John May is a retired surveyor who worked on Hampstead Heath for 23 years.

A SECRET wartime tunnel that sheltered Parliament Hill residents from enemy bombing during the Second World War during air raids has been revealed.

The story of an air raid shelter on Hampstead Heath, running parallel to Highgate Road, is little known today.

But during the war it provided refuge for residents of the Parliament Hill and Dartmouth Park areas escaping enemy bombing from above, when reaching deep level shelters at Kentish Town tube station in time was too difficult.

The entrance to the shelter – located close to William Ellis School – was at the Lodge, one of the City of London properties long used to house management staff, before the current building was constructed in 1952.

A hole in the ground, believed to have been situated in the property’s garden, led down a flight of stairs to a tunnel and series of adjoining rooms.

The tunnel extended from the entrance towards the main Parliament Hill Heath entrance, where the tennis courts now stand.

Branching off into separate rooms, the bunker would have housed local residents during air raids and contained bunk beds where people could shelter from enemy attacks.

“It was a war-time shelter. Kentish Town tube would have been used as a deep level shelter but people living in Parliament Hill area didn’t have time to get down to Kentish Town in an air raid so they would use this. It was a frightening time, and people needed somewhere on their doorstep to shelter,” said John May, a retired surveyor who worked on Hampstead Heath for 23 years.

He added: “There are lots of things that people don’t know about the Heath and things you wouldn’t find out about until you did work.”

The shelter was at Lodge House

Mr May, who retired in 2011, began working on Hampstead Heath in 1964 as a trainee surveyor for the London County Council.

Later, when the City of London took over management of the Heath, he was given a permanent role as surveyor.

He told the New Journal that he discovered the bunker while excavating the site of the Lodge in 1992.

“The whole thing was constructed in concrete, had a domed concrete roof and was covered in soil. It was one of those air raid shelters that they called cut and fill. They would have cut a big trench across that strip of land, with smaller trenches coming off it to be used as rooms.

“When we excavated in the 90s and the entrance was exposed, I’ll never forget a woman who was passing by and who said we had finally found the air raid shelter. The woman said she remembered being taken down there as a child when the air raids were on, sleeping in bunk beds that were in the rooms.”

The war-time air raid shelter was under Hampstead Heath

The New Journal searched Camden’s planning records but found no plans relating to the wartime shelter.

“When you excavate you often will find things that no one knew about and that there were no plans for. The Heath is very much a mystery. Thousands of years of history,” Mr May said.

“The whole structure is still there in the ground, but when you excavate it there is nothing to see, it’s just a whole load of concrete that has been tipped into a long trench.”

The City of London were invited to comment.