Shelters: Living Underground in the London Blitz

"...British government policy on the provision of air-raid shelters was to encourage maximum dispersal of the population during attacks, and to issue each household with a small prefabricated metal shelter of the type designed by the Home Office official, Dr. David Anderson, after whom they were named. Large public shelters were to be provided only in areas where use of Anderson shelters was impractical and, in the case of London, underground stations were not to be made available for this purpose. The government feared that their use would create a "shelter mentality" and that people would refuse to leave them during the day."

"...The German "Blitzkrieg" on London began the night of September 7, 1940. Many parts of central London were too densely built-up for Anderson shelters to have been erected, and many people felt that underground basements, railway arches and the deeper underground stations offered the best protection. The basements of many buildings were thus taken over for use as shelters and railway arches were bricked-up and protected with sandbags."

"...The pressure on the governement to recognise these places as official shelters was so great that by the middle of September it had reversed its policy. It instituted official supervision by appointing Shelter marshals and by providing latrines and first aid staff and equipment. Apprehensions about the use of underground stations proved...to be...unfounded...a "shelter mentality" did not develop and even at its peak, less than 5% of London's population used them."

Mike Seaborne
1988
"Shelters: Living Underground in the London Blitz"