{"id":394036,"date":"2025-09-03T07:56:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/394036\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T07:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T07:56:23","slug":"cold-war-era-bunker-on-the-market-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/394036\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold War era bunker on the market in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a unique historical English property that could be perfect for a doomsday prepper. In fact, it was built to survive a nuclear blast.<\/p>\n

A Cold War era bunker’s going up for auction later this month in the Bristol area in western England with a low starting bid of 20,000 pounds (NZ$45,675).<\/p>\n

The entrance sat amid what looked like blackberry brambles on a hillside in the village of Hallen overlooking farm fields and the mouth of the River Severn. But don\u2019t expect a view from the underground chamber.<\/p>\n

The bunker was one of about 1500 shelters built across the UK for the Royal Observer Corps, a civil defence organisation, to safely monitor blast waves and fallout from nuclear attacks that never came.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The inside of a Cold War era bunker is seen in Bristol, England. (Source: David Plaister Ltd via AP)<\/p>\n

Most now sit empty, although they occasionally come up for resale since they were decommissioned and sold to the public in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Last year, a bunker listed for a minimum of 15,000 pounds (NZ$34,256) sold at auction for 48,000 pounds (NZ$109,622) in Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. The buyers later submitted plans to turn it into a tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

From the outside, the relics were more eyesore than architectural wonder \u2013 just a couple of steps and a block of concrete with a chain securing the entrance. On the inside, there\u2019s also not much to look at.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The outside of a Cold War era bunker is seen in Bristol, England. (Source: David Plaister Ltd via AP)<\/p>\n

The writers of the promotional materials had to dig deep to put some polish on the drab, cramped and isolated quarters.<\/p>\n

“Ideal for those with a unique taste for historical relics and rare investment opportunities,” said the listing by David Plaister Ltd. Auctions.<\/p>\n

A floor plan showed Room One \u2013 the only room \u2013 and described it as a “discreetly integrated underground room, perfect as a private wine cellar, safe room, or secure utility area”.<\/p>\n

It was a spartan space of 11.8 square metres with peeling paint, a stained floor, some shelving, a small desk-like surface against the wall, two plastic chairs and a single metal bed frame with no mattress.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The inside of a Cold War era bunker is seen in Bristol, England. (Source: David Plaister Ltd via AP)<\/p>\n

There was a tiny hallway where a ladder descended from the hatch above and a tiny space marked as a water closet that photos reveal to contain a crude chemical toilet.<\/p>\n

The property last sold in 1995 for 95,000 pounds (NZ$216,966), but that included the land where the owner lives, said Sophie Thorne who is coordinating the September 25 auction.<\/p>\n

The bunker is being divided from the larger property and will be sold separately. The owner, who is staying put, has never had to hunker down in the bunker.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just kind of part of the property that she bought,” Thorne said. “She had no particular need for it, which is good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a unique historical English property that could be perfect for a doomsday prepper. In fact, it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,2516,16,9043,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-394036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-property","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-uk-europe","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115139299683036065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}