2014 is the 75th anniversary of
the start of the 2nd World War which began in Europe
on the 3rd September 1939. 6 months previously, on the 25th
February, the first Anderson air-raid shelters
were delivered to households in the Islington area of London .
Anderson Shelter at Bedford Museum |
Designed a year previously by
William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison, they were named after Sir John
Anderson – the Lord Privy Seal - who was responsible for preparing British air-raid
precautions before the expected outbreak of war.
Each shelter was designed for 6
people and was a simple structure of corrugated steel panels that had to be
bolted together and then buried a metre underground, with a layer of soil
and/or turf on top. They came similar to flat-pack furniture, i.e. the families
were expected to construct the shelter themselves from a set of instructions.
Before hostilities broke out and
during the conflict, approx 3.5m Anderson shelters were built and they were
distributed free to those with annual incomes of less than £250 (£5 a week), or
at a charge of £7 for everyone else.
The Anderson shelters performed their task
efficiently, but in winter they were unpopular, being cold, dark holes in the
ground, that often became flooded in wet weather. Their unpopularity led to the
development of the more user-friendly, indoor Morrison shelter.
At the end of the war, households
were expected to dig up their shelter and return the corrugated iron, but many
were allowed to keep it in return for a small fee. Many shelters were converted
into garden sheds and indeed, many actually survive to this day.
Have you seen a surviving Anderson shelter?
What use does it perform today?