Air raid shelter, Haugh Street, Falkirk, Falkirk, Falkirk

Description

The building is a Second World War domestic air raid shelter, potentially a prototype built in the early months of the conflict. It is located at the northern end of the rear gardens of 68 and 70 Haugh Street in Bainsford, Falkirk.

The building is a brick and concrete structure, with gabled east and west ends and a pitched concrete roof. There is a single entrance at each gabled end of the building, and the remains of baffle walls that previously shielded the doors from blasts. Internally, the structure is divided into two rooms by a central brick wall, one for each residential property, with a low crawlspace in the central wall permitting access between them in an emergency.

Historical development

Six terraced houses including a house at 68 and 70 Haugh Street are shown on Ordnance Survey maps (surveyed 1938, published c.1948), and these houses remain on the site to the modern day. The air raid shelter is not visible on the 1938 Ordnance Survey map but appears to have been built in a single phase, within the first few years of the Second World War, as records indicate Falkirk Council were constructing brick shelters by late 1940, and as this example may be a prototype design it would likely have been among the earliest to be built.

Statement of Interest

The Haugh Street air raid shelter meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

The shelter is a rare and largely unaltered surviving example of a Second World War domestic shelter.

The design of the shelter combines elements of both types of brick and concrete shelter used in the Falkirk area, making it a very rare design and suggesting it is potentially an earlier prototype or experimental design for the area.

It retains its physical relationship with the two residential properties that it was constructed to serve.

It is a tangible link to one of the defining events of the 20^th century, the Second World War, and the impact that the conflict had on civilian populations and the Home Front.

Architectural interest

Design

The design of the building is very simple, prioritising function over form, and there are no notable decorative features in the structure. The concrete and brick used for the building are among the most common building materials for military and civilian structures relating to the Second World War.

The shelter appears to be of an unusual and very rare design within the Falkirk area. The use of above ground shelters was necessary in the Falkirk area, as attempts early in the war to make use of subterranean designs such as the Anderson shelter failed as the excavated trenches were invariably flooded by groundwater. By 1940-41, the Falkirk authorities were constructing two types of brick and concrete shelter for domestic properties. The Type 1 shelter comprised a long rectangular plan with a flat concrete roof, usually constructed in pairs to serve adjoining households, while the Type 2 used a square plan with a pitched concrete roof. The shelters built at Haugh Street appear to be a combination of the two types that is not found anywhere else within the area, suggesting they may be early prototypes or experimental designs.

Setting

The setting of the building has not drastically altered since the shelter was constructed during the Second World War. As the shelters were built at the ends of the rear gardens along Haugh Street, this meant the setting was restricted by the surrounding houses, and this remains the same today, with the only major change being the replacement of the original buildings at the western end of the street block with early 21^st century residential apartments.

The survival of the shelter's physical relationship with the residential properties at 68 and 70 Haugh Street, which it was built to serve, does have some interest in listing terms.

Historic interest

Age and rarity

The building is an early and now rare surviving example of a formerly very common building type. During the Second World War, a wide variety of designs of air raid shelter were constructed and used. Due to the legal requirement placed on local authorities during the war, civil defence buildings and structures of this type would have been very common at the time.

There is no definitive total for the number of air raid shelters constructed within Britain during the Second World War, but they undoubtedly numbered in the millions; records show the manufacture of around 2.5 million of the "Anderson" model of shelter alone. Despite the vast numbers of air raid shelters originally built, however, only a tiny fraction of the total now survive, as subsequent demolition, deterioration and clearance have removed most examples.

Social historical interest

The building is a tangible link to the Second World War, and the wide-reaching impacts it had on civilian populations far from the frontlines. By the time of the Second World War, aerial warfare had developed to a level that could directly attack infrastructure, industries, and population centres far behind the front lines of the conflict, and new approaches to defence and protection were needed to combat them. This need for civil defence infrastructure to protect against enemy air attacks on the home front within Scotland marked a major shift from previous late 19^th and early 20^th century conflicts, and in the personal experience of those living through them within Scotland.

The necessity of civil defence, for the purpose of protecting the civilian population, had been realised following German bombing raids during the First World War, and was brought into harsh relief by the 1937 bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Following the passing of the Air Raid Precautions Act in 1938 and the Civil Defence Act in 1939, local authorities were required to establish Air Raid Precaution (ARP) schemes for their areas. This included the creation of communal and domestic shelters, installation of warning systems, distribution of gasmasks and other equipment and for the organisation and running of an ARP Warden service.

The industrial nature of the Falkirk region, coupled with its proximity to the Rosyth naval base, made the area a prime target for potential attack, and documentary records indicate that active preparations were being made in the Falkirk area from at least 1938.

Association with people or events of national importance

The Haugh Street air raid shelter is directly connected to the Second World War, one of the most important and defining events of the 20^th century. Extremely common during the war, civilian air raid shelters like this example were nonetheless a visible and necessary element of the conflict within Scotland, as the rapid development of aerial warfare in the early decades of the 20^th century created the possibility of direct attack on infrastructure and populations far away from the front lines of the conflict.

External Links

Historic Environment Scotland Listing

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