Whatever happened to Britain’s nuclear bunkers? They are for the rich, famous and our shite Tory government.
Besides if there was a nuclear attack, I’d rather be vaporised instantly than have to live in a post nuclear world. It certainly wouldn’t be like the movies.
Fun fact.
The fallout logo is a reference to test if youre in the radiation zone. If the explosion is bigger than youre thumb you were was the idea. Hence the guy with his thumb up and eye closed.
Edit – Jfc the grammar nazis. Get a grip…
I think our bunker strategy sounds about right. The people coordinating the military response need to be secure for a short time in order to fire back in the event of a war using a small quantity of small yield weapons.
In the event of an all out large scale attack, shelters won’t help anyway. So there’s not a great deal of point building capacity for hundreds of thousands.
As mentioned in the article some have been turned into museums like the ones at Kelevedon Hatch, Mistley and Hack Green.
There’s also a network of disused Observation Corp bunkers across the country.
You can also find the odd siren around in some cities and towns, some are still in use and other repurposed for floods etc.
Obligatory mention to watch the movie Threads for possibly the closest representation of how things might go, albeit a bit aged. But considering stuff like this has been abandoned since then probably not amazingly far off.
Spoiler alert there’s a lot of really abysmal suffering so don’t forget to watch The Road with Viggo Mortensen to cheer yourself up after
I remember my dad taking me as a little lad to the entrance of one under BT Tower in Birmingham. He used to have to do maintenance on the lines there every so often and absolutely hated having to go all the way down, about 100ft or so he reckoned.
They go on for miles apparently. All the way to the Gay Quarter and beyond, and they’re still maintained AFAIK to help keep comms up in the event of a strike
some of them were decommissioned, I’d lived around the corner from one in Maidstone, I think it said something about M.O.D on the gate, it was part of a big house – had no idea it was a bunker.
Also there was a well known one in Manchester and there used to be a giant siren in Liverpool, which was decommissioned it seems
Nuclear bunker busting bombs exist. This is a good thing – no one can ride it out now. MAD now affects everyone, including the government. This makes nuclear war less likely.
Some are tourist attractions. Some are still there. One in know of was filled in (major task as it was on 4 levels) and housing built over it.
Is there even a four minute warning anymore? I remember reading about a new and improved warning system or something like that a while ago
I went to a data centre that used to be a huge nuclear bunker complex in Kent. It was insanely large and had an on site police firearms training centre. The answer to your question, is they have either been sold off or turned into business ventures or left to rot.
The thing is, you don’t need a massive blast proof bunker to survive a nuclear attack. You need somewhere underground outside a populated area that has clean air filtration and plentiful stockpiles of food and clean water.
Also, if the UK gets attacked, it’s either going to be a dirty bomb or small bomb delivered by terrorists, domestic or foreign, or it’s going to be part of a massive, total war strike by a belligerent which is the absolute end game, there is no coming back from that.
I remember when my parents local council were found out to have built a massive bunker with full provisions for all the staff and their families using public money
Because, you know, people are going to need dog shit cleaned up and bins collected after the nuclear apocalypse
I thought think the recommendation was to fill your Bath with water. Paint the glass on your windows white and create a shelter using the doors in your house put your ID in a box and climb into a sleeping bag.
My mate got into a large cold war bunker under Wiltshire a few years back. The name escapes me but it’s really close to our sneaky beaky nuclear launch centre and they didn’t like the attention so they closed access (not that it was easy before). I don’t think anyone’s got in recently.
The photos were insane. A complete underground village with roads, telephone exchange, hospital, eating arrangements etc. The place was frozen in time.
Just remembered! Burlington bunker. So cool.
That’s a fairly uninformed article, Prof Peter Hennessy wrote the definintive book on this (The Secret State: Preparing For The Worst 1945–2010).
When the H Bomb emerged in the 1950s, it was realised that it was more or less impossible to engineer a bunker in the UK that would withstand deliberate targetting.
