The removal of hoardings on the corner of a Liverpool street has revealed a mysterious building that's been hidden from view for years.
Recently, a photograph of a flat-roofed brick building was posted on Facebook group Liverpool Inacityliving run by history enthusiast and model maker Ged Fagan. Standing on the corner of Dacy Road in Everton and Oakfield Road, Anfield, the building had remained hidden for many years behind wooden panels.
It's not known how long it's remained out-of-sight, but a Google Streetview image from 2009 shows the hoardings obscuring the building back then. Now they have been removed and the brick building revealed, speculation into what it is has started.
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After posting the image, one of the group members said: "Ged Fagan put the photo up of what looked like an old air raid shelter on the corner of Oakfield Road and Dacy Road. Its been hidden behind hoardings for many years.
"Looking at the old 1941 aerial pic of the same building circled it doesn't appear to be the same as the other air raid shelters you can see in the roads. However, it does look like the same construction as the one being built in Orwell Road during the war. Note the barrage balloon in Oakfields, bottom of pic."
Replying to the post, another member asked if instead of a shelter, it may have been used for air-raid storage of sandbags, lamps and torches. Another suggested it may have once been used to store vehicles in before auction in the 1950s and 60s.
In response to the post, another member of the group posted an aerial map of the corner of Dacy Road from the 1920s. The map showed that there was nothing built on the piece of land the building occupies at that time.
With the outbreak of WWII in 1939, the local authorities began to build air raid shelters. Anderson shelters, which people assembled themselves in their gardens, were given out. They also built brick and concrete street shelters and dug larger underground shelters.
Air Raid Wardens enforced nightly 'black outs' so that German bomber crews could not easily see their targets. People were also forbidden to allow any light to escape from their homes.
One image uploaded with the original post shows a bomb shelter being built on Orwell Road, which has been suggested bears a similar construction to the building uncovered on the corner of Dacy Road. Apart from air raid shelters, several other structures built in response to the war can still be found on Liverpool's streets, perhaps most notably pillboxes, concrete fortifications built as defence outposts in case of invasion.
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As for the newly exposed brick building on the corner of Dacy Road, it may well have been built for shelter or storage during the war. But if you think you know better, let us know in the comments below.
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