EKCO Southend WW2 Air Raid Shelters Part 2

By Chris Poole – September 2008

In part one of this piece details are given of the hunt for some of the 26 shelters in total that were believed to have been built that together could provide shelter for the entire workforce estimated to be circa 3,000 people (including the Plastic's site).

This is the story of the hunt for one of those shelters, which rumour said still existed in good condition complete with an escape tunnel leading to an exit in the EKCO sports ground and depending who you talked to this escape tunnel came up either in the centre of the cricket pitch, the far side of the ground or near the old stands.

As this could be another urban myth it was with some trepidation that I was escorted by one of the maintenance men from 'Plastics' down to this shelter where to my amazement it was immediately obvious that this shelter is in a very good condition albeit that it is full of discarded 'plastics products'. A tag attached to one of the water feed pipes indicated that this shelter was inspected and possibly serviced up to 1949.

Shelter full of discarded Ekco Plastics products – photograph courtesy John Anderson

This shelter is under what is now known as building 9, which was the 'Lamp factory' at the time of WW2 although during the war, this building was also used for the covert manufacture of top-secret radar valves. Research has also shown that this building was once known as building TF405 and knowing this information is important since it now ties in with information known about the 'top secret' development of airborne radar to a production standard, which was going on from 1939 onwards.

The development of radar took place in the research department (later known as building 5) on a strictly 'need to know' basis by a hand picked team headed up by Tony Martin with the assembly of these large cumbersome units taking place in building TF405 and whenever components or assemblies were moved from the research building across to the unit in TF405 it is known that they were put onto a tea trolley and covered up with a green cloth before being wheeled over.

With the start of development work on airborne radar, it is believed that hurried excavations for the building of this bomb proof and gas proof shelter was carried out early of 1939 and the build standard was dictated by the need to have a high security shelter capable of withstanding an all but direct hit and which would safeguard both the radar and the key design personnel, the engineering personnel and the senior managers and directors of the company. In fact the term bunker is more apt than shelter!!

The first most obvious difference to the normal underground shelters is the construction technique, which is completely different insofar as this shelter is constructed using 2 metre (6ft 6 inches) inside diameter concrete pipes, which are obviously are the same as those used for large underground waterworks – probably storm drains or sewers whereas the normal shelters are brick lined. It is considered that this method of construction was used for speed since it would have been quite quick to drop these pipe work sections in once the trench was dug.

The second most obvious difference is that there are blast and gas proof heavy gauge steel doors at each end and in the centre to protect the people in the shelter.

Air raid shelter entrance door - photograph courtesy of Phil Hubbard

The shelter is divided into three sections (called gallery's) as shown on the sketch below. As can be seen from the sketch, each gallery is protected from blast damage in the adjacent gallery by an 'anti-blast' wall as well as a blast door.

At each entrance to the shelter, at the bottom of the stairs there is a cleansing station where people who had been contaminated with 'gas' could have been treated and washed down prior to going into the shelter in addition to which at the base of north end entrance there was a fully equipped 'first aid' room.

Each gallery has two (chemical) toilet cubicles (thankfully no longer with the chemical toilets) and a drinking water supply.

Off of the central gallery there is a separate room called the power room. This room was equipped with a diesel engine driving both a dynamo and an air pump. This is because the shelter had its own power distribution panel where the lighting power could be switched over to an emergency DC power supply from the diesel generator should there be a mains failure caused by enemy action. The photo below shows the electrical power distribution panel still in situ.

Shelter's power distribution panel - photograph courtesy of Piers Daye

The air pump supplied forced air throughout the shelter via a series of outlet pipes and this air would have been maintained at a positive pressure so as to ensure that the airflow was always outward – thus stopping the ingress of 'gas'.

One of the shelter's air supply vents – photograph courtesy of Peter Brown

Passing through this power room, there is a small tunnel extension leading to an escape hatch, which in the war years would have indeed have come up in the sports field adjacent to the factory although with the post-war extension of the roadway this is now in the western roadway.

Since the shelter would have been fully 'locked down' when there was a raid ongoing, the people inside had not means of knowing when a raid was over and it was safe to venture out.

In consequence, inside the shelter, above each exit door there is an illuminated status sign. The photo below shows one of these signs, which would have had a red and green mica panel showing visually the status (now missing) as well as a bell system all of which could have been operated from above ground.

All clear sign inside shelter above entrance door - photograph courtesy of Phil Hubbard

During the summer months of 2008 a lot of effort was put in to clear the accumulated debris from the shelter in order to reveal the shelter, as it would have been during the war and to understand how the shelter would have functioned.

John Anderson and Chris Poole August 2008 – photograph courtesy of Peter Brown

The above photo shows the shelter how it would have been during the war where each gallery would have had at least 40 people sitting on the hard benches (calculations show that the shelter could possibly have housed 150 if necessary). There they would have sat for the duration of the raid and in some discomfort since there would have been a lot of noise from the generator running as well as a consistent hissing from the forced air supply. Inevitably it would have become hot and stuffy to stay in the shelter for any length of time and not a place to be if claustrophobic. All in all, not a pleasant experience but much better that the alternative.

Postscript 1st November 2008

This shelter has now been closed up and there is no longer any access. The shelter has now been properly surveyed by the field archaeology unit of Essex County Council and a record made in the register of WW2 structures. All the appropriate fixtures and fittings have been removed and put into storage so that hopefully when Southend Council build their new museum, a short section of this shelter can be reproduced in the museum so as to give future generations an experience of what it was like to be in a WW2 shelter during a raid.

Essex County Council Archaeology Unit
Short .mov video of SoS Shelter
© Pascal Kivotos Production

You may require VideoLAN Media Player to view this video


Part One