View source for London deep-level shelters

{{short description|Air-raid shelters under London Underground stations}}
{{more citations needed|date=November 2012}}
[[File:Belsize Park deep level shelter 3.jpg|thumb|An upper level of one of the Belsize Park tunnels.]]
The '''London deep-level shelters''' are eight [[Deep level underground|deep-level]] [[air-raid shelter]]s that were built under [[London Underground]] stations during [[World War II]].

==Background==
Each shelter consists of a pair of parallel tunnels {{convert|16|ft|6|in|m}} in diameter and {{convert|1200|ft|m}} long. Each tunnel is subdivided into two decks, and each shelter was designed to hold up to 8,000 people. It was planned that after the war the shelters would be used as part of new express tube lines paralleling parts of the existing [[Northern line|Northern]] and [[Central line (London Underground)|Central line]]s. Existing tube lines typically had {{convert|sigfig=3|12|ft|2.5|in|m|adj = on}} diameter running tunnels and about {{convert|21|ft|m}} at stations; thus the shelter tunnels would not have been suitable as platform tunnels and were constructed at stations the new lines would have bypassed. However, they would have been suitable as running tunnels for main-line size trains. (One existing tube, the [[Northern City Line]] opened in 1904, used a similar size of tunnel for this reason, although in fact main-line trains did not use it until 1976.)

Ten shelters were originally planned, holding 100,000 people — 10,000 in each shelter. However, the final capacity was around 8,000 people in each shelter, and only eight were completed: at [[Chancery Lane tube station|Chancery Lane]] station on the Central line and [[Belsize Park tube station|Belsize Park]], [[Camden Town tube station|Camden Town]], [[Goodge Street tube station|Goodge Street]], [[Stockwell tube station|Stockwell]], [[Clapham North tube station|Clapham North]], [[Clapham Common tube station|Clapham Common]], and [[Clapham South tube station|Clapham South]] on the Northern line. The other two were to be at [[St Paul's tube station|St Paul's]] station on the Central line, which was not built because of concerns about the stability of the buildings above, and at [[Oval tube station|Oval]] station on the Northern line, not built because of difficult ground conditions encountered as the work started. The working shaft for the shelter at Oval now functions as a ventilation shaft for the station.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/deep_level_shelters/index.html |title=Abandonment of St Paul's and Oval shelters |publisher=Subbrit.org.uk |date= |accessdate=2010-05-24}}</ref>

The shelters were started in 1940 during [[the Blitz]] in response to public demand to shelter in the London Underground stations. However, they were not completed until 1942 after the Blitz was over, so they were initially all used by the government, but as bombing intensified five of them were opened to the public in 1944: Stockwell, Clapham North, Camden Town, Belsize Park and Clapham South. The Goodge Street shelter was used by [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|General Eisenhower]], and the Chancery Lane shelter was used as a communications centre.

== Post-war use ==
[[File:Stockwell Deep Level Shelter Entrance - Diliff.jpg|right|thumb|One of the entrances to the Stockwell shelter now decorated as a war memorial]]

After the war, the Goodge Street shelter continued to be used by the army until a fire on the night of 21 May 1956, after which the government decided the shelters were not suitable for use by large numbers of the public or military.<ref>{{Cite Hansard|house=House of Lords |title=UNDERGROUND WORKS (LONDON) BILL |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1956/jul/05/underground-works-london-bill|date=5 July 1956|volume=198|column_start=541 |column_end=545}}</ref>
The Chancery Lane shelter was converted into [[Kingsway telephone exchange]].<ref>
{{Cite Hansard|house=House of Commons|title=UNDERGROUND WORKS (LONDON) BILL |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1956/mar/27/underground-works-london-bill|date=27 March 1956|volume=550|column_start=1979 |column_end=2002}}
</ref>

