The Underground History website (visit link) tells of
the part that Goodge Street station played in World War II and afterwards in an
excellently researched article:
"As congestion on the Northern Line increased in the
'30s, a plan was developed to build a second pair of tunnels in parallel with
the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line that would act as an express route
through London. These plans were shelved at the outset of the Second World War,
but as the platforms of the Underground became increasingly used by the general
public overnight as air raid shelters (despite being initially discouraged),
work began in 1940 on building deep level shelters which were envisaged to
eventually become the platform tunnels for the express route.
Ten shelters were originally planned - five to the north
of the Thames and five to the south. All of these were to eventually form part
of the Northern Line express route apart from Chancery Lane and St. Pauls, which
were associated with the Central Line. The stations on the Northern Line that
were equipped with extra tunneling are: Belsize Park, Camden Town, Goodge Steet,
Stockwell, Clapham North, Clapham Common, Clapham South. Work on St. Pauls was
abandoned in 1941 for fear of damaging the cathedral's foundations and also work
ceased on a shelter at Oval soon after, due to extensive flooding. It is unknown
whether Oval would have been included in the express route.
Above ground, each shelter's shafts were protected by
specially constructed 'pill box' buildings to prevent any bombs that directly
hit the location from going underground. Each pill box housed lift machinery and
provided the cover for spiral staircases down to the shelter's
tunnels.
As congestion on the Northern Line increased in the
'30s, a plan was developed to build a second pair of tunnels in parallel with
the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line that would act as an express route
through London. These plans were shelved at the outset of the Second World War,
but as the platforms of the Underground became increasingly used by the general
public overnight as air raid shelters (despite being initially discouraged),
work began in 1940 on building deep level shelters which were envisaged to
eventually become the platform tunnels for the express route.
Construction
Ten shelters were originally
planned - five to the north of the Thames and five to the south. All of these
were to eventually form part of the Northern Line express route apart from
Chancery Lane and St. Pauls, which were associated with the Central Line. The
stations on the Northern Line that were equipped with extra tunneling are:
Belsize Park, Camden Town, Goodge Steet, Stockwell, Clapham North, Clapham
Common, Clapham South. Work on St. Pauls was abandoned in 1941 for fear of
damaging the cathedral's foundations and also work ceased on a shelter at Oval
soon after, due to extensive flooding. It is unknown whether Oval would have
been included in the express route.
Above ground, each shelter's shafts were protected by
specially constructed 'pill box' buildings to prevent any bombs that directly
hit the location from going underground. Each pill box housed lift machinery and
provided the cover for spiral staircases down to the shelter's
tunnels.
Each shelter consisted of two parallel tunnels that were
16ft 6in (approx. 4.9m) in diameter and were 1400ft (approx. 427m) in length.
Two pairs of shafts were sunk for each shelter, with the pairs being sited a
distance from each other in case a bomb struck, blocking a shaft. At each
location, one shaft was for the spiral staircase and lift, the other a narrower
ventilation shaft.
The two tunnels were interconnected at various places
along their length. A floor was constructed at the horizontal diameter level of
the tunnel, providing two decks of accommodation. Ventilation, medical, and
catering facilities were provided and electricity was obtained from two sources
in case bombing caused one to fail - the local authority and the London
Underground system, which had its own power station at Lotts
Road.
The spiral staircases were constructed in the form of a
double helix. One staircase would lead to the upper deck, the other to the
lower. This was to allow shelterers to be able to quickly access their
destination deck with minimum confusion. On the whole, the upper and lower decks
were run independently, though access between decks was provided in the
mid-point and at both end of the tunnels. The lift would have access to both
upper and lower decks, but was not meant to be used by
shelterers.
Toilet facilities were constructed near the lift shafts,
with the sewage being periodically hydraulically pumped up a rising main to a
sewer close to surface level. There was storage capacity of 5 days for sewage
should the hydraulic mechanism fail for some reason. Water was supplied from the
local water supply, but should this fail, each shaft was equipped with a 3000
gallon tank of water near the surface.
Capacity
Each shelter was originally designed
to house up to 12,000 people but by the time they were built, the number of
bunks had been dropped to a more comfortable 8,000. Bunks were arranged along
the walls in various configurations, to maximise use of space.
Ventilation
Ventilation is vital in such a
confined environment and a lot of thought was given to this. Air entered the
shelter through the entrances and flowed down the spiral staircases, along the
connecting tunnels into the shelter area. Stale air was then sucked out of the
shelter through metal pipes in the roof (top deck) and under the floor (bottom
deck). A fan pumped the air up a specially constructed ventilation shaft, out
into a 30ft high tower so that it exhausted well away from the fresh air
entering at ground level. When the fans were run at maximum power, the air in
the shelter would be completely changed 15 times an hour.
The air was filtered in case of gas attack. All doors
were gas seals when closed, and should there be an attack, the entrance doorways
would be shut, with the air passing through grilles in the roof of the pill
box and through gas filtration equipment.
Location
It was hoped that when their wartime
use had come to an end, tunneling would re-start to allow the already
constructed tunnel sections to be interconnected, providing the express Northern
Line route. For this reason, most shelters were constructed with ease of access
to the existing Northern Line in mind. All of these shelters were constructed
close to and in parallel with the existing platform tunnels of nearby stations
on the Northern Line, and have interconnection tunnels with the existing
platforms. In some cases, these interconnections have since been
blocked.
Use During the War
Most of the shelters took
about a year and a half to complete, but amazingly, the government got cold feet
about using them as public shelters as they were incredibly expensive to
maintain. Several of the shelters were re-purposed. Goodge Street became
Genereal Eisenhower's headquarters, some were converted for government use while
others were used as army barracks, to house troops in transit.
It took the advent of the flying bombs (V1 and later V2)
to convince the government that they should be used as they were originally
intended and some were converted back to be used as public
shelters.
After the War
After the Second World War came
to an end, plans to create the express route stayed on the shelf, and were then
ultimately dropped as money for the project wasn't available. Most of the
shelters found post war use initially as accommodation for the army in transit
and most are today in use as storage facilities.
As they were now being used for other purposes, all the
deep level shelters were isolated from their associated active Underground
stations, in most cases the interconnection tunnels being bricked
up.
Goodge Street
Eisenhower Centre The deep level
tunnels at Goodge Street have had a particularly interesting history; during the
Second World War, they were equipped as General Eisenhower's headquarters and
since then they have been used as an army transit camp until a serious (but
non-fatal) fire closed the camp on the night of May 21st 1956. Officials were
alarmed by the fire and deep level shelters were no longer considered suitable
for accommodation.
Since then, several of these tunnels have been used to
store archived material with Goodge Street's tunnels now being used to store
films and video tape.
One of Goodge Street's pill box entrances has been
smartly decorated by the company currently in occupation and it has been named
The Eisenhower Centre in in memory of the American President who used it as his
Second World War command centre (Yes, that's spelt correctly though arguably it
should be "center" as he was an American."