The History: This air raid shelter was built before World War Two for the workers of the nearby Littlewoods Pools building. Several entrances were available for the staff. The factory building itself was used for several purposes during the war, including printing National Registration forms, code breaking and helping to assemble RAF bombers. According to the Subbrit site, the shelter is 300m long and it is laid out in a grid with 13 entrances (most of which have been backfilled with rubble). The unusual feature about this air raid shelter is the intricate paintings that line the walls on the South side. They are in excellent condition, due to the lack of light in the shelter.
Kyle May has done research into these paintings, and you can read about it here: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mysterious-faces-walls-secret-tunnel-16577597
The Explore: I went with a friend around midday on a Saturday. Upon reaching the entrance point, we spotted a couple of bikes and it was clear that there were people inside. Rather than potentially spook them by running into them underground, we decided to wait and see if they emerged. We sat on the grass and I began setting up my camera and getting my tripod out. A woman walked past and was interested in what we were doing. She even told us to go down into the air raid shelter and take some photographs of the paintings on the walls, so the place must be very common knowledge to locals! We eventually waited about 20 minutes but we were too excited to go down, so we decided to just go for it, and hope we didn’t frighten the people already down there. In the end, we didn’t even run into them as the place is so huge. We must have turned the opposite direction to them as we could hear them leaving about 10 minutes into the explore.
Pictures are taken on a Fujifilm x100s, using a tripod and basic light painting techniques. I am a complete novice in terms of photography, especially in no/ low light conditions so any tips or advice would be very welcome!
Kyle May has done research into these paintings, and you can read about it here: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mysterious-faces-walls-secret-tunnel-16577597
The Explore: I went with a friend around midday on a Saturday. Upon reaching the entrance point, we spotted a couple of bikes and it was clear that there were people inside. Rather than potentially spook them by running into them underground, we decided to wait and see if they emerged. We sat on the grass and I began setting up my camera and getting my tripod out. A woman walked past and was interested in what we were doing. She even told us to go down into the air raid shelter and take some photographs of the paintings on the walls, so the place must be very common knowledge to locals! We eventually waited about 20 minutes but we were too excited to go down, so we decided to just go for it, and hope we didn’t frighten the people already down there. In the end, we didn’t even run into them as the place is so huge. We must have turned the opposite direction to them as we could hear them leaving about 10 minutes into the explore.
Pictures are taken on a Fujifilm x100s, using a tripod and basic light painting techniques. I am a complete novice in terms of photography, especially in no/ low light conditions so any tips or advice would be very welcome!
