Looking straight up the west ventilation shaft. There are 5 sets of ladders, each with a landing, spanning 80 feet to the surface. Originally this would have led to a grilled ventilation structure on the surface, now long since removed. See here for more information. During October 1942 arrangements were made to fit heavy duty extraction fans capable of moving 10,000 cubic feet of air per minute. It is not known if these were ever fitted.

The Ladies' Lavatory. This has not been vandalised; the wooden partitions have just simply rotted away and collapsed. All the toilets are are in perfect condition, complete with seats. At the back, on the top left, is the air extraction unit which exhausted the air, via a sump, to the surface. This tunnel was originally bored from the outside and was sealed after completion by two 13" brick walls, 7' 9" apart, and filled in between with chalk. The extraction fans (left rear wall) were all useless by 1951 due to corrosion.

One of the many three-way tunnel junctions which connect the west and east wings together. The wall on the right seems to have been dry-walled using chalk rubble. The flat roof is of 20 gauge galvanised steel supported on 6" x 3" rolled steel joists resting on brick piers.

The signs were fixed to the roof using steel wire. In this case the wire has corroded (see the broken loops on the floor) and the sign has fallen down. A party for 700 children was held in the Wymering shelter.

A section of tunnel with the floor covered in wooden fragments. This is possibly due to the decay of seating which was known to exist in the Canteen area. The shelter has a general fall of 1 in 120 towards the entrance.

The Evening News (Portsmouth) dated: Friday, July 21, 1944. The River Bug passes along the Ukraine-Polish border and this news story relates to the unstoppable advance of the Russian Army into Nazi Germany from the east in the last year of WWII.

Since this photo was taken the newspaper has been vandalised with spray paint.

Source: Richard Wright