Deep Shelter

The Eisenhower Centre is the entrance to the deep underground WWII shelter at Goodge Street in central London, intended to hold 8,000 people with the pillbox design protecting the lift shaft and double helix staircase from air raids. However, with the government worrying about maintenance costs and the possibility that people might want to stay permanently underground, it was not used as a public shelter and was instead converted to a military operations centre. The Eisenhower Centre name derives from its use by the US Army Signal Corps. Similar shelters were built across London to a large underground station-tunnel design, with the idea that after the war they could be connected to create an express tube network. This never happened due to lack of funds, and the Goodge Street shelter was converted to an army transit camp and is now a storage facility.