This fading sign is painted on the reservoir wall in Jerningham Road, SE14. It dates, I believe from the Second World War, when a big painted S with an arrow showed the direction and distance to the nearest air raid shelter. SE8ker has photographed lots of examples in Deptford and elsewhere.
But where was the shelter signposted in this example? The distance information is faded, but the arrow is pointing to the top of the road -was the shelter in St Catherine's Church or Aske's school, or somewhere else?
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There's a really clear one on the bridge in Ladywell, I do keep meaning to photograph it and shall consider this post a prod!
I've spied another very clear sign off Deptford High Street on Hales Street and another on the railway bridge on Tanners Hill on your left as you go down the hill.
I've also wondered where the Jerningham shelter would have been...
I always thought it was very close by - in through the gate in the wall??
i've always assumed it was the church (which has an undercroft). The church was actually hit - interesting local letter from the time here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/09/a8794209.shtml
I would have thought having a bomb shelter in a prominent landmark like a church on a hill was not too clever, but then again it may have been the only building in the area with a large suitable basement. There were other shelters in churches, notably at St Peters Walworth where more than 60 people died in a 1940 bomb raid while they slept in the crypt.
There was definitely a bomb shelter in the girls school at the bottom of the hill - we were told about it when we were at school in the 80's. I think that's what the bricked in doorway in the wall on New Cross Rd was for. but I don't know if there was one at the boys school as well.
I was at the Boys school in the 70s and I never saw or heard about anything that could have beena bomb shelter. But having said that there was a 60s brick built block (music and cadet force) whihc was sort of semi-basement.
Ian
see their was a nuc alert in nunhead last week near pecham rye (Fire men stated radioactive material.......??????
This Shelter was on the corner of 171 Jerningham and Vesta road; I lived at 171. It was demolished about 1948. My family chose not to use it and sheltered in the coal cellar under the house. Several local properties were bombed; our windows were blown in.
Thanks, that's that mystery solved. The house (171 Jerningham) has had several structures added i the garden in recent years, presumably they will have come across any remains of the bomb shelter.
I spotted a S for Shelter sign on the top of Lewisham Way last week. Never seen it before in all my years of passing by on the bus. It points down Lewisham Way towards the old Deptford Library. It says the shelter was 200 yards away. Have picture if you want it
The shelter in New Cross Gate/ Telegraph hill is sadly no longer their, the school, or headmaster didn't use the and that was left as recreational ground then sold it for houses, sad really, bit of history demolished to line some ignorant greedy pockets.
When it was being demolished you should have seen how huge it was, about has deep as a 3 story house, if not more. trying to find some more history on it if anyone has any.
thanks
Here is a picture of the one Ruinist mentions - sadly it doesn't look like it will be around for much longer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14346023@N02/1462513673/
I Went to the boys school and was told that the 'Music room' was built during the war as a dressing/first aid station. The structure was partly submerged with access from a brick 'trench'. The entrances were all very strange with lots of 90 degree turns.
I was at Askes Boys 1955-62. Lower down on the site below the main school buildings there was indeed an air-raid shelter which was built as a First-Aid post and poison Gas Clearance Station. (there was genuine concern at the time that the Germans would drop poison gas bombs on civilian targets). In 1955 there were still signs identifying it as a “Gas Clearance Station”. It was windowless in 1955 and was accessed through a double set of offset steel blast proof doors so creating an air lock between the doors. Inside there were washing and showering facilities for decontamination. The two large interconnecting rooms on the West side of the shelter were used as music rooms, the other half of the building was used as store rooms by the schools Combined Cadet Corps and the Explorers Club. The The first of the music rooms was used for instrument storage and individual instrument tuition. The second large room was used for class music lessons presided over by Mr (Archie) Smith. The whole structure was constructed using reinforced concrete and the very thick solid roof was supported internally by thick pillars in the main rooms. If you would like to read more about this please go to my wordpress site.
TKerry. I believe the sign originally said 70 Yards, I am interested there was a major shelter at Aske’s. There was a small concrete shelter constructed on the garden of 171. It was removed after the war. I knew the church well post-war, and I never heard of any shelter there, or saw any remains. The garden shelter was close to where the wall turned into Vesta Rd - at the time there was a phone box there. You can ask a question via tk.consultancy@ntlworld.com
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