Bomb Proof Shelter Mayes Street and Dantzic Street

The Co-operative Wholesale Society has decided to build a deep bomb-proof shelter at headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester, to protect 4,000 employees. A new building with eight storeys, a basement and sub-basement is to be built on the site bounded by Mayes Street and Dantzic Street, and the shelter will be underneath the sub-basement, forty feet below ground level. The retaining walls will be of reinforced concrete five feet thick at the base, and the roof will be made of five feet of concrete heavily reinforced in three directions. The shelter itself will be divided into a series of bays about sixteen feet wide, the dividing walls being each three feet thick. There are to be six entrances. Subway connections to existing buildings are included in the plans, and when the work is done only a small percentage of the staff will have to go into the streets to reach the shelter. In the opinion of experts the scheme, on which constructional work has already started will provide the highest degree of protection. There will be mechanical ventilation, with air intakes at a high level, and the ingress of gas is to be prevented by maintaining a higher than atmospheric pressure. The work is expected to take about seven or eight months.

Reference           Manchester Guardian 25 May 1939 page 13