I also played football or cricket on the green nearby, much of which was taken up by a static water tank.” “It’s an old air raid shelter and I am surprised it’s still there! We used to play in there as kids in the years just after WWII. Here are just two of my favourite comments about the underground bunker. However, the arguments were finally put to bed by some comments from other people who claim to have been living in Canford Cliffs as children during the Second World War. Some people have claimed that it was one of many entrances to cliff defence tunnels built during the war.
I read a lot chatter on social media that this bunker in Canford Cliffs isn’t actually a World War 2 air raid shelter at all. Whilst there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that the structure was built during wartime, whether it’s an air raid shelter has been subject to online debate. It’s easy to climb inside, with a small wall in the entrance I assume is to prevent flooding. From what I can ascertain on Google Maps, that would have meant a bomb destroyed this old hotel within 160 metres or less of the air raid shelter. It explained that there was a hotel lost to bombing in WW2 in what is now the land adjacent to The Cliff pub. I can’t find much information about German bomb damage to Canford Cliffs aside from one online comment. Nearly 14,000 buildings were affected, with 75 destroyed, 171 demolished and thousands more damaged.” ( view source )Īnother source I read online says there were 50 air raids on Bournemouth in total between 3rd July 1940, and February 29th 1944, so you have to assume that the Canford Cliffs bomb shelter was used a significant number of times. “More than 2,200 bombs fell on Bournemouth during World War II, killing up to 350 civilians and servicemen.
In fact, according to a report on the BBC in in 2013, the impact was significant: Whilst the bombings of nearby Southampton are more well-known due to the military importance of the city, we sometimes forget that Bournemouth and Poole suffered too. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like for local people running to the air raid shelter in the 1940s when the bombing sirens went off. This bomb shelter in Poole is near a kids park and in a residential area, described as being semi-underground.
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