Anti Aircraft Site At Tq 48738975

This is an anti-aircraft gun site constructed between 1935 and 1939. It is located off Whalebone Lane. The site is primarily built of brick with concrete render and reinforced concrete, with felting to the roofs and walls of some of the accommodation blocks. It comprises two command posts, each with four gun emplacements arranged in a semi-circle facing east, and connected by concrete roads. Between each pair of emplacements is an ammunition store protected by blast walls. To the southwest of the northern command post are three detached blocks, likely ammunition and vehicle stores, and another block to the southeast, near the second emplacement in an anti-clockwise direction, also a probable vehicle store.

The command posts consist of clustered, semi-subterranean accommodation blocks and walling. The southern command post has a circular brick gun base. The octagonal gun emplacements each have two entrances on opposing sides. The inner entrances were formerly gated and surrounded by one or two ammunition stores; the outer entrances are protected by screening walls, and originally had subterranean corrugated iron shelters, of which only fragments remain. Inside each emplacement are six small ammunition stores with opposed metal doors and rudimentary pole racks, though many of the doors and poles are now missing. A former gun position is marked by holdfast bolts in the concrete base of each emplacement.

The larger ammunition stores, serving two emplacements each, are five bays wide, featuring pilaster buttresses and alternating windows and metal doors (some windows are now blocked and doors removed). Internally, they contain five cells with some shelving, connected by a front corridor. Blast walls surround each store, and the store at the southeast corner of the northern grouping has a watch tower. Two detached blocks to the southwest of the northern grouping have reinforced metal doors and ventilation holes at eaves; the larger of these has three metal-louvred openings on the west side.

This anti-aircraft site formed part of the Inner Artillery Zone surrounding London. Its survival is particularly good, and it is notable as a purpose-built site for eight guns (most sites had only four). The site saw significant action between 1940 and 1941.