Present day
With an interactive World War II museum hidden under its playground, Downs Junior School in Brighton has hidden depths
Sheltered lives T
he wail of an air-raid siren shatters the peace as a group of children move silently across the playground and
into the shelter. As they clamber down into the narrow concrete passages, they hear a loud explosion and the crack of a breaking window. Inside, it’s cramped, cold and
dimly lit. Everyone sits crowded together on hard, wooden benches – girls on one side and boys on the other. The walls seem to creak. These children are taking part in
an educational visit to Take Shelter, an immersive experience that transports visitors back to World War II. Take Shelter began life as part of the Friends of Downs Junior (FODJ) and is now a separate entity. Funds raised by Take Shelter are used to create facilities that benefi t both the museum and the school.
The Trenches Built in 1939, The Trenches, as they
were known at the time, were a series of interconnecting tunnels made from precast concrete panels approximately three metres below the playground. With bench seating
10 SPRING 2020
pta.co.uk
along the corridors, each shelter had a capacity of 300 pupils and was also used by the local community at night. At times, multiple air raids meant the children had to stay down there for several hours. Teachers would take a register, hold a gas mask practice and make the children chant times tables. After the war, the shelter fell
into disuse: the entrances were demolished and the passageways under the tarmac lay forgotten for over 40 years. People thought that they, like other trenches in Brighton, must have been fi lled in. It was not until 1983 that they came to light during a routine drain inspection.
Opening the shelter In the 1990s, the FODJ opened the
shelter several times, but it was deemed unsafe and visits were stopped. It was not until 2012 that it was made safe and opened during that year’s summer fair. The one-off event was hugely oversubscribed. Three years later, PTA member Al
Mackintosh asked premises manager Michael Button how the FODJ could make more money at the school.
‘He tapped his foot on the playground,’ says Mackintosh, ‘and said we should open the air-raid shelter that was hidden under a manhole cover. At the beginning we had no plans or strategy whatsoever, but we could only try.’ By September, a team of six
volunteers were busy planning refurbishment of the derelict shelter, to be ready for public tours during the 2016 Brighton Fringe festival. They divided the underground space into themed areas and covered the walls in fl ip frames fi lled with rare local photos and stories. To recreate the 1940s, the team
added an Anderson Shelter, a 1940s bedroom and kitchen and an original toilet. A fi lmmaker on the team produced a series of fi lms
1940s
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
