Buckland Air-Raid Shelter

There were many air-raid shelters constructed under Dover during World War 2, some of them able to hold thousands of people. Most of the larger ones were basically long tunnels cut into the chalk. Plans of some of them are still available. Others were smaller and of some there do not appear to be any existing records. One such shelter is situated near Buckland Hospital. This shelter was well constructed of shuttered concrete-lined tunnels. The tunnels form a rectangle and apparently this was only one half of the shelter, the other similar half being joined to this with a connecting corridor.
Thanks to Len Hobbs I was able to visit this shelter and take the following photos in March 2001.

 

View showing the ladder now used to gain access to the tunnels.

 

View looking down towards bricked up end of tunnel.

 

Further down tunnel, corridor to other half of shelter can just be seen on left.

 

Bricked up end of tunnel, obviously an addition to the original concrete sections.

The corridor off to the left led into the other half of the shelter.

 

Corridor that led into the other half of the shelter is same concrete construction

as the rest of the shelter. Brick wall was added later to seal off that section.

 

Concrete tunnel then turns to the right...

 

...and then right again into a another tunnel running parallel to the first tunnel.

 

View at end of tunnel, corridor to right leads back to starting position.

 

View in last section of tunnel, with ladder at end.

 

Back at starting position and current entrance shaft from surface.