Britain 's biggest purpose-built air raid shelter , which could hold 6,500 people , was so sophisticated it even had electric lighting and flush toilets . The tunnels were dug into sandstone cliffs along the River Mersey in Stockport in the 1930s , and were originally intended to provide car parking spaces . But following the outbreak of the Second World War , the space was redeveloped as an air raid shelter where residents of Lancashire and Cheshire could hide from Nazi bombs . Scroll down for video . Shelter : This shows one of the rooms of Britain 's largest purpose-built air raid shelter , located in Stockport , Greater Manchester . Safe : A bunker lined with corrugated steel to protect against the possible effects of a Nazi bombing raid during the Second World War . Tunnels : A total of 6,500 people could fit into the shelter , which was made up of a network of interconnecting passages . Entrance : The shelter has been converted into a museum , replicating the conditions which would have been found 75 years ago . The shelter became so popular that local officials had to issue season tickets limiting the number of people who would be allowed to seek refuge there . The cliffs were first dug out to provide cellars for homes along Chestergate , one of the busiest streets in Stockport . As part of a plan to widen the roads , the local council bought and demolished the houses , and planned to convert the cellars into an underground car park . An engineering survey showed that the space was in fact unable to become a car park - but the advent of war meant that it was needed as an air raid shelter . Bathroom : The women 's toilets , equipped with a proper flush , located deep inside the Stockport air raid shelter . Gadgets : A radio , blood pressure monitor and lamp from the 1940s , pictured inside the air raid shelter 's first aid section . Medicine : The shelter had a first aid room to help any residents who were injured by the bombing raids . Equipment : Gas masks which were kept in the shelter are pictured left ; right is the sick bay , where people could seek shelter while unwell . Extent : The shelter was going to be turned into a car park , but officials discovered that its long tunnels were unsuitable for the purpose . Curator Howard Green said : 'The official capacity was 3,850 , so outside they painted 4,000 - but what they did n't advertise was that they thought they could squeeze twice as many in if needs be . 'They were used extensively by people from Manchester and Salford , and even as far as Eccles . Stockport was less of a target , and the underground shelters were a particularly safe place . 'What they did was introduce season tickets - they were issued to locals , although you could write in if you had difficult circumstances . We still have some letters from people in Manchester who 'd been bombed out several times . 'It was really only a way of damping down demand , nobody was denied entrance in an alert . In the winter of 1940 and '41 , it went up to 6,500 , with another four sets of tunnel shelters . History : A photograph of the shelter as it appeared in the 1930s , around the time of the Second World War 's outbreak . Rambling : The tunnels were large enough to fit in 6,500 people , who came from all around Lancashire , Cheshire and Manchester . Emergency : Local councils had to establish air raid shelters to protect their populations from German bomb attacks . Base : The room belonging to the shelter 's warden , who would have been responsible for ensuring the safety of those inside . Danger : A fire bucket and hose which could have been used to control any unexpected blazes in the tunnels . 'People are always surprised by the extent of them , and just how much thought and planning went into them . There were first aid posts , electric lighting and flush toilets , which people living in back-to-back cottages of town centres would n't have had at home . ' The shelter space is now operated as a museum , and has been restored to how it might have looked to residents hiding there during the war . Stockport was heavily bombed between 1940 and 1941 , but escaped serious damage - unlike nearby Manchester , which as an industrial hub came under sustained attack from the German air force .
air raid shelter in Stockport was built out of caves along the River Mersey and intended to be a caravan park . With the advent of the Second World War , the space provided a shelter which could accommodate thousands of people . The air raid shelter was so popular the owners had to issue season tickets in order to control numbers .