Portland Square Air Raid Shelter at Plymouth

Long presumed lost, now found in 2006!

by Tony Rees, Gerry Cullum and  Steve & Karen  Johnson

In preparation for the onset of hostilities with Germany which subsequently led to World War II, Plymouth City Council earmarked a large Victorian square (Portland Square) near Drake’s Reservoir for building a large underground community air raid shelter, enumerated as No 34.  From August - November, 1939, trenches were dug to suit the topology of the terrain (there were lots of trees as indicated on the map) and concrete tunnel sections were formed; they were of arched section, having about 1.9 m headroom and 1.4 m width

Plymouth had its first air raid on Saturday 6^th July 1940 and was to have many more before the war was over.  The most intense raids (generally referred to as The Blitz - blitzkreig or lightning war) occurred in the Spring of 1941 on the nights of March 20^th/21^st & 21^st/22^nd, April 21^st/22^nd, 22^nd/23^rd & 23^rd/24^th, and April 28^th/29^th & 29^th/30^th.

The worst single incident of the war, in relation to civilian casualty figures, occurred when a section of the Portland Square shelter complex was hit on the night of April 22^nd/23^rd.  The available records show that 72–76 people lost their lives with several families being wiped out; the most tragic case was that of a mother and her six children.

The modern location of this tragedy is in the vicinity of the Planetarium of the University of Plymouth.

Arthur Davis, who was nearly 10 years old at the time of the disaster, frequented the shelter complex with his family; at this time he lived in the Victoria Street / James Street area off the square.  After the war he moved away from Plymouth to enjoy a career in the Army and subsequently moved back in the late 1970s with his wife and children.  By 1981 he had mobilised sufficient opinion to pressurise the Plymouth City Council into erecting a memorial bench to the tragedy; according to the newspaper reports of the time this was not without some resistance!  By this time the post-war Plymouth College of Technology had become a Polytechnic, but some of the buildings still housed non-Polytechnic educational activities which were controlled by the newly formed College of Further Education .  The designated location of the bench was vetoed, on the very day of its intended unveiling, because of local-education politics, (to no-one’s credit) and the bench was eventually sited at the southern side of the original square.

In the middle / late 1960s a residential Nautical College was added to the spreading campus.  It consisted of four buildings, now referred to as the Fitzroy, Isaac Foot, Mary Newman and the Planetarium.  By 2004 only one building from the original Portland Square survived, No 22, and in the Autumn of that year it too was demolished, much to the chagrin of the conservationists.  In the Spring of 2005 a series of lectures was held at the University to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the end of hostilities in Europe .  During one of the lectures on the Home Front, Chris Groucutt (Faculty of Arts Lecturer) questioned why there wasn’t a more appropriate memorial to the shelter disaster - and he wasn’t even a Plymouthian!

It was at this point in time that Tony Rees (an employee of 35 years) felt it right to present the case to the University that it was about time it gave something back to the community.  In order to present a strong, cohesive argument some intensive research was done to establish details of the raid, the casualties and the shelter.  This entailed visiting archives and interviewing survivors and many locals who used the shelter during those dark days.  Subsequently, on 11^th May 2006 , he gave a public lecture that was to augment the official launch of a fund-raising campaign for a piece of commemorative sculpture (see Page 27).

The original date for its unveiling was due to coincide with the 66^th anniversary of the bombing in April 2007 but for unforeseen reasons is running late and Summer 2007 is now the likely target. The sculpting of the memorial is progressing well  (see Page11)

Tony contacted Steve early on in his research as he knew him of old and was aware of his interest in, and wide knowledge of, shelters in the Plymouth area.  During the research phase Tony, with Steve and Gerry Cullum (as a young lad, post-war, lived in nearby John Street ) visited the remains of the shelter complex on the SW of the square.  Tony mapped out its layout  ....with a measuring wheel, whilst Steve and Gerry took photographs  There were two original entry points (now blocked up), one on the west side of the square and one on the south side; this is consistent with discussions Tony had with some interviewees.  It is worthy of note that a piece of graffiti in one of the tunnels bears the signature ‘A. Davis’ and it is most probable that it is the same Arthur Davis mentioned earlier.

The contemporaneous ARP map showing the hand-mapped sections appears hopelessly wrong in that it suggests that there were four tunnels, one on each side of the square - goodness only knows who sketched this layout.  Sufficient to say that Tony worked with this model for about eleven months of his research and it was only about two weeks before he gave the fund-raising lecture that the layout was emphatically rejected by one of his interviewees.  Frenzied activity followed whereby he revisited those who had previously been interviewed to try and get some consensus.  Whilst there were some areas in which people differed, in general it was thought that a quartered model was about right with sections of shelter in the SW, NW and NE with nothing but an ARP (Air Raid Precautions) hut in the SE corner.  It is assumed that each section was of a similar layout and that they were not interconnected.

The NW section was demolished to make way for the Teaching Block (now Fitzroy) of the Nautical College of what was then Plymouth College of Technology; the Planetarium was part of that complex and built on the site of the blitzed NE section.

Gerry’s interest in the shelter stemmed from some early forays into a shelter section during the building of the Nautical College.  His first contact with Tony was to give him a sketch of the shelter remains as well as he could recollect nearly 40 years on ; his measurements were remarkably accurate on reflection and one can only assume therefore that the other points of note (such as seat angle-irons being flattened against the tunnel wall) were equally valid recollections.  His subsequent view, shared by all the participants, is that the section he went down was the southernmost tunnel of the bombed NE section: the Planetarium was the last building of the four to be erected so any such shelter remains would have been evident on the site for a significant period of time.

Having spoken with many people, who either used the complex during the air raids or lived in its vicinity, it has become quite clear that the 66-year interval has dulled their recollections of the actual section layouts.  It is very much hoped that the posting of this information on this web-site will trigger peoples’ memories and fill in some of the missing information.

Ø      SW section – as discussed.

Ø      NE section – entry on both the east side and the north side.

Ø      NW section – it existed!

Ø      SW and NW sections were not interconnected.

Ø      In the SW section a stencilled poster by the air-lock listed tips on cleanliness.

Ø      There was not a fourth SE section.

Ø      There was no interconnection between any of the three (/four) main sections.

Ø      The layout of each of the sections was similar.

Ø      There has been a suggestion that bunks were fitted in part of the bombed NE section.  If so, was this the only place?

Ø      Seen here is a poor quality overview of the poster/stencil/transfer remains on the west air-lock wall, on which have been superimposed letters A to F.

o       This identifies the fact that there were top and bottom titles, the bulk of the bottom one surviving.  The first word of each identifiable section is given.

o       The last page consists of four close-up shots which might help to clarify things - the general thrust of the poster would seem to be advertising cleanliness.

o       Does anybody recognize the poster?! 

SEE IT RECONSTRUCTED HERE, ON THIS LINK, "RIGHT CLICK" , "SAVE TARGET AS", & SAVE TO YOUR HARD DRIVE,  THEN OPEN IT, IT'S A "pdf" FILE .

Ø     Shows a prohibition notice.  It is almost identical to another of Steve’s photos of an actual poster, printed by Underhills - the address ‘Regent Street’ can just be made out on the tunnel picture.  Was this a poster, stencil or transfer?  Does 65 years underground turn a poster into a stencil/transfer?!

Ø      Etc

Ø      Etc

Any feedback at all, even if not explicitly Portland-Square related, will be very welcome. 

LARGE PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY OF PORTLAND SQUARE UNDERGROUND AIR RAID SHELTER: CLICK HERE

RETURN TO MAIN CYBERHERITAGE PAGE