Monday, March 9, 2009

Bomb Shelter then and now


Many of you might have heard of the fabled bomb shelters at the back of Guan Chuan and Yong Siak Streets.

Well, here is a picture of the shelter under 'testing' before WW2. Notice how cheerful the residents and the Volunteer Wardens are in the image.

According to Linda, an ex-resident who did use the shelter in the war, it was too hot to stay in for long, and in the end, residents hid in the stairwells during air-raids as it was one of the safest places in each block.

Looking a the structure of the block, I suspect, that being built way before WW2, the spaces were meant to be sheltered garages for cars, and were later converted into bomb shelters when the situation in the Pacific changed.

1 comment:

  1. Hi people,

    I want to do a short story on these bomb shelters, could someone help me. Please email me on rengav.subbiah@gmail.com. Thank You.

    Renga Subbiah

    ReplyDelete