The Shelter

In the summer of 1939, as the threat of war grew closer, air raid shelters were built in schools up and down the country. Today the only school shelter open to the public is underneath a playground at Downs Junior School in Brighton.

The shelter, or ‘trenches’ as it was known, are a series of interconnecting tunnels made from pre-cast concrete panels approximately 3 metres below the playground. With bench seating along each corridor the shelter had a capacity for 300 pupils and staff during the day and the local community at night. The conditions were cramped, dark and damp and left a lasting impression on anyone who experienced it.

After the war the shelter was sealed up and forgotten for nearly 30 years until it was rediscovered during a drain inspection in 1983. Sadly a lack of resources to make the shelter safe to use meant that it lay dormant until 2012.

Since 2012 the shelter has been restored by a team of volunteers led by Michael Button, Premises Manager at Downs Junior School. Together they have created an underground museum of photographs, wartime scenes and poignant film and sound clips, including a realistic simulation of a short air raid complete with vibrations as the bombs drop nearby. In 2016 Take Shelter opened its doors for the first time.