This is another one of the original early 1950s 'War Rooms' just like the ones we have seen in Bristol, Leeds and a few other places in the past. The War Room concept was based around the need to respond to an Atom Bomb attack but with the advent of the much more devastating Hydrogen Bomb they had a little bit of a rethink and decided to change to the 'Regional Seat of Government' concept instead. This change involved closing and re-purposing alot of the original War Room bunkers but three, including Chalfont Drive were retained and extended to become RSGs. The extension here is a little different to the the other two however, there was limited space on the site so instead of doing what they did in Cambridge and just building a new 2 story extension to one side of the bunker here the extension was 3 story, partially built alongside but with a large cantilever top floor that totally enveloped the original War Room. The RSG lasted from the early 60s until about 1968 i think after which the bunker appears to have been pretty much just used for storage for the surrounding government buildings leaving it in very much 'time capsule' condition
Its fair to say this is one cold war relic that has been on my radar for a long time now. Sub Brit managed to visit here in 2002 but it appears they only managed to take about 4 photos of the whole place (it has to be said tho their photos made it look fairly tantalising!) When i first checked out the site a number of years ago the bunker still sat in the middle of a compound of government offices used by MAFF. This made even getting to it a little bit of a challenge and getting inside a fairly tall order even by our standards. However after visiting the Flowers Hill War Room last year i started thinking of what other unexplored bunkers were still lurking out there and this was one of the really obvious ones so i decided to have another poke. To my surprised i found the MAFF site has now been closed and totally demolished with new housing built right up to the North face of the bunker. The rest of the site is just wasteland and while i cant say i found it wide open it certainly made the job a fair bit easier.
I have no idea what the long term plan for the place is, We are a tad saturated with bunker museums nowadays but what else can you do with it without destroying the epic 60s government cold war vibes? This one certainly had the Burlington Kingsway cold war vibe down to a tee, it even has end of the world tea!
War Room
So upon entering the bunker through either of the main entrances you have a choice of going straight through the original war room blast doors or down a short flight of stairs into the RSG extension. Naturally i headed through into the war room first. As i have mentioned this part of the bunker is basically identical to the other war rooms in Bristol and the like. However there have been a few modifications when it was converted to the RSG. The main change is the flooring over of the double height operations room and the removal of the nice perspex windows. The changes are not all bad tho. The old security room with the famous letter hoist was converted into a Lamson exchange with a pair of large pumps to run the system situated in the engineers room next to the original ventilation plant. The lower floor was still used for communications during the RSG era so although the rooms have been re-jigged a bit most of the same telex kit is still there. Over all both sections of the bunker are in great condition with a lot of the cupboards in the plant areas and stairwells still stocked with everything from light bulbs to E"R soap still all in its original 1950s packaging. As you will see tho quite a few rooms were re-purposed to store items for MAFF, some of the usual documents but also alot of items to be used in the event of livestock emergencies like Foot and Mouth, Rabies and Swine Flue outbreaks. In itself this only adds to the apocalyptic feel, the youtubers would have a field day with their made up storys!
Entering the War Room
Lamson Exchange
Lamson Pumps
Original Letter Hoist
Plant Rooms
Main Plant Room
Ruston Generator
Battery Bank
The original War Room kitchen still with equipment.
MAFF tat
Lamson Terminal
Blocked up windows
Lower Floor
Some items left over from the communications area
Main Telex Room with peg board (forgot to photograph some of the telex test tapes still hanging on the wall)
Booths in the floored over ops room
Telex Exchange
Its fair to say this is one cold war relic that has been on my radar for a long time now. Sub Brit managed to visit here in 2002 but it appears they only managed to take about 4 photos of the whole place (it has to be said tho their photos made it look fairly tantalising!) When i first checked out the site a number of years ago the bunker still sat in the middle of a compound of government offices used by MAFF. This made even getting to it a little bit of a challenge and getting inside a fairly tall order even by our standards. However after visiting the Flowers Hill War Room last year i started thinking of what other unexplored bunkers were still lurking out there and this was one of the really obvious ones so i decided to have another poke. To my surprised i found the MAFF site has now been closed and totally demolished with new housing built right up to the North face of the bunker. The rest of the site is just wasteland and while i cant say i found it wide open it certainly made the job a fair bit easier.
I have no idea what the long term plan for the place is, We are a tad saturated with bunker museums nowadays but what else can you do with it without destroying the epic 60s government cold war vibes? This one certainly had the Burlington Kingsway cold war vibe down to a tee, it even has end of the world tea!
War Room
So upon entering the bunker through either of the main entrances you have a choice of going straight through the original war room blast doors or down a short flight of stairs into the RSG extension. Naturally i headed through into the war room first. As i have mentioned this part of the bunker is basically identical to the other war rooms in Bristol and the like. However there have been a few modifications when it was converted to the RSG. The main change is the flooring over of the double height operations room and the removal of the nice perspex windows. The changes are not all bad tho. The old security room with the famous letter hoist was converted into a Lamson exchange with a pair of large pumps to run the system situated in the engineers room next to the original ventilation plant. The lower floor was still used for communications during the RSG era so although the rooms have been re-jigged a bit most of the same telex kit is still there. Over all both sections of the bunker are in great condition with a lot of the cupboards in the plant areas and stairwells still stocked with everything from light bulbs to E"R soap still all in its original 1950s packaging. As you will see tho quite a few rooms were re-purposed to store items for MAFF, some of the usual documents but also alot of items to be used in the event of livestock emergencies like Foot and Mouth, Rabies and Swine Flue outbreaks. In itself this only adds to the apocalyptic feel, the youtubers would have a field day with their made up storys!
Entering the War Room
Lamson Exchange
Lamson Pumps
Original Letter Hoist
Plant Rooms
Main Plant Room
Ruston Generator
Battery Bank
The original War Room kitchen still with equipment.
MAFF tat
Lamson Terminal
Blocked up windows
Lower Floor
Some items left over from the communications area
Main Telex Room with peg board (forgot to photograph some of the telex test tapes still hanging on the wall)
Booths in the floored over ops room
Telex Exchange
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