Chatham Street Tunnel, Ramsgate

The air-raid shelter in Chatham Street was constructed in the First World War, during which Thanet came under air attack from German Gotha bombers. The entrance to the shelter is inward sloping, which is very typical of shelters and was designed to deflect blasts. There is a lot of debris and rubble over the original stairs which lead down into the shelter. At the bottom of these stairs, passageway turns right, leading to a circular tunnel.  There seems to have been a miscalculation in the construction of the tunnel; it was bored through by mechanical pick from opposite ends, but there is a difference in height of approximately 1.5m where the tunnels meet and three steps were built in to make up that difference. Light would have been by candle or oil lamp, and there are areas where benches were cut in.

It seems that this tunnel was not used during the Second World War, probably because that was an entrance to the main deep public shelter, Ramsgate Tunnels.