The BURLINGTON bunker at Corsham was thus intended to be kept as a secret, but it became clear around the time it was ready for use in the early 60s that the USSR was aware of its location/purpose. Further contingency plans were based on a number of potential locations to evacuate government to, including ships at sea.
Of course, a bunker is useful in situations short of a full scale nuclear attack – and it would be a waste of money to duplicate command and control facilities (e.g. Northwood, High Wycombe) between non-hardened and hardened facilities. So a lot of underground facilities will be still in daily use for fairly mundane peacetime ops.
You have to remember though, above all else, timing.
Having a bunker to hide in is all well and good, if you can get to it before you vaporise.
Burlington bunker was de-commissioned but there are still bunkers that are used as museums but can be taken back under it’s original purpose under the emergency powers act. My guess the government is already refurbishing nuclear bunkers on the quiet for the worst case scenario if war breaks out, the threat is there and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
My grandfather used to work on bunkers and other stuff for MoD, there are far more than you know about, some of them hidden in the middle of cities, some of them were adapted from WW2 facilities and expanded, some of them are huge. He had plans for enormous underground complexes all marked with royal crests and MoD stamps. Probably the coolest one though is the Westminster tube station bunker. Some insane engineering went into that.
Tbh there’s a manhole in our back garden leading to the sewer, we’d probably crack that open and jump down there in the event of a nuke. I mean our lives are kind of dogshit already, might as well be surrounded in literal shit too while the rich are cushy in their proper bunkers.
The cold war ended?
Also a lot have been converted into other infrastructure. Like the Guardian Exchange in Manchester
There was a bunker just outside of town that was meant for the local council and MP in the event of an attack, but the entrance was filled in with concrete after the Cold War.
I’m waiting for Kirsty and Phil on Location Location to say “our mystery property today is a £300K converted nuclear bunker, complete with a swimming pool and extremely poor wifi signal”.
22 comments
Whatever happened to Britain’s nuclear bunkers? They are for the rich, famous and our shite Tory government.
Besides if there was a nuclear attack, I’d rather be vaporised instantly than have to live in a post nuclear world. It certainly wouldn’t be like the movies.
Fun fact.
The fallout logo is a reference to test if youre in the radiation zone. If the explosion is bigger than youre thumb you were was the idea. Hence the guy with his thumb up and eye closed.
Edit – Jfc the grammar nazis. Get a grip…
I think our bunker strategy sounds about right. The people coordinating the military response need to be secure for a short time in order to fire back in the event of a war using a small quantity of small yield weapons.
In the event of an all out large scale attack, shelters won’t help anyway. So there’s not a great deal of point building capacity for hundreds of thousands.
As mentioned in the article some have been turned into museums like the ones at Kelevedon Hatch, Mistley and Hack Green.
There’s also a network of disused Observation Corp bunkers across the country.
You can also find the odd siren around in some cities and towns, some are still in use and other repurposed for floods etc.
Obligatory mention to watch the movie Threads for possibly the closest representation of how things might go, albeit a bit aged. But considering stuff like this has been abandoned since then probably not amazingly far off.
Spoiler alert there’s a lot of really abysmal suffering so don’t forget to watch The Road with Viggo Mortensen to cheer yourself up after
I remember my dad taking me as a little lad to the entrance of one under BT Tower in Birmingham. He used to have to do maintenance on the lines there every so often and absolutely hated having to go all the way down, about 100ft or so he reckoned.
They go on for miles apparently. All the way to the Gay Quarter and beyond, and they’re still maintained AFAIK to help keep comms up in the event of a strike
some of them were decommissioned, I’d lived around the corner from one in Maidstone, I think it said something about M.O.D on the gate, it was part of a big house – had no idea it was a bunker.
