About
Beneath Ramsgate runs the largest network of civilian deep-shelter tunnels built anywhere in Britain: some two and a half miles of passages, cut into the chalk in 1939 and capable of holding tens of thousands of people. They exist because the town's borough engineer and its mayor concluded, correctly and well ahead of national policy, that a Kent coastal town directly under the bomber route to London was going to be hit hard, and pressed ahead with a scheme that central government was initially unwilling to fund. The tunnels opened on 1 June 1939, three months before war was declared.
The judgement was vindicated within fifteen months. On 24 August 1940 Ramsgate was struck by a raid that dropped several hundred bombs on the town in a matter of minutes, wrecking streets and killing around thirty people. Contemporary accounts are unanimous that without the shelters the death toll would have been catastrophically higher, and the raid transformed the tunnels from a controversial municipal expense into the centre of the town's life.
What followed is the part visitors find hardest to imagine. Families whose homes had been destroyed, or who simply could not face another night above ground, moved in and stayed. The council installed electric light, bunks, chemical toilets and ventilation; there was a hospital, a chapel, a barber and small shops; people partitioned alcoves into recognisable homes with curtains, furniture and house numbers, and children were born and grew up underground. At its peak this was a functioning subterranean town.
The network incorporates something older still: a disused Victorian railway tunnel of 1863, built to carry trains down to the harbour station, later used for a narrow-gauge scenic railway between the wars, and absorbed into the shelter scheme. Tours begin there with a short film before heading into the purpose-cut wartime passages.
The tunnels were sealed after the war and largely forgotten until a volunteer group reopened a section to visitors in 2014. Guided tours now cover up to about a kilometre and a quarter of the system and last around an hour and a half. The conditions are authentic — cool, damp, dimly lit and rough underfoot — and that is very much the point.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Book in advance. Access is by guided tour only, places on each departure are limited, and tours run roughly every two hours rather than continuously.
- Wear a warm layer whatever the season. The tunnels stay cool year-round and you will be underground for around ninety minutes.
- Wear shoes with grip. The chalk floors are uneven and damp in places, and there are steps and slopes throughout.
- Use the toilets before you arrive — there are none in the tunnels and none at the entrance.
- The full tour cannot be shortened once it starts. If enclosed or dark spaces are difficult, ring ahead, or consider the shorter one-hour tour that runs on Thursday mornings.
- This site is not wheelchair accessible and cannot be made so. Contact the team beforehand to discuss mobility requirements honestly.
- Check the season before travelling. From November to March the site closes at 14:00 and is shut on Tuesdays.
- Children generally find this gripping rather than frightening, but the low light and confined passages suit some better than others — judge your own party.
Highlights
The Deep Shelter Explorer Tour
The whole attraction is the tour, and it is a substantial one: roughly ninety minutes and up to a kilometre and a quarter underground, led by guides who know the system and the town's wartime history in detail. The route passes through the purpose-cut shelter passages, past the alcoves where families lived, and takes in the surviving fittings and features of a wartime civil-defence installation.
There is no self-guided option and no way to shorten the route once started, which is worth understanding before booking, but it also means nobody wanders past the important parts without hearing what they are.
The 1863 Railway Tunnel
Tours begin in something considerably older than the shelters: a Victorian railway tunnel of 1863, driven through the chalk to bring trains down to Ramsgate Harbour station. The line closed in 1926, and between the wars the bore was reused for a narrow-gauge scenic railway carrying holidaymakers under the cliff.
When the shelter scheme was drawn up the existing tunnel was incorporated into it, saving considerable excavation.
It now houses the introductory film, and the change in character as visitors move from a broad brick-lined railway bore into the rough-cut wartime passages is immediately obvious.
The Raid of 24 August 1940
Ramsgate's defining wartime moment came on 24 August 1940, when a raid dropped several hundred bombs on the town within a few minutes, destroying streets and killing around thirty people. The speed and concentration of the attack left almost no time to reach shelter, and the fact that so many people were already underground or able to get there is the reason the casualty figures were not far worse.
The tour deals with the raid in detail, using the tunnels themselves as the setting, and it is the point at which the scale of the town's foresight becomes clear.
Living Underground
The most striking part of the story is that people did not merely shelter here — they moved in. Bombed-out families and others unwilling to spend nights above ground took over alcoves, partitioned them with curtains and salvaged furniture, numbered their front entrances and settled in for months and in some cases years.
Children were born underground and grew up knowing the tunnels as home.
Surviving traces of these dwellings are pointed out on the tour, and oral-history accounts of what daily life was like — the smell, the damp, the noise, the community — carry the section.
Collections
The principal heritage asset is the tunnel network itself: approximately two and a half miles of civilian deep-shelter passages cut into the Thanet chalk in 1939, the largest such system built in Britain, together with the incorporated railway tunnel of 1863 that once carried trains to Ramsgate Harbour station and later a between-the-wars scenic railway.
Surviving in situ are the alcoves and traces of the dwellings families created underground, elements of the lighting, ventilation and sanitation installed by the borough, and the tool-marked chalk faces left by the excavation. Interpretation, delivered by guides on the tour and through displays and film at the entrance, covers the shelter scheme's origins, the raid of 24 August 1940, everyday life underground and the volunteer reopening of 2014.
Deep Shelter Explorer Tour
The guided route through up to 1.25 km of wartime tunnel, covering the construction of the shelters, the 1940 raid, and the families who lived underground.
The Railway Tunnel and Introductory Film
The 1863 harbour branch tunnel at the start of the route, where a short film sets out the history of the network before visitors enter the wartime passages.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.