"The Wall" Public Air Raid Shelter Part 2

Well you got the brief tour of the "The Wall" ARP Shelter & here we look at some of the graffiti & artefacts found within alongside a few surprises above ground. To kick off though, we want to focus on that one brick in "The Wall".

P.L.D. 10 Years 13/1/1941 

The person who etched this into the brick toilet cubicle would now be 81 years old & we are guessing it is a male. We urge all readers to check their families for the initials & help to identify the writer. Hey, we know it's a long shot but we like to search really deep for our research & build a better history for the shelters that form an important part of our heritage. We have tracked a family from other graffiti in the past, one being from the Devonport Park shelter that was partly demolished back in 2009. Writings in this shelter have given us some leads to work on including an address in Mount Gould Road.

The best we have to go on!

Any takers on this one?

Inscription found in another toilet block

One of two face drawings found close to each other

Face art

Character drawings

Mister Sad

Basketball?

Striking chin feature in this drawing

Contractor says fire engine, archeaologist says bus, we say it's a tram - How about you? Send us a comment below!

Although there was little graffiti, it was some of the most interesting. Clearly there were signs that the shelter had been whitewashed with a second coat at some point due to the way that some of the pencil markings were showing through & again highlights just how clean this shelter was. Whoever was in charge of it certainly took pride in it's appearance. Thankfully there were just a few artefacts that were left behind at various points along the underground passageways.

Artefacts found close to the entrance

Rusted, almost disintegrated bucket

Bottles from the wartime era

Bottled in Exeter

Bakealite junction boxes for electric lighting

Bench fixings void of timber seats

Bakealite fittings

Now personally for me, apart from the etched brick, the highlight was what the shelter was cut into above ground. Evidence of the Plymouth Leat was what the archeaologist's were said to be looking for & also the original cobbled surface of the car park had been revealed as see in the photos below. This shows how sympathetic the demolition has been of this shelter, a behind the scenes look at how little damage was done to the original structure itself. An escape hatch had been exposed & there were a couple of exploratory holes cut through the roof, but most impressive was the stairwell that had been throughly cleaned by contractors in preparation for the documentation to take place. 

This was always one of those shelters that would be demolished due to the need for development within the city centre, but at least it has been documented in a way that Plymothians can now see for themselves that it is not always wanton destruction of heritage. We were impressed with how thoughtful the contractors & Uni staff were toward the shelter & taking time to tell us their views on it's existence. A lot of people thought that this shelter was long demolished since the war, & it's highly possible that this was just infilled quickly & re-tarmaced before the end of the war & returned to it's use as a car park but, with all the madness of rebuilding the blitzed city it's highly possible that documents were lost along the way.

Stood atop the entrance to the shelter with Plymouth Museum in the background

Entrance overlooked by the Link & Davy Building

A different angle over the entrance

Original cobbled road that the shelter was constructed through

Stood on top of the shelter showing depth, cobbled road & contractors exploratory hole

Close up looking the cobble surface

Stood with our back to the previous image looking midway along the shelter & exposed escape hatch

Shelter looking toward the infilled end - notice the stone walls that the shelter has cut through

This section of the shelter cut through some sort of stone walling - could this be a trace of the leat?

Surveying the site stood atop the section that had yet to be uncovered fully above ground

There it is & we also made a short video tour of the shelter which will be uploaded soon for you to follow the passageways to the end. On a personal note this was an excellent shelter to document with the different layers of history around it & particularly pleased to see how the passageways cut though the cobbled road.

A lot of feedback has been received since the first photos appeared & we welcome feedback from as many people as possible, after all it is your support that will eventually lead to one of these time capsules to be saved. As we have already mentioned, many people had thought this one had long gone years ago so with the groundworks for a much needed new University building imminent, it would have suffered major setbacks if the shelter were to be kept & plans changed to adapt. Given better hindsight, if it could have been integrated into the new building as a permanent historic feature it would certainly have been one of the most interesting campus buildings in the world, food for thought!

"The Wall" Public Air Raid Shelter - Plymouth University

Back at the end of August, we were kindly notified by one our readers of yet another ARP shelter discovery at the site of a new building to be constructed on the Plymouth University Campus & we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to document it's passageways before demolition began. After our recent wedding we didn't get to go on honeymoon so what better way to spend a few hours down one of Plymouth's WWII time capsules & we would like to thank all involved for allowing this fantastic visit to happen. Following a recent aerial photo of the site kindly posted by Matt Sayer on our Facebook page, the reaction from some readers has caused quite a stir but full of positivity in support of saving one of the remaining ARP underground shelters in Plymouth. More of that in Part 2 but firstly let's concentrate on the shelter in question & in usual fashion we had to give it a name. Ladies & gents we give you "The Wall" Public ARP Shelter.

One of the original entrances opened up, exposing the stairwell & ready to document

As soon as I heard the news, it was a short visit to the loft followed by a couple of hours digging in crates for the Air Raid Precaution Charts that we have archived & sure enough, there it was on the Sector Map, originally sited under a car park on what was then Tavistock Road. Built to accommodate 280 people, construction began in September 1939 with completion just two months later on November 7th, 1939 at an estimated cost of £105,000. It was of the arch type & designed with damage limitation in mind, with left & right angles that would act as a baffle in the event of a direct hit, & hopefully reduce the number of fatalities. Around the corner today remains the Portland Square shelter & it's memorial to the 76 people who lost their lives & without this design, there would have been much more loss of life. We took a minute's silence during documenting to pay our own personal respects for the civilians that lost their lives, something we do in every shelter we visit.

The first section of seating are within the shelter

Stood inside toilet cubicle looking back to daylight from the entrance

Walking along to the next section reveals one of the escape hatches

Exploratory holes had initially been expertly cut through the roof giving the shelter the first sight of daylight in more than 60 years, also offering us rare natural lighting conditions to work in. For the last two passageways to the other infilled entrance though it was back to using torchlight & fingertip searches of the floor for any artefacts, of which we are pleased to say we documented a handful of items of interest, the best being two old bottles made in Exeter & Falmouth.

With the escape hatch showing daylight behind us, it's a different story for the remaining sections

Rusty bench fixings, an escape hatch & toilet cubicles

Turn right & we are at the end, looking at the Tavistock Road entrance with original infill

Bottles from the wartime era - made in Falmouth on the left & Exeter  on the right

What came as a surprise was actually how clean this shelter was left after resealing it, but we're glad that somebody had the ounce to leave a few items of interest for future generations to discover. Of the little graffiti found, it was interesting nonetheless & the best of which led to the choosing of it's nickname. This was the first time we had come across a toilet cubicle with only half a wall as opposed to full height seen in the photos above. This led us to believe that this was most likely the mens urinal where buckets would have been used. It's possible that this was also used as a store for the Warden, for first aid, safety escape tools & equipment such as stirrup pumps. Sadly there was no evidence of this left behind but.....a single brick in that wall was etched with something special.

The half wall toilet cubicle looks unassuming but on one brick on the rear side  is an inscription

The answer to this is that the person may still be alive today

At this point it made us think that we need to write deeper into into the visit but we wanted to give you a good look at the shelter from within. Please keep on reading for the remainder of our findings including some humorous drawings. Until then we leave you with this fantastic aerial shot of the site before demolition taken by Matt Sayer & posted on the Hidden Plymouth Facebook page.

Snakes n Ladders Air Raid Shelter

 ......continued from Hidden Plymouth Living History - The 15 Minute Discovery

During the early hours of the morning following our discovery - bruised, bloodied & covered in bites from the army of ants whose nest we had clearly disturbed - a plan started coming together....

.....Project Snakes n Ladders was about to take our exploration to the next level.

Why the name Snakes n Ladders? Well the original entry into was snake-like slither into the passageways, & all of the emergency escape ladders were intact plus it would have made a great game for kids in the '40's after the shelter was made redundant. Shelters had never been given a nickname until now, & also seemed a good way to keep the exact location a secret in order to avoid any vandalism. Following on from this, a few more shelters have been documented in this way, & we have given each their own codename to protect their true identity.

