Clifford Road Air Raid Shelter

Clifford Road Air Raid Shelter in Ipswich is a museum about life on the home front during the Second World War, set inside a genuine air raid shelter hidden beneath a primary school. Today it operates as Clifford Road Tunnels and lets visitors walk the passages where local people once waited out the raids.

What is this place?

It is a former shelter built to protect the school and the surrounding community from German bombing. It now serves as a museum open to individual visitors as well as private and school groups. It is run by volunteers, and its strength is authenticity: you explore real tunnels, not a reconstruction above ground.

When was the shelter built?

Sources date construction to 1939-1940, in the first months of the war. One says it held up to two hundred people at once. Sources also credit the local MP Richard Stokes as a champion of sturdy public shelters, which made this one unusually robust.

How was it rediscovered?

After the war the tunnels were abandoned and gradually forgotten. Some residents assumed they had been filled in when the school playground was resurfaced in 1965. The truth emerged in 1989, when workmen digging a small pond on school grounds uncovered one of the original entrances. Headmaster Richard Cove saw the educational value of the find, and the museum grew from there.

What will you see inside?

The displays along the long tunnels cover many aspects of wartime life, including rationing and military activity. One section recreates the conditions of the shelter in use, with dim lighting, wooden benches and the sound of an air raid outside. It conveys the cramped, anxious atmosphere of those nights better than most information boards could.

Who is it for?

The museum suits anyone interested in twentieth-century history, families with school-age children, and visitors who want to see a less obvious side of the war: the everyday experience of civilians. Because it is underground and school-based, it is best treated as a proper visit rather than a quick stop.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the museum? In Ipswich, Suffolk, in eastern England, beneath a primary school on Clifford Road.

Can groups visit? Yes. The museum welcomes individual visitors, private groups and school groups.

Are the opening times fixed? The museum opens seasonally and schedules can change. Check the current calendar on the official website before you go.

Is it a real shelter? Yes. You explore the original Second World War tunnels, rediscovered under the school.

How many people could it hold? According to one source, up to two hundred at a time.