It's perhaps the most extraordinary thing to happen in the borough of Sutton since a block of shitty ice fell on a shed (about the only other news story from Sutton we can find in our almost 6-year archive). Part of The Green has been fenced off after collapsing into a WWII air-raid shelter.The council have few records of their newly rediscovered facility and seek information from the public, as a notice on the fence states:
This area of The Green has been fenced off as a hole has appeared exposing damage to a section of a large underground air raid shelter. We will be excavating the shelter's outer walls during week commencing 12th July 2010. This will help us determine the extent of the damage and the best way to proceed to make the shelter safe...The underground shelter was built in 1939 and consists of three chambers capable of holding up to 450 people. We have very little information about the structure or indeed local residents experiences in the shelter during the war. If you have any information that may help us piece together the history of the building, please contact Heritage, Kath Shawcross, Civic Centre, St Nicholas Way SM1 1EA.
You can clearly see the outline of the bunker in this aerial view from Google Maps:
Can anyone help them with their inquires? And can we think of clever new purposes for the bunker, to help make Sutton more interesting?
Thanks to Robert Brooks for the picture.
