11

RE-CREATING AN AirRaidShelter

IN ISLEWORTH

Going stir crazy being cooped up? Les McCallum recreates what it would have been like in wartime.

Recently a neighbour of mine, Bob Cartwright, was digging in his garden when the spade hit something hard. Bricks? Drains? No, further digging revealed solid concrete. Intrigued he kept at it and to his amazement uncovered a WW2 Air raid shelter. Over the course of the next few weeks he managed to clear all the earth from within, uncovering nothing more exciting than several 1950s lemonade bottles as he went: Corona, R,Whites, Batty’s and one very nice half pint milk bottle. I was invited to have a look inside when it had been cleared and dried out. The steep steps led down to a solid concrete blast wall to protect the family from shrapnel. Behind was a very small chamber. It got me to thinking what it must have been like to spend the night in this concrete refuge. As someone born in 1945 just before the end of the war, I have no idea of the fear, hardship and discomfort experienced by those who endured five years of bombing by the Luftwaffe. What was it like to hear those dreaded sirens, gather your clothes and supplies and rush into the cold dark night and take cover in a freezing shelter? Pulling out some books from the shelf I did some research into WW2 shelters and then made a trip to the Imperial War Museum to glean more information. What would they take with them, what would they store inside, and how did they sleep? How would they heat it? The advice was not to take flammable liquids down into the shelter for obvious reasons but a Primus stove and kettle could be found in most shelters for making the essential “cupper tea’. One solution to providing heat was to place a medium sized flowerpot over a candle; this would burn for several hours radiating a low level source of heat and be quite safe. with no toxic fumes. My next task would be to build the bunk beds in this cramped environment and then search for period 1940s props to dress the shelter: old tins, bedding, toys,

books, old photographs, anything that would have been taken for emergencies, clothes in a suitcase just in case your house was flattened. Water, dried fruit in tins, playing cards, dominoes, cigarettes, matches, candles. Photographs of loved ones who might be away in another country or on an air base servicing the bombers as my mum had been doing in the WRAF. A Union Jack and a photo of the king were one of the essentials for keeping up morale. I quite enjoyed doing all this, as my job before I retired was in television as an Art Director, so of course we had to film it. Ready for filming. Night has fallen, the moon is shining and I get my neighbour to run from the house in darkness wearing his pyjamas and dressing gown. My Grandson Myles is in full Director mode and requests that we do that again. We are now filming inside and to be honest it is very cosy, the candles flicker and give off a warm glow, I got up onto the bunk bed and realised that a night in here was out of the question, I couldn’t stretch my legs.

It’s amazing how quickly it warmed up inside due to the thickness of the walls and low ceiling. The one thing missing which I am glad to say we didn’t have was the sound effects. Heavy thuds of bombs hitting the ground, explosions, fire engines, and sirens would have been terrifying. Before starting the film, I asked lots of people in their 80s what it was like to take refuge in a shelter whether it was a Morrison, Anderson’s or council shelter. My Aunt told me that she once put her foot in the bucket as she was rushing down the steps, spilling the contents. Needless to say she wasn’t very popular that night. Guess what? this happened several times to us luckily the bucket was for show only.

Air raid shelter in Isleworth

Les (top bunk) and Bob (below)

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