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Context:
At the start of the Blitz many Londoners decided to make use of tube stations as air raid shelters because they felt more secure here than in other shelters - for example, Andersen shelters.
It was initially discouraged by the authorities, because it was felt an important service would be disrupted. However, as the War continued platforms filled up and eventually it became necessary to provide canteens and toilet facilities for those sheltering in the stations.
Sheltering in a tube station may have given a sense of security but, as the picture shows, conditions were hardly attractive. Space was limited and many have spoken of the terrible smell of so many people sheltering in a confined space without adequate ventilation. Many people became territorial about 'their space' leading to frequent arguments.
Nor was the tube always as safe as those sheltering within had hoped: in January 1941 a bomb fell above Bank station in the City of London, killing more than 100 hundred people sheltering below.
Transcript:
There are 279,000 children still in London...and whilst I'm sure they're not all here, quite a number are, down here on the platforms of the famous Piccadilly tube in the heart of London's West End. It's one of the saddest results of the war that women, children and men - in that order: men are in the minority here - have to be here at all. Many are bombed out of their homes, all look tired, but they feel safe here a good 100 feet below ground, and their spirits and fortitude are simply grand.
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