Science & Engineering

The museums, the machines and the men and women who worked it out: laboratories kept as they were, beam engines under steam, the tunnel, the barrier, the roofs, and the plaques on the houses where the ideas came.

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Hidden London: Clapham South — subterranean shelter

A mile of tunnels a hundred and eighty steps under Clapham South, one of the eight deep-level shelters bored in the war and later home to the Windrush arrivals.

Engineering landmarksGo inside

Photo by Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Eight deep shelters were dug under Northern and Central line stations in 1940 to 1942, each meant to hold eight thousand people in two tiers of tunnels, and Clapham South's are the ones you can walk: bunks, canteen, medical post and the spiral stairs, used by Londoners in the Blitz and the V-weapon raids, then by the passengers of the Empire Windrush in 1948 and by Festival of Britain visitors as a hotel. The engineering of the tunnels, meant to become an express tube after the war, is the tour's second story.

Where
Marks & Spencer Food Hall, Balham Hill, SW12 9EA
Nearest station
Clapham South · 2 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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