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.