Hyde Park is one of the most delightful places in London. It's a beautiful open space, free
for the enjoyment of all, filled with trees and ducks and dogs arguing about whatever it is dogs
argue about, I don't know, politics probably. But had certain speculative planners got their way,
it might have concealed something remarkable indeed. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that
in the 1930s, tensions were rising in Europe. Economic depression had created mass unrest.
Dictators were taking power. Alliances were forming. A touchy gentleman in Germany seemed
poised to take his inferiority complex out on the world. It was clear to all that it wasn't
a case of if war happened, but when. What was equally clear was that this certainly
wasn't going to be over by Christmas. The First World War had introduced the people of Britain
to the horrors of air raids - death from above, against which ordinary citizens were seemingly
helpless. And in the intervening two decades, aircraft technology had improved dramatically.
The Spanish Civil War had shown exactly how nightmarish modern air warfare could be.
Experts, as well as cultural figures as diverse as H G Wells and Walt Disney
warned that air power would be the decisive factor in coming conflicts. As we now know,
they were completely right. The world would be devastated by air raids from bombers to rockets to
ultimately the atomic bomb. But I'm skipping ahead here. In response to the looming threat,
the people of Britain demanded air raid shelters. Not unreasonably. I mean, no one likes getting
blown to pieces while going about their daily business. The government and local authorities
looked into potential sites for conversion into public shelters. Obviously, though,
construction of shelters cost money and required time and manpower. The government were also afraid
of what they called "shelter mentality," the idea that if people had shelters, they just wouldn't
bother coming up to the surface. This policy had its critics, the Daily Worker being particularly
vocal on the subject, and on the other side of the political spectrum, Winston Churchill. The
one thing that's not limited by government policy, money, manpower or time is the human imagination,
so there was a bit of a fad in the late 30s for proposals for shelter complexes.
These were usually envisaged as being placed under parks or squares. The Illustrated London
News seems to have been particularly fond of this kind of speculation, and that's where
the Hyde Park shelter proposal comes from. It was published in 1938. This would have been a
truly massive undertaking, capable of housing tens of thousands of people. It would have been
buried far below the park. The proposal included a connection to Hyde Park Corner Tube station,
and the illustration indicates that the shelter would have been below that. The top layer of the
shelter would have consisted of a sand barrier. It was believed at the time that poison gas would be
a major weapon in the coming conflict and so the sand was intended to filter this out. In fact,
gas was not heavily used, but the precaution is quite an interesting insight into what people
thought at the time. Below that there would have been a 60-foot concrete barrier. I have to say,
in light of this, I don't know why they felt the sand barrier was so necessary. If gas could get
through all that concrete and London clay, I don't see how much difference sand was going to make.
There were also to be thick concrete walls around the sides of the shelter. Below the concrete
barrier, the fun began. The anonymous journalist who devised this imagined three levels. The top
layer would have housed machinery, generators, air filters, reserves of oxygen and fuel. It seems
that this inventor saw this as something with the potential for long-term occupation. There was also
to be a hospital on this level and what the author describes as "inward traffic from the city."
I assume they mean pedestrians rather than motor vehicles, although one assumes access by emergency
vehicles would have been a rather useful thing to have. The second level down would have been the
living space, dormitories and canteens, and below that there would have been storage. In the middle
of all this was to be a three-level administration block, which would control everything and provide
communication with the outside world. Also on the lower level were transport facilities, and this is
where the author really lets their imagination run wild. They imagine new main line railway tunnels,
double tracked, leading to Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras, Waterloo,
Charing Cross and Victoria. These would be equipped with airlocks, again in case of poison
gas. This whole latter part seems a bit weird. The plan specifically describes these tunnels as being
for outward bound refugees. Why build such massive accommodation facilities and also such extensive
evacuation facilities? Talk about belt and braces. Hyde Park is 142 hectares or 351 acres in area.
It is very large indeed. And this shelter was supposed to run under the entire thing. The author
imagined it having its own internal railway, to be worked by light electric railcars. There would
be several entrances around the edges, and these would lead into decontamination rooms - again,
the fear of poison gas very much at the fore. I'm sure it will come as no surprise whatsoever
when I tell you that this was never built, nor was it ever considered as a serious proposal.
It was really a flight of fancy, the kind of thing that catches the eye, but no one has
really thought through. Perhaps the idea that such things were practical even provided some comfort
to the public at a time of fear - "No matter what they throw at us, we'll be safe," as it were.
As I said earlier, there are a lot of features that don't seem to make much sense from an
engineering or even a logical standpoint. This whole complex which would have made Crossrail
look like a walk in the park, so to speak. It would have to be designed and built in a matter
of months. Not only that, but it would have needed miles of electrified railway tunnel and
new connections at the main line stations at a time when the railways were busier than ever.
We don't know exactly who threw this design together, but they clearly weren't employed
by any official board. When war actually did break out, there would be a scramble to build shelters.
Deep-level shelter complexes would be built, but on a much smaller scale than our friend from the
Illustrated London News pictured. You can actually tour the one at Clapham South, and indeed, that's
where a lot of the footage in this video came from. There were other proposals, and I might well
cover them in future videos. But I don't think any were quite as crazy as the one below Hyde Park.
Well, I hope you enjoyed today's video. If you did, please do click the like button
and subscribe for more oddities both below and above the ground in London.
Thanks as ever to my donors on Ko-Fi and Patreon, you are the electric
railcar to my unfeasibly large citadel. And I'll see you all again very soon. Cheerio!