street- It’s HSBC you’re thinking of. Wouldn’t the shop be Bunny’s which was on the opposite corner now Forever 21
Great interest video. Loved hearing my scouse Nan talk about the air raids and WW2
Chees glad you liked it i so love old war stories
I am enjoying catching up on your great videos, this one was especially interesting. Thank you guys.
Cheers brian glad you like them mate cheers
Love this video so much and thanks for sharing, yet another little gem in Liverpool that I wasn't aware of, keep them coming guys!!!
Thanks simon cheers for watching i have a lot more stuff planned over the next few weeks months etc
This is amazing. Whoever drew those was really good. They could totally turn that into a tourist attraction. I know i would go! Or they could at least preserve the wall, like cut it out and display it somewhere for the pubic to see. I mean so much history in those tunnels and so much history in that graffiti. Fascinating stuff. Great video 👏 in the area with the drawings….what was written on the ceiling?
Just Brilliant, your spot on George that should be renovated in the period by the council. Just a part would do and the rest restored in case of another foreign threat. In the war time part they could have ration books, mannequins in the fashion of the day, plus the wardens. I’m sure it would soon pay for itself it could be a package tied into the Western Approaches Bunker. I’m not sure if Liverpool isn’t an Art Deco Building? If it is is should be restored too. They are sometimes listed. Looking forward to your next one 👍🏻
Thanks for watching bernadette yeh its a shame its just left be nice to see it done up a bit and open to public...another part of liverpools history slowly fading away
@@g2emedia1977 wasn’t the Littlewood’s Art Deco building supposed to be renovated - were the council supposed to have/ or get money from the Lottery for it?
@@Resgerr i think so yes then it had a fire and then was just left
The floor rising up could be from the cast iron drains rusting and expanding , great video .
Ahh never thought of that cheers
Thanks for watching glad you liked the video
GREAT STUFF GEORGE AND ERIC..LOVED THAT VIDEO
Cheers bill thanks for the heads up on the queen mum letter to
Absolutely brilliant that mate
Cheers glad you liked it la
Seen this on another site but the drone shots totally edged it. Walked past this place years ago oblivious. You have got 2 sites in one vid that Liverpool City Council need a kick up the !!! To get sorted. ..actually you have just said that in the vid. Cheers another great one
Thanks mark its been done to death this place it was a first for me always had it on the radar it was just getting round to it thanks for watching as always bud
Brilliant!
the portrait graffiti is absolute gold. cheers gents
Holy moly what an intro amazing work I live near here
Glad you liked it john cheers for watching
@Ericp202 thats life im afraid you go out town etc the shops people unfortunately swear
Grab my ma’s good torch. And some butties. We’re going on an Adventure 😂
brilliant video from start to finish. Thanks GT xx
was a pleasure Alicia gad you liked it thanks for watching
@@g2emedia1977 I’m a big fan. My sister Lauren introduced me to your videos on blitz beach. And I’ve been hooked ever since. Keep them coming. Xxx
@@aliciamaher202 cheers thanks very much got loads more stuff to come ...stay tuned cheers @alicia maher
We lived in Anfield near the Reds foooty ground, during the 1942 bombing, we took shelter in an "Anderson shelter" in the back yard; however one of the bombs hit our street, and the front of out house was gone.
Venmore Street?
@@Resgerr I was five can't remember Lar
@@henryjames5663 ohh 😲
Elsan still exist and make chemicals for campervan and caravan toilets.
Ahh right cheers for the info
Glamorous portraits..look straight off a film
Great stuff fellas, keep up the good work 👍
Cheers dave glad you liked it dude
Great vid keep up the good work. The entrance has now been caged off and filled in gutted
Thanks glad you enjoyed it i seen that somewhere think it was on the fbook page that it had a cage around it didn't know it was filled in though
Cheers for the info
Managed to explore that myself a few weeks ago, nice vid 👍
Cheers i love it surprised its took me so long to see this thanks for watching
@@g2emedia1977 welcome, subd as well 👍 the pictures are amazing down there
Thanks much appreciated hope you like the content
Those picture down there wow absolutely amazing
This is amazing
It really is an amazing place
Amazing! Never knew all that was there. I fancy an explore round there now 👍
Its deffo worth a mooch mate
@@g2emedia1977 , it would be interesting to map it out with a big tape measure and compass to work out where it relates to on the surface. I expect there would be plans somewhere but they would be in some deep, dark and dusty archive somewhere...
@@matttonks1591 you might like my map then! i.imgur.com/T6U3DMW.jpg
Spot on that kyle
Only thing i found on it was on a 1940s map
there are more shelters in the middel of the rail way just near there you can see them from the park
really wow do you an exact location of this
@@g2emedia1977 if you go to the edg of the park were the raialway is you can see across the raial lines and in the middel is an iland of bushes in there is the bunker and the rail men hd chiken pens there at one time we ust to cross the lines wen we were kids and go there
You totally missed the names on the ceiling, great video
I did get em on a return visit
That looks cool guys, shame they haven't utilised the space ... nothing like that by me. I have to check out those things I saw on Dr Who last year.
Liverpool looks awesome all lit up
The whole world has underground tunnels they use to all link at a point in time I have found underground bunkers a few years ago that no one else has come across since the 1940s it still had unopened supplies I’ve been working on it for 4 years now I have built a safe room that was inside a bomb shelter using steel and 4metre thick walks and roof
Aunty used to work there during WW2 they made Barrage Balloons
Wow really
Haha, the Littlewoods building totally reminded me of the stadium that the US Army blew that swastika off of.
Any idea if this is still open mate? Coming to liverpool next week would love to do this
last i heard the council locked it but i havent been here since i uploaded the vid so couldnt say for sure
@@g2emedia1977 ok cheers got loads of places to visit anyway if we dont get in
@@geordieurbex2200 no worries have fun lots to see around liverpool
botanic park you need to go in and head up the back last time i heard the council put a fence around it but im sure it wont last long
@@g2emedia1977 cheers
Earth quake or tremmer got to of caused tha split
mad isnt it
@@g2emedia1977 yer mate fucking mad tha am from the city never new they was ther like to have look myself
its a really good explore mate well worth a visit
@@g2emedia1977 cheers bud and a new sub here
thank you so much much appreciated
They have welded it shut now and fenced it off 😒
there more inside toilets than must in the city of Liverpool, build the place doubles that easily ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
People also ask
What is an Elsan?
Elsan in British English
(ˈɛlsæn ) noun. trademark. a type of portable lavatory in which chemicals are used to kill bacteria and deodorize the sludge.