Brighton: Downs Junior School welcomes new air raid shelter entrance

Downs Junior School, in Ditchling Road, Brighton, is the only school in the south of England, and one of only two in the UK, with an underground air raid shelter museum open to the public.

Previously, the shelter was only accessible by a cramped hatch and vertical metal ladder.

This often made it difficult for people with physical or sensory disabilities to access the shelter.

But, on Saturday, April 15, the Mayor Councillor Lizzie Dean and Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex Andrew Blackman visited the school for the grand opening of the new, more accessible entrance.

The steps down to the air raid shelter (Image: The Argus)

The hatch has now been replaced by a wide flight of steps with handrails, opening up this historic and informative facility to a wider audience.

Built by hand in the hot summer of 1939, the shelter is a series of interconnecting tunnels made from pre-cast concrete panels approximately three metres below the playground.

With bench seating along each corridor, the shelter had a capacity for 300 pupils and staff during the day and was used by the local community at night.

The conditions were cramped, dark and damp.

The air raid shelter is a network of tunnels (Image: The Argus)

“At the most, Downs Junior School pupils had to go into the shelter five times in one day,” said Michael.

The Mayor Lizzie Dean said: “We are fortunate to not know what it was like to sit in an air raid shelter. To relive it in this way is an immensely valuable experience for young people today.”

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People who remember the air raids volunteer at the museum, sharing their stories of the war with visitors.

One such veteran is Alan Dart, 87, who lives in Hove. He lived in London as a child and came to live with his grandmother in Rugby Place, Whitehawk, during the Blitz.

“I am so proud to be part of this project,” he said.

After the war the shelter was sealed up and forgotten for nearly 30 years until it was rediscovered during a drain inspection in 1983.

A lack of resources meant that the shelter was not safe to open to the public so it lay dormant until 2012.

Since 2012, the shelter has been restored by a team of volunteers led by Michael Button, premises manager at Downs Junior School.

The team involved in the opening (Image: The Argus)

With the support of the Keep, Brighton Museums and Screen Archive South East, the Take Shelter team have created an underground museum of photographs, wartime scenes and poignant film and sound clips, including a realistic simulation of a short air raid complete with vibrations as the bombs drop nearby.

The air raid shelter hosts regular school trips, mostly from the city, but this year it welcomed its first group from overseas with a trip from a German school.

From just eight schools in its first year of operation, the project will have welcomed 33 schools and more than 1800 pupils this academic year.

Take Shelter is an immersive community project which “needs to be experienced first-hand to fully appreciate the value of everything it has to offer”, said Michael.

It is open to the public on select weekends, including May 13, 14, 20 and 21 for Brighton Fringe.

• Tickets can be booked now at: https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/take-shelter/