The original plan was postponed after requiring a few changes & it wasn't until 6 weeks later that we finally got our second more in-depth look at this important time capsule. Invitations were sent to gather a small & dedicated team to join us on this most exciting discovery & on the day our original team of 3 was complimented by my Son, fellow Plymouth explorer & blogger Georgie Kirrin, her husband Simon, who kindly supplied much needed backup equipment (including pasties & chocolate!), & Steve Johnson AKA Cyberheritage. This was Steve's only chance of seeing the shelter that eluded him during his years of uncovering relics & we simply had to make it happen as a thankyou for all his help in our own research. Luckily, all went well with access & a simple photo message was sent to interrupt Steve's lunch. That was all the persuasion he needed to turn up 20 minutes later armed with his video camera & upon greeting him, his response was one of awe - the genius plan had worked & it was such an honour for Plymouth's legendary historian to be joining us for this amazing underground excursion!

Welcome to the underground

One of the longer sections of shelter looking toward the toilet cubicles

First left passageway led to seating area, second left to the original entrance

Further on from last photo looking at the infilled entrance

What we didn't realise is that the shelter had last been entered in 1960 & not the late 1940's, judging by graffiti we found below one of the escape hatches along with a ring-pull Coke can & a homemade torch in the form of cloth wrapped around a wooden stick. We can only imagine how exciting it must have been for kids of the era telling their friends of this top secret find & how many only dared venture a few feet into it's dark passageways. Let's not forget though, that this shelter had an original, almost sinister use. Whilst built to offer protection from the Luftwaffe bombing raids, some shelters took direct hits with many civilians killed, & the single largest loss in Plymouth was to be at the ill-fated Portland Square shelter where a memorial is sited today.

Graffiti from possibly the last person to see the shelter

Coke can found below the 1960 graffiti

Homemade torch with cloth wrapped a stick

The earliest piece of graffiti we found was 1939 & the sheer amount of drawings on the walls & artefacts to be found discarded around the passageways was quite phenomenal. Child's toy prams, enamel dishes, buttons, odd shoes, hankies, brass shovels & even a cast iron bedstead littered the floors. The graffiti was literally everywhere to be found, sadly the humidity in the shelter led to a haze like condition & condensation dripped from the walls making most hard to photograph.

1939 - The earliest piece of graffiti found on the walls

Tipperary No.1 Hannons Cottages, Henery Street

Pencil sums with condensation on the walls

Any takers on guessing this one? Mrs.....

One of two child's toy prams slowly decayed through time

Cast iron bedstead under a pile of rubble

Kia-Ora juice bottle

Brass shovel

Laceless boot - one of many found discarded but no pairs to be found

Original Air Raid Precaution posters were to be found morphed into the walls after years of condensation have taken their toll but some of the wording & pictures could still be read to our amazement. Smoking Prohibited, No Dogs Permitted, No Spitting posters, Public Shelter Rules along with tips for long stays in shelters are some of the photos featured below.

Original WWII ARP posters found on a wall facing one of the original blocked entrances

Smoking Strictly Prohibited & Dogs Not Permitted ARP poster

WWII health & safety tips poster

Clean your teeth

ARP poster

Tips to keep warm during shelter visits

After over 5 hours documenting as much as we could, the shelter was resealed but one couldn't get away from the thought that much more was to be found amongst the dank tunnels beneath Plymouth. The sheer size was evident with six original entrances, ten escape hatches complete with original ladders & 10 twin toilet cubicles found amongst a few hundred feet of passageways. Around 1200 civilians would have sheltered here during the air raids, not a nice thought, with so many families cramped together in fear of the ferocious bombing that just about decimated Plymouth's buildings.

One of the original emergency escape ladders at the end of  one passage

Bricked up original entrance, behind which would have been a stairwell 

Corner section with toilet cubicles in the distance

Infill below one of the escape hatches

There we have it, Plymouth's biggest public air raid shelter to be uncovered in years & we can confirm that this is not under threat of demolition for the foreseeable future. At this point we think a few of you may be asking just how we did it - well you will have to ask our offspring in a few years time to get the full story!