I had a part-finished roll of 400ASA film in my Pentax KM body and put on my 35-80mm zoom lens which came with my newer Pentax MZ-M body, and set the aperture to f4 according to the scale on my flash unit, which was set in its blue auto mode. The shutter speed was set to 1/60th second for flash synchronisation and then all I had to do was focus and shoot! Focussing was a bit interesting down in the caves because there was so little light in places that it was difficult to see the split image in the viewfinder. I had to be quick while the guide was holding a lantern in the right place, or I had to get Margaret to hold a lantern up for me.
Not being a frequent user of flash, I fell into the trap of allowing my flash to reflect on my subject here, but I've included it anyway, as these are the rules by which the 15,000 people lived when they used the caves as an air raid shelter during WWII
There was a charge for sheltering in the caves during WWII and here are two shots of the ticket office. The figures are waxwork.
Waxwork figures are used around the Caves to portray wartime cave usage. Here two soldiers are seen in the ammunition store. If I were them, I think I might have picked somewhere else to smoke, though!
Here are two views of the Cave Church.
No furniture was allowed in the Caves, but the women used to be able to wheel down a pram with whatever they could pile in it. Sleeping accommodation was bunk beds.
The Caves even boasted a wartime hospital. At the far left, Children are queueing for medicine, while the other picture shows a rather gruesome looking operating table!
Only one baby was born in the Caves during the whole of WWII.
Carving has been a favourite pastime over the years. Some examples, such as the horse on the far right, are fairly rudimentary art forms, while the carving on the near right is very intricate indeed and took the artist some years to complete. The portion of the work in which Canary Wharf can be seen portrayed is shown here.
The tour of the caves lasted about three quarters of an hour, and moved fairly rapidly, so there definitely wasn't time to go fiddling around with lenses. The 35-80mm was the right lens choice in the circumstances. Some time I must find out what they would charge to allow me down there with an individual guide so that I could take my time and take some tripod-mounted shots just using the ambient light from the lanterns. I think they might capture the atmosphere of the place better than the flash illuminated shots I have presented here.
Chislehurst Caves have their own website which can be viewed by clicking here.