Also there was a well known one in Manchester and there used to be a giant siren in Liverpool, which was decommissioned it seems
Nuclear bunker busting bombs exist. This is a good thing – no one can ride it out now. MAD now affects everyone, including the government. This makes nuclear war less likely.
Some are tourist attractions. Some are still there. One in know of was filled in (major task as it was on 4 levels) and housing built over it.
Is there even a four minute warning anymore? I remember reading about a new and improved warning system or something like that a while ago
I went to a data centre that used to be a huge nuclear bunker complex in Kent. It was insanely large and had an on site police firearms training centre. The answer to your question, is they have either been sold off or turned into business ventures or left to rot.
The thing is, you don’t need a massive blast proof bunker to survive a nuclear attack. You need somewhere underground outside a populated area that has clean air filtration and plentiful stockpiles of food and clean water.
Also, if the UK gets attacked, it’s either going to be a dirty bomb or small bomb delivered by terrorists, domestic or foreign, or it’s going to be part of a massive, total war strike by a belligerent which is the absolute end game, there is no coming back from that.
I remember when my parents local council were found out to have built a massive bunker with full provisions for all the staff and their families using public money
Because, you know, people are going to need dog shit cleaned up and bins collected after the nuclear apocalypse
I thought think the recommendation was to fill your Bath with water. Paint the glass on your windows white and create a shelter using the doors in your house put your ID in a box and climb into a sleeping bag.
My mate got into a large cold war bunker under Wiltshire a few years back. The name escapes me but it’s really close to our sneaky beaky nuclear launch centre and they didn’t like the attention so they closed access (not that it was easy before). I don’t think anyone’s got in recently.
The photos were insane. A complete underground village with roads, telephone exchange, hospital, eating arrangements etc. The place was frozen in time.
Just remembered! Burlington bunker. So cool.
That’s a fairly uninformed article, Prof Peter Hennessy wrote the definintive book on this (The Secret State: Preparing For The Worst 1945–2010).
When the H Bomb emerged in the 1950s, it was realised that it was more or less impossible to engineer a bunker in the UK that would withstand deliberate targetting.
The BURLINGTON bunker at Corsham was thus intended to be kept as a secret, but it became clear around the time it was ready for use in the early 60s that the USSR was aware of its location/purpose. Further contingency plans were based on a number of potential locations to evacuate government to, including ships at sea.
Of course, a bunker is useful in situations short of a full scale nuclear attack – and it would be a waste of money to duplicate command and control facilities (e.g. Northwood, High Wycombe) between non-hardened and hardened facilities. So a lot of underground facilities will be still in daily use for fairly mundane peacetime ops.
You have to remember though, above all else, timing.
Having a bunker to hide in is all well and good, if you can get to it before you vaporise.
Burlington bunker was de-commissioned but there are still bunkers that are used as museums but can be taken back under it’s original purpose under the emergency powers act. My guess the government is already refurbishing nuclear bunkers on the quiet for the worst case scenario if war breaks out, the threat is there and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
My grandfather used to work on bunkers and other stuff for MoD, there are far more than you know about, some of them hidden in the middle of cities, some of them were adapted from WW2 facilities and expanded, some of them are huge. He had plans for enormous underground complexes all marked with royal crests and MoD stamps. Probably the coolest one though is the Westminster tube station bunker. Some insane engineering went into that.
Tbh there’s a manhole in our back garden leading to the sewer, we’d probably crack that open and jump down there in the event of a nuke. I mean our lives are kind of dogshit already, might as well be surrounded in literal shit too while the rich are cushy in their proper bunkers.
The cold war ended?
Also a lot have been converted into other infrastructure. Like the Guardian Exchange in Manchester
There was a bunker just outside of town that was meant for the local council and MP in the event of an attack, but the entrance was filled in with concrete after the Cold War.
I’m waiting for Kirsty and Phil on Location Location to say “our mystery property today is a £300K converted nuclear bunker, complete with a swimming pool and extremely poor wifi signal”.