Found an air-raid shelter in the garden today!

I kid you not!
OK, so here's the story. We (g/f and I) live in the top 2 stories (upstairs and loft conversion) of a big old house with the garden shared with the downstairs neighbour. I've never been able to have much to do with the garden as the old neighbours had a big old neglected dog that used to crap everywhere and eat anything I tried to grow. Anyhow, they left a while back and I've been growing veg out there.
Anyway, (rambling, stoned!) today we were out there tidying up and picking (33 tomatoes today but the squirrels ate all my broccoli!) and having a general tidy up. There has always been a 'hump' in one corner with a huge Fuschia and some ferns growing in it, a bit like a raised bed.
While pruning back the bed and shrub I noticed 2 stones and what appeared to be a small hole between them so I lifted one to see a large hole. So I lifted the other to find an entrance to a room! A quick google revealed it to be a WWII Anderson shelter! I don't think it's a standard one though as it seems a bit bigger (probably reflecting the size of the house). It seems buried deeper than standard too because I would guess this mound is only about a foot high. At the moment, I'm thinking about 6 ft high, 8 ft deep and 6 ft wide with a 1ft square entrance that needs digging out.
Anyhows, I had a lot of other stuff needs doing so couldn't really explore too much. Hopefully more news and pics tomorrow.

thats really interesting, i take it you live in the U.K? Id like to see to see some pictures.

lol subbed >,< I wanna know where this goes.

Cool, yeah, i'm in u.k.
I have a camera and we (neighbour is helping) are going to be out in the garden tomorrow. I hate to say it but I don't foresee it becoming a grow room. Not only is the damp a worry with electrics but the neighbour now knows and is in recovery for coke. Will still post up pics asap though. I hope to get the camera in there tomorrow and have the batteries charging ready!

sounds pretty sweet man, should take a video of you goin in there.

Yeah, I can't see me getting in there for a while. There is a lot of digging to do first! It looks like the entrance was steps that were filled in. My camera flash only works with photos too. I also have to be careful as the entrance backs on to a well known public place so may have to do some cropping before I can post on here!

have fun digging haha..i would be stoked if i found something like that

Sounds really interesting, even if you don't end up using it for growing. Just the history is cool, and might turn up some more neat stories with further digging around on google.

Be careful if you go in there!! The air inside could be stale and you could succumb to oxygen deprivation. Get some airflow going before you go in!

get a personal air detector thing ..
PPM meter ..
itll go off if theres too much co/co2/flammable/explosive gases orrr too little oxygen ..
any good construction safety place should have one

nice man, maybe half can be a growroom if not all

so many people from UK either take coke or recovering... whats the deal?

isnt ther heaps there? coke that is. Im in australia and from what ive been told, the grade A gear here is like the UK's shitty stuff. aww i wanna go uk

Yeah, there's a lot here but the quality has dropped a lot over the last 20 yrs.
It's never been my thing anyway. My body seems to have a natural tolerance to it and it takes a gram to do anything. At £50 a gram, it's too expensive for me.
My ex had a gram a day habit and it was a nightmare. Last I heard, she had lost her home, car and motorbike and moved back in with her parents.

"a quick google search"
Maybe I'm too retarded, but how the hell could google give you and answer on what time the shelter could be made in? Even more, what did you search for, lmao "I have a bomb shelter in my garden" ?

Cool thread, get some pics up. Might be some money down there bro.

Even better there might be pounds of 50 year old Jamaican weed. Imagine, buds curing in a shelter for 50 years. What a taste!

Im so down with this stuff...i wouldnt be able to contain myself...i would be out ther with one of my two metal detectors and a shovel.....in an instant...im so subed.....

cues said:

Yeah, I can't see me getting in there for a while. There is a lot of digging to do first! It looks like the entrance was steps that were filled in. My camera flash only works with photos too. I also have to be careful as the entrance backs on to a well known public place so may have to do some cropping before I can post on here!

Click to expand...

These shelters had air vents (usually filtered ha ha) - often multiple air vents with one exhaust and one or two fresh air intakes. Find one, open the top and drop a lighted video camera down. See if it's even worth the blisters digging the entrance out. Or one of those lighted cameras plumbers use (they got the idea from colon scopes) to check for breaks in sewer lines. They sell those at Harbor Freight for cheapies.

If you can't even find the vent stacks that could be a sign this shelter was abandoned and filled in or surface water took it over or . . . .. Somebody's bitch disappeared but really they stuffed her in there and caved it in. These stacks were above ground level obviously. These shelters weren't built as bunkers to fight from but to survive a thermonuclear blast. In other words these vents were always above ground for obvious reasons.

Excellent info and advice, hotrod! Tho, the thought of finding a body down there makes me scared XD
OP - be sober when going in, so you don't get a panic attack and die down there.

Ok Peeps.Apologies for the delay. Been busy today. Didn't do too well with the pics or get any digging out done either but here's what I got so far.

Thanks for the interest and encouragement. You all have inspired me to do a mini-journal on this now.


Today, I spoke to the people with the dog that used to live downstairs and they didn't have a clue about it.