Ramsgate Tunnels

Beneath the streets of Ramsgate in Kent, unbeknown to most visitors, lie a network of tunnels. These tunnels were built at the start of World War 2 as air raid shelters with  a capacity of approximately 60,000 people, sufficient for the entire population of the town.

The entrance to the Tunnels started off a short way into an old disused railway tunnel. They follow the lines of streets in the town because there was much less chance of running into services such as water pipes, sewerage and electric cables during their construction.

The tunnels lied dormant and sealed off for many years save for the intrusion of the occasional break in by local youth. In more recent times the tunnels have been opened up to visitors, the pictures that follow were taken by me when Tony and I visited on March 4th 2017.

You can see from picture 9 that not all the tunnels had lighting, but fear not as personal lighting (torches!) and hard hats are supplied as a part of the tour. For the most part the tunnels are tall enough for a person 6′ 1″ tall to stand erect without danger of bashing one’s head.

Refreshment was readily available at Corby’s Team Rooms just a 5 minute walk from The Tunnels. Breakfast is highly recommended with the full English being filling, flavoursome and healthy as all the food is grilled not fried.

The Ramsgate Tunnels are a little know but very important part of our social and military history. If you live within a sensible days of travel a visit is very much recommended and if you don’t live that close a visit is still recommended. There are plenty of other places of interest in this part of Kent and reasonable overnight accommodation is plentiful.


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