[[File:Clapham South deeplevelshelter.jpg|thumb|One of the entrances to Clapham South in 2009. It has since been incorporated into a new residential development.]]
In 1948 the Clapham South shelter was used to house 200 of the first immigrants from the [[West Indies]] who had arrived on the [[HMT Empire Windrush|HMT ''Empire Windrush'']] for four weeks until they found their own accommodation. In 1951, it became the Festival Hotel providing cheap stay for visitors to the [[Festival of Britain]], but was closed after the aforementioned fire in the Goodge Street shelter. The shelter was used for archival storage for some years, but is now a [[Listed building|Grade II listed building]] with pre-booked tours arranged by the [[London Transport Museum]] via its "Hidden London" programme.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clapham South: Subterranean Shelter |url=https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london/clapham-south |access-date=2023-02-15 |website=London Transport Museum |language=en}}</ref>

All the shelters, with the exception of Chancery Lane, were sold by the government to [[Transport for London]] in 1998.
The Clapham Common shelter was leased in 2014 by the Zero Carbon Food company, who use the shelter as a hydroponic farm.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://zerocarbonfarms.co.uk/clapham-farm/|date=n.d.|title=The world's first subterranean urban farm|website=Zero Carbon Farms}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/underground-farm-zero-carbon-food|title=Vast underground bomb shelter reappropriated by urban farmers|website=Wired.co.uk|date=11 February 2014|author=Olivia Solon}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
The Goodge Street shelter appeared in studio mock-up form in the 1968 BBC ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story ''[[The Web of Fear]]''. The surface entrance to the Goodge Street shelter appears as itself in the 1988 feature film ''[[Hidden City (film)|Hidden City]]'', written and directed by [[Stephen Poliakoff]], although interiors were actually shot at Clapham South.

The Camden Town shelter was used to represent parts of [[Oval tube station]] in the 1976 two-part story ''The Lights of London'' in the BBC television series ''[[Survivors (1975 TV series)|Survivors]]''. The director of the second episode was [[Pennant Roberts]], who subsequently directed the 1977 ''Doctor Who'' story ''[[The Sun Makers]]'', in which the same shelter was used for scenes set in tunnels under [[Pluto]]. Roberts subsequently worked on the BBC series ''[[Blake's 7]]'', in which the shelter was used for the interior of the titular artificial planet in the 1980 story ''Ultraworld'', although the episode itself was directed by [[Vere Lorrimer]]. The shelter was also used to represent parts of a secret underground facility in the vicinity of [[Down Street tube station]] in the 2005 feature film ''[[Creep (2004 film)|Creep]]''.

Reference is a made to a fictional deep-level air-raid shelter at [[Holland Park tube station]] in [[Ben Aaronovitch]]’s novel [[Whispers Under Ground]], third in the [[Peter Grant (book series)|Rivers of London]] series.

In the penultimate mission of the video game ''[[Watch Dogs: Legion]]'', the Stockwell deep-level shelter is featured as the hideout of the main antagonist, Zero Day.

The Kingsway Telephone Exchange features prominently in the early part of the apocalyptic horror novel ''[[Domain (novel)|Domain]]'' (1984) by British author [[James Herbert]].

==See also==
* [[Air raid shelter]]
* [[Blast shelter]]
* [[Civil defence centres in London]]
* [[Military citadels under London]]
* [[Subterranean London]]

==References and sources==
;References
{{reflist}}
;Sources
* Emmerson, A. and Beard, T. (2004) ''London's Secret Tubes'', Capital Transport Publishing, {{ISBN|1-85414-283-6}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|London deep level shelters}}
*[http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/deep_level_shelters/index.html The deep level shelters by Subterranea Britannica]
*[https://images.nationalarchives.gov.uk/assetbank-nationalarchives/action/quickSearch?keywords=deep+tunnel+shelter&newSearch=true&quickSearch=true  More pictures of the shelters]
*Description of the design and construction by the consulting engineers: [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/deep_level_shelters/index.html Ministry of Home Security: Deep Tunnel Air Raid Shelters: London 1942]

[[Category:Infrastructure completed in the 20th century]]
[[Category:Infrastructure in London]]
[[Category:Subterranean London]]
[[Category:Air raid shelters in the United Kingdom]]