BOMB-PROOF HOUSE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3804, 4 September 1936, Page 11

BOMB-PROOF HOUSE

MILLIONAIRE’S EXPERIMENT. Britain’s first bomb-proof underground private home is to be built for a millionaire whose name is not revealed but who wants to be both protected and comfortable in the next war, writes David Darragh, in the “Chicago Tribune.” This new bomb-proof house will be specially air-conditioned and flooded with artificial sunlight. Its architect, Mr. Alan Daly, of Woolsey and Co., Elstree, revealing the secrets of his plans for the building, said:— “The experiment is to be carried out on luxury lines for a millionaire who is willing to spend £30,000 on it. It anticipates the time, of,course, when the air menace may compel the people of Europe to burrow underground so that they can work, sleep, and play in safety. “My plans provide for excavations to a depth of 12 feet over an area of 200 feet by 100 feet. The framework of the building will be of steel, built in with reinforced concrete. Air Ministry and gunnery experts are to be consulted about the construction of the roof, which will consist of a four-foot-deep layer of concrete. On top of this is to be a sufficient depth of soil to camouflage the roof as a tennis court and flower and vegetable gardens. In the centre of the garden we are erecting a statue with a fountain. This disguises a kind of periscope with which the people living below can survey the surrounding country.” Mr. Daly went on to explain that the house would be entered by a tunnel from the nearest road, which would also serve as a garage entrance.

“The tradesmen's and servants’ approach will be through a second tunnel at the back of the house,” he continued. “The lounge hall is designed as a circular palm court, and there is a door from this to every room in the house except the servants’ quarters. “The walls of the eight bedrooms and four reception rooms are to be of glass. Each of them is to have .what we call a sunshine window. An electric switch controlling the curtains sweeps them aside to reveal a highly lighted miniature landscape of hothouse plants, flowering shrubs, and tiny lawns. Auxiliary water, heating, lighting, and drainage systems leave the house independent of the public services should they be affected by air raids.” Mr. Daly added that he was working on the construction of the house in consultation with the Helical Bar and Engineering Company, of London, whose experts are making special researches into the stresses and strength of the concrete structure. “My whole idea,” he said, “has been to give the inside of the house the appearance of a normal home. We shall, for instance, install concealed daylight lighting. “There is no doubt that the experience we obtain in the building of this luxury house will bring considerably nearer the day when it will be possible to build underground houses at rents and prices the average man can afford.

“The building trade contemplates the time when tens of thousands will live under the ground, not only because they fear air bombing but because in this way we should preserve the beauty of our countryside.”