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Nice place for some luxury flats me thinks - Photo May 2004
The building on the right was a degaussing station that ensured ships in the Second World War were demagnetised enough to avoid setting off magnetic mines. During the Second World War, convoys came under threat from magnetic mines which did not have to make contact with a vessel to detonate. They had sensors that could detect the magnetic variation caused by the steel hulls of passing vessels, which would trigger their detonation. To minimise this hazard, vessels were tested at degaussing stations, where the magnetic variation could be measured, and the ship's hulls demagnetised to minimise the signal they produced. It was leter used by the Lifeguards until they moved into Concord Cafe.
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