St Leonard's Court is a four-

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

block of flats An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...

on Palmers Road, off St Leonard's Road in

East Sheen East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its long high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic hub for Mort ...

, London SW14 in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

, 0.2 miles from Mortlake railway station. It was constructed between 1934 and 1938 and is remarkable for its surviving underground

air raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

, built in anticipation of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and now

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Air raid shelter

The shelter is beneath the raised central courtyard in front of the flats, under a grass lawn which is surrounded by a

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...

. The entrance, above ground, is via a brick

conical A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

which has a tiled roof. Steps lead down from inside the turret to the shelter below. The shelter was designed to hold 48 people and, according to

Habitats & Heritage Habitats & Heritage is a registered charity based at East Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It works in the London Boroughs of Richmond; Hounslow; Kingston; Wandsworth; Ealing Ealing () is a district in West Lond ...

, was built in 1938 and extended in 1941. It has four rooms (two for men and two for women, separated by a central corridor) and a particularly well-preserved interior with some original fittings. According to

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

, it has some similarities to W. Braxton Sinclair's design of a sophisticated air raid shelter for flats at

Queen's Gate Queen's Gate is a street in South Kensington, London, England. It runs south from Kensington Gardens' Queen's Gate (the edge of which gardens are here followed by Kensington Road) to Old Brompton Road, intersecting Cromwell Road. The street is ...

, in

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

, London, which was published in ''

The Builder ''Building'' is one of the United Kingdom's oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as ''The Builder'' in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab. The journal was renamed ''Bu ...

'' in October 1938. In 2007

Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London, the United Kingdom capital. Richmond upon Thames is ...

rejected a

planning application Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

, which had been opposed by local residents and

councillors A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

, to convert the shelter into two self-contained apartments. The Council's decision was upheld in 2008 on appeal. In 2010 Historic England listed the shelter at Grade II and since then has identified it as a building at risk, in poor condition. Habitats & Heritage is working with other local organisations (Mortlake with East Sheen Society, Barnes and Mortlake History Society, St Leonard’s Court Residents Association and Richmond Borough Council) to conserve the building for the benefit of the community and for use as an educational resource. An interpretation board was installed in 2014.

References

External links

St Leonards Air Raid Shelter, The Environment Trust

East Sheen Air Raid Shelter, Subterranea Britannica

Mortlake with East Sheen Society

Barnes and Mortlake History Society
(which also covers East Sheen) {{LB Richmond 1930s establishments in England Air raid shelters in the United Kingdom Apartment buildings in London East Sheen Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Residential buildings completed in 1938 Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in London Subterranean London Turrets

Air raid shelter

See also

References

Further reading

External links