Civil Defence Control Centre (Former Air Raid Precautions Report Centre)

Reasons for Designation

The early 1940s Civil Defence Control Centre at Gosport is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Intactness: as a well preserved example of an increasingly rare type of structure associated with civil defence in the Second World War and later. * Historical interest: as a tangible reminder of the dangers faced by Gosport's civilian population both during the Second World War and later.

Details

1137/0/10128 THE AVENUE 03-SEP-10 Alverstoke Civil Defence Control Centre (former A ir Raid Precautions Report Centre)

II A single storey, semi-underground Civil Defence Control Centre, early 1940s.

MATERIALS: Reinforced concrete, brick and steel with a flat 'anti-incendiary bomb' roof; earthwork embankments.

EXTERIOR: Earth embankments protect the building on all except the west side, which faces the road with a blind concrete wall and projecting flat roof. The building is rectangular on plan aligned along a north-south axis. There is a central corridor with three rooms to the east and three rooms plus toilet and washing facilities to the west. A solid door provides the main entrance in a projecting lobby behind a metal grill gate on the west elevation.

INTERIOR: The entrance opens to a short corridor with a flight of steps leading to the main north-south corridor which has a wooden floor. From the corridor there is access to the three large rooms on the east side of the building and two smaller rooms to the west. The south and central rooms on the east side connect via a hatch and there is a connecting door between the central and northern room. The south end of the corridor terminates in a third western room. At its north end the corridor gives access to two bathroom and toilet facilities via a short flight of steps. At the extreme north end the corridor doglegs to the west where a flight of steps once gave access to the sports pavilion, but now ends in a blank wall. The rooms have colour-washed brick walls and the flat roof is supported by iron girders. Two of the internal doors with wooden slat grills appear to be original.

HISTORY: Gosport in the C17 was part of Alverstoke parish; Alverstoke itself was a separate village. By the C19 Alverstoke had become part of Gosport and is now subsumed into Gosport lying on the south side of the town. Gosport was a small market town and port until the C17 but grew as a result of becoming a supply centre for the royal dockyard at Portsmouth. It had confirmed its role as a military supply base by the C18 with a gunpowder magazine built at Priddys Hard, and with Haslar Hospital built as a hospital for sailors. Gosport played an important part in both World Wars; in 1905 a submarine base was built there, and in World War II Gosport continued its role as a supply base with the Royal Naval Armaments Depots at Priddy's Hard, Bedenham and Frater. Thus Gosport became the main provider of missiles, mines and ammunition for naval armaments. In the preparations for D-Day Gosport played a vital role; 14 of the caissons to be used for the Mulberry Harbours were made just off Gosport in Stokes Bay, and the Royal Clarence Yard at Gosport supplied the fleet assembled at Spithead with provisions. Haslar Hospital was to see service again as it received the severely wounded at that time. Gosport's importance was not lost on the Luftwaffe, and during WWII about 11,000 houses were damaged and about 500 destroyed; 289 civilians were injured and 111 killed in bombing raids.

The Civil Defence Control Centre at Alverstoke was built between December 1940 and February 1941 in response to the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Act of 1937, which placed local authorities under an obligation to protect 'persons and property from injury and damage in the event of hostile attack from the air'. The Control Centre was located away from Gosport town centre which had received bombing damage in the summer of 1940 and the winter of 1941. It was built adjoining a school wooden sports pavilion, which is no longer standing, in the grounds of a school playing field. It is thought that a Fire Control function consisting of three rooms was added to the southern end of the building by May 1941, but this function had been moved by August 1942, and the rooms were subsequently taken over by the ARP.

The Control Centre acted as the ARP Report Centre for the entire Gosport area, and was used to coordinate information on bombing raids and the deployment of teams for emergency rescue and repair work. At the end of the war all war-time civil defence buildings in Gosport were dismantled except for the Control Centre. It remained as a post-war civil defence building until after the Cold War. The building was used for various purposes until the mid-1970s and is now (2010) unoccupied.

SOURCES: CS Dobinson C20 Fortifications in England vol VIII Civil Defence in WWII (1999) 3.1. Gosport History Archive Website http://www.localhistories.org/gosport.html [accessed 27th May 2010] Hantsweb http://www3.hants.gov.uk/gdc/gosport-dc-local-studies/local-history-online/gosport-in-ww2.htm [accessed 27th May 2010]

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The early 1940s Civil Defence Control Centre at Gosport is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Intactness: as a well preserved example of an increasingly rare type of structure associated with civil defence in the Second World War and later. * Historical interest: as a tangible reminder of the dangers faced by Gosport's civilian population both during the Second World War and later.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

508124

Legacy System:

LBS

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