Air raid shelters along the in the middle of an unidentified Glasgow street, photographed during the Second World War. A lorry is delivering coal in the right foreground.
Other locations used for air raid shelters included back courts, factories and parks. There was considerable variety in the types of shelter available. Some of the more sophisticated had fittings such as doors, seats, lights and toilets. Unfortunately, vandalism was a problem in some areas and fittings were sometimes damaged or stolen.
The high population density resulting from the predominance of tenement housing in Glasgow made the city more vulnerable to bombing than the spread-out terraced housing more commonly found in English cities. A direct hit from a single bomb could, and sometimes did, cause a large number of casualties.
Reference: Glasgow City Archives, Photographic Series
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
air raid shelters, air raids, blitz, bombing, bombs, casualties, civil defence, coal, lorries, Second World War, streetscenes, tenements, vandalism