Built in 1954 on a quiet residential street in the Edgbaston neighborhood of Birmingham for the Civil Defence Corps, a civilian volunteer organisation put together to take control of their local area in the event of a national disaster. Most of these groups would operate from a mobile command centre, or from the council offices, but the Birmingham group was an exception with their custom built underground bunker.
From the bunker the Civil Defence Corps staff would be responsible for recording and analysing information collected by reconnaissance parties and coordinating a response from the local wardens, rescue, first aid and welfare personnel. The bunker is a single story structure buried under a grass mound with a main personnel entrance and two emergency escapes. The original genset and air filtration system remains and the bunker had its own water tanks.
By 1968 the government moved it's focus away from civil defence in it's traditional form - protection of civilians - to protection of government. The responsibilities for radioactive monitoring had already moved away from the CDC to the ROC with the introduction of the UKWMO and the CDC was disbanded. The bunker was taken over by Birmingham Corporation, then West Midlands County Council in 1974 and then West Midlands Fire and Civil Defence Authority in 1986.
By 1989 the Cold War was almost over and the bunker, along with the house whose grounds it is built in, were sold to a private engineering firm. Since then it looks as if the bunker has been used as some kind of social club/storage area before being totally abandoned in more recent years.
From the bunker the Civil Defence Corps staff would be responsible for recording and analysing information collected by reconnaissance parties and coordinating a response from the local wardens, rescue, first aid and welfare personnel. The bunker is a single story structure buried under a grass mound with a main personnel entrance and two emergency escapes. The original genset and air filtration system remains and the bunker had its own water tanks.
By 1968 the government moved it's focus away from civil defence in it's traditional form - protection of civilians - to protection of government. The responsibilities for radioactive monitoring had already moved away from the CDC to the ROC with the introduction of the UKWMO and the CDC was disbanded. The bunker was taken over by Birmingham Corporation, then West Midlands County Council in 1974 and then West Midlands Fire and Civil Defence Authority in 1986.
By 1989 the Cold War was almost over and the bunker, along with the house whose grounds it is built in, were sold to a private engineering firm. Since then it looks as if the bunker has been used as some kind of social club/storage area before being totally abandoned in more recent years.
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