Mark Brader:
And the authors of "Rails Through the Clay" were taken in by an
urban legend? I don't think so.
Specifically, what the book says is:
# GOVERNMENT DEEP SHELTERS
#
# The bombings of 1940, and intelligence reports of more powerful
# bombs and more efficient delivery systems, forced a reappraisal
# of the deep-shelter policy. At the end of October the government
# decided to construct a system of deep shelters linked to existing
# tube stations. London Transport was consulted about the sites,
# and was required to build the tunnels at the public expense[1],
# with the understanding that it was to have the option of taking
# them over for railway use after the war. With the latter point
# in mind, sites were examined on the routes of possible north-south
# and east-west express tube railways, as discussed in the previous
# chapter[2], but now comprising Bank--Holborn, Camden Town --
# Tottenham Court Road and Kennington--Balham.
#
# It was decided that each shelter would consist of two parallel
# tubes of 16ft 6in internal diameter and 1,400ft in length, with
# about two-thirds of its length lined with precast concrete and
# one-third with cast iron.
The book goes on to talk in some detail about the tunnels and
their use or non-use as shelters at different stages of the war and
afterwards, then the possible use for trains comes up one more time.
On the night of 21 May 1955 the deep shelter at Goodge Street,
now in use as an Army Transit Centre, was damaged by fire, and:
# The fire coincided with parliamentary consideration of a government
# Bill seeking to take over the shelters, (the Underground Works
# (London) Bill), and the Minister of Works assured the Commons
# they would not again be used for human occupation in peacetime
# (although no one was killed, the fire had caused some alarm and
# was difficult to extinguish). During the progress of the Bill, it
# was revealed that the option for railway use had been retained only
# on the three Clapham shelters and the adjacent one at Stockwell.
Okay?
This section of the book has footnotes referring to three Public
Record Office files, but the footnote marks are placed on sentences
that relate to specific shelter locations and the sentences referring
to future rail use aren't footnoted. However, for what it's worth,
the files a MT 6/2728, RAIL 1124/252, and HO 205/266.
Googling on "MT 6/2728", I find that
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
knows it under the title of "Air Raid Precautions: Deep level shelters:
London Underground Railways. File No: ZR.5/6/47". It can be viewed
at the records office in Kew, and print and digital copies can be
ordered but they won't quote a cost unless you contact them to ask
for it.
Searching on the same web site, I find that RAIL 1124/252 is a
"Highway development survey (Greater London): report by Sir Charles
Bressey and Sir Edwin Lutyens", while and HO 205/266 is "Shelters in
underground railways in London: contracts and costs." So it's
MT 6/2728 that's most likely to be the interesting one.
[1] The distinction is meaningful because from 1933 until 1947,
although London Transport had been forcibly unified and brought
under public control, its ownership was still private.
[2] Over the period 1936-39, a considerable number of plans were
examined for express tube lines generally paralleling existing routes.
--
Mark Brader | "You read war books -- people shooting each other,
Toronto | people bombing each other, people torturing each
| other. I like to look at people doing, uh, naughty
| things to each other!" -- Ria, "Butterflies"
My text in this article is in the public domain.