Clapham South Deep Level Shelters

There was snow in the air as we made our way to Clapham South to meet up with the Hidden London team for a tour of the deep level air raid shelter.

There are eight deep-level air-raid shelters built below the Underground during the wear and you can usually spot them by their circular entrances, like this one on Clapham Common.

We entered through the unassuming Balham Hill Road entrance, which is underneath a new housing development, and made our way down the 180 steps into the shelter.

Once at the bottom, our guide told about how people used to hide in the regular underground but it wasn't deep enough to protect them from bombs, so the government build these shelters 30 metres below ground.

Each of the tunnels in the shelter were named after different army commanders.

The first room we entered was the Medical Room where they offered free medicals and treatments as an incentive to attract more people into the shelters.

They'd worked out which each room used to be by the marks and featured left on the walls. This one had a tap.

Our guide giggled at how staged all of the propaganda photos for the shelters looked.

Each shelter was designed to hold 8,000 people with long tunnels filled with bunk beds.

Families would get their own sections and the bottom bunks were very short, so the children might have felt a bit clauhstraphobic.

Some of the guests had written their names on the walls behind their beds.

Guests had to bring their own bedding and take it up and down the stairs each day, unless their house had been bombed and then they could leave it there.

Next we saw one of the canteens, where rations didn't apply so you could get hot chocolate and cake, though the price of tea was double the price it was up on the street.

In the tiny control room, there were three phones, one for calling the rest of the shelter, one for calling other shelters, and one for calling the outside world.

This was a third entrance to the shelter that led in directly from the Clapham South underground platform, which would have been a lot faster than heading up to the street and taking the 180 steps down.

I loved reading all of the old Underground campaigns which were posted around the tunnels.

In more recent years, the shelter has been used to store secure documents, though they're no longer necessary in the digital age.

Back up at street level, it was nice to get some fresh air but my flu had kicked in, so we tried to perk up with brunch at Brick & Liquor.

I ordered the Summer Berries Granola, which was supposed to be topped with seasonal berries and fruit but I guess the berries were out of season.

Tom had a very artistic looking Eggs Royale with kiln-smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce.