Situated under Soho Square Gardens just off Oxford Street in Central London is a disused Air Raid Shelter that was used in the Second World War to accomodate a few hundred local people.
The shelter was one of dozens hastily built across central London after the outbreak of war in 1939. Leslie Hardcastle, president of the Soho Society, said he recalls spending the night in the shelter several times during the war. He said it was lined with about 12 inches of brick and had concrete as a roof.
During the Cold War the air raid shelter was set to be reused as a local Borough Control Bunker but this never happened.
The shelter has five separate different rooms, toilets, kitchen and even its own telephone box booth.
