The Bombings of 1940 forced a reappraisal of deep-shelter policy and 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 required to build the tunnels at the public expense with the understanding that they were to have the option of taking them over for railway use after the war.

Its been a rather long time coming. Ive sat at my computer trawling through report after report of people visiting the Arches. Saying to myself, right I’m going this week. Well fast forward to today and a good seven months had passed.

Another visit back to Longbridge. Its been a year since the last longbridge visit and it seems the interest has all but died, I preferred it this way as its given the site time to cool down, So we decided now was the time to have another look. Since last time we visited we had a good look around the topside sections we aimed our eyes on the underground parts, or more practically the “shadow factory” tunnels with lay beneath the buildings.

The first stop on the two day Paris trip. The tunnels were built by the Germans in world war II to house and store their V2 rockets and associated trains that launched them, although it is unsure if they were ever used or not. The first striking feature is easily the size. They are huge, easily the biggest underground space I have explored.

Aka the ”Secret Chambers”, a joke you were either a part of, or a victim to. We accidentally found this site whilst looking for something else. Luck, what a crazy mistress she is. I met up with Dsankt and we headed in and down the ladder towards the lift. We came into a series of wooden walkways leading to a large cold door marked 5.

Ok so its not a shiny new undisovered piece of exploration. Its been done before. Quite a few times actually, even by myself. However, the last time I visited was with almost thirty people. It was crowded, there were queues to take pictures, and no matter how long you waited, there was always someone waving a torch at your camera. So pictures werent really an option. Two years later we decided to return.