I managed to get a bit more information on the caves attached to Pugin’s house that collapsed spectacularly in the 1940s, I was discussing the cliff repair works behind the Pleasurama site with Paul Wells who came into the shop yesterday. Paul is very much involved with the Kent Underground Research Group. One of our concerns about the site is that there is what appears to be a very large cave under Wellington Crescent shown on some old maps.One of these maps was drawn by Brimmel the borough surveyor who was not a person to mistaken about something like the existence of a cave, it has been my contention for some time that as the various surveys of this area show the chalk to be in poor condition this cave should be investigated and if necessary made safe.
Anyway Paul said that he had managed to obtain the Bimmel’s drawings for the repairs to the collapse of Pugin’s caves, so I asked him to photograph them and publish them on web so we can have a look at them.
Paul Wells is also the historian who produces the Dover Past website http://www.doverpast.co.uk/ and has an interest in underground caves as you can see from http://www.flickr.com/people/doverpast/
Click on the links below to look at the pictures of the various things I have mentioned in this post.
Radar ground survey of Wellington Crescent
Report on the state of the cliff façade of Wellington Crescent
Pictures of the collapse of Pugin’s caves
Bimmel’s drawings for the repairs
Dover Past website
Paul Wells’s other pictures
Kent Underground Research Group
