Civil Defence Control Centre (Former Air Raid Precautions Report Centre)

Alverstoke Civil Defence Control Centre

A single-storey, semi-underground Civil Defence Control Centre built in the early 1940s, constructed from reinforced concrete, brick and steel with a flat anti-incendiary bomb roof protected by earthwork embankments on all sides except the west.

The building is rectangular in plan, aligned north-south, and comprises a central corridor with three rooms to the east and three rooms plus toilet and washing facilities to the west. The west elevation, facing the road, is a blind concrete wall with a projecting flat roof. The main entrance is a solid door within a projecting lobby, protected by a metal grill gate.

Internally, the entrance opens onto a short corridor with steps leading down to the main north-south corridor, which has a wooden floor. The three large rooms on the east side are accessed from this corridor, as are two smaller rooms to the west. The south and central east rooms connect via a hatch, and the central and northern rooms have a connecting door between them. The south end of the corridor terminates in a third western room. At the north end, steps lead to two bathroom and toilet facilities. The extreme north end of the corridor doglegs west to where steps once provided access to an adjoining sports pavilion, now replaced by a blank wall. The rooms have colour-washed brick walls, and the flat roof is supported by iron girders. Two internal doors with wooden slat grills appear to be original.

The Control Centre was built between December 1940 and February 1941 in response to the Air Raid Precautions Act of 1937, which obliged local authorities to protect persons and property from hostile air attack. It was deliberately sited away from Gosport town centre, which had suffered bombing damage in summer 1940 and winter 1941, being positioned adjoining a school wooden sports pavilion within a school playing field. A Fire Control function comprising three rooms was added at the southern end by May 1941 but was relocated by August 1942, after which the rooms were taken over by the Air Raid Precautions service.

Gosport's strategic importance grew from the 17th century when it became a supply centre for the royal dockyard at Portsmouth. By the 18th century it was confirmed as a military supply base, with a gunpowder magazine at Priddys Hard and Haslar Hospital established as a hospital for sailors. In the 20th century, a submarine base was built there in 1905, and during the Second World War Gosport served as the main provider of missiles, mines and ammunition for naval armaments through the Royal Naval Armaments Depots at Priddy's Hard, Bedenham and Frater. Fourteen of the caissons for the Mulberry Harbours were constructed off Gosport in Stokes Bay for the D-Day landings, and the Royal Clarence Yard supplied the fleet assembled at Spithead.

The Luftwaffe recognised Gosport's importance; during the Second World War approximately 11,000 houses were damaged, about 500 destroyed, and 111 civilians were killed in bombing raids, with a further 289 injured. The Control Centre operated as the Air Raid Precautions Report Centre for the entire Gosport area, coordinating information on bombing raids and deployment of emergency rescue and repair teams. It remained the only war-time civil defence building in Gosport after 1945, continuing in use as a post-war civil defence facility until after the Cold War. The building served various purposes until the mid-1970s and remained unoccupied as of 2010.