Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Bike shed plan for ‘very rare’ city bomb shelters
APLAN to turn two “very rare” Second World War air raid shelters in Bath into a bike shed has sparked concern among conservationists.
Air raid shelters were built across Bath during the Second World War. The Bath Blitz in 1942 saw the Luftwaffe conduct three bombing raids on the city as part of the ‘Baedeker Blitz’ on cities of cultural importance.
Now an application for listed building consent to repair a leaky roof at Grade II-listed 3 Park View, just off the Lower Bristol Road, is also seeking permission to turn two of the city’s surviving air raid shelters at the end of its garden into a bike shed. The end walls of the two shelters, which face each other, would be opened up and the space between them enclosed with a new roof and a door to access it.
A statement submitted with the planning application said: “The bomb shelters are used as sheds but are not readily accessible. The alterations will maintain their historic significance whilst making them utilitarian.”
But local conservationists have criticised the move and urged Bath and North East Somerset Council to not let the work go ahead. The Bath Blitz Memorial Project said the shelters were “very rare survivors of wartime air raid shelters” and added that their entrances – which would be knocked through under the plans – are particularly historically significant.
Submitting a letter of objection to the plans, the project’s historical researcher said: “The risk of a bomb hit on one shelter causing blast damage in the other had been thought of, which is why the doorways that face the two structures in number 3 are staggered so that the blast from one hit would not blow the door of that
The shelters do attract visits from people interested in the history of wartime Bath SUSAN WALKER, PART-OWNER OF ONE OF THE SHELTERS
shelter into the door of the other, which would be a weaker point than the brick surrounding the door.”
Also submitting an objection to the plans, Bath Heritage Watchdog stated: “Private shelters built in the style of public shelters will have been quite rare even in the wartime; to have such shelters survive through the 80+ years since built makes them an important and very rare heritage asset, and fully justifies the Grade II listing they currently enjoy.”
Their objection added that the air raid shelters were not covered by the list entry for the Park View terrace, but instead were Grade II listed under another list entry covering the garden walls, and therefore a separate application would have to be submitted for the work.
Susan Walker, part-owner of one of the shelters, said she “strongly” objected.
She added: “The idea of owning a listed house is to be able to live in a property that will have its setting preserved by the listing; it is the gardens to the east of the terrace that are the location of the shelters and those shelters are part of Park View’s charm.”
She said: “There is no clear and convincing justification supporting the applicant’s proposal and there is no public benefit. Rather, there would be public disservice in that historians will be denied the chance to examine the shelters in their current configuration. Also the shelters do attract visits from people interested in the history of wartime Bath.”
She suggested the applicants could easily apply to install a bike shelter instead.
The Bath Blitz killed 417 people and destroyed more than a thousand buildings in the city, with over 19,000 buildings affected.
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