Boys' Air Raid Shelter at St John’s Primary School, Redhill

This is a cut-and-cover air raid shelter constructed in 1939 at St John’s Primary School, Redhill, as part of preparations for the Second World War. It is a building of group value, appreciated for its historical and artistic significance.

The shelter, largely situated beneath a meadow adjacent to the playground, consists of a rectangular network of corridors with a projecting southern section for latrines. The entrance is located in the south-east corner of the playground, set against the school’s boundary wall.

The visible exterior elements include the entrance and the head of the ventilation shaft. The entrance is formed by a purple brick screen wall laid in Flemish bond, with a concrete footing and red brick capping. Concrete stairs lead down to a steel door securing the shelter. The ventilation shaft head is square, with a concrete cover raised on red bricks.

The interior walls are of shuttered, reinforced concrete and are decorated with murals painted between 1939 and 1941 by the schoolboys and teachers. Starting on the left of the entrance, the murals depict scenes from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, opposite which is an illustration of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. Continuing clockwise around the shelter, the murals depict scenes from Beowulf on both sides, followed by the tale of Robin Hood and Snow White in the projecting southern section. Further illustrations show scenes from Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and finally, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. This final mural is incomplete, showing only the opening scene of Gulliver’s visit to the palace; the preparation for further scenes is indicated by a marked-out grid structure underneath a painted sky.

Evidence of wartime occupation is visible in the form of scrawled graffiti including games of noughts-and-crosses, small pictures, and initials. The supports for bench seating remain, though the seating itself has been removed. Some original cabling for lighting remains, and one original oval bulkhead light is still in place.