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Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker
The Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch, in the Borough of Brentwood in the English county of Essex, is a large underground bunker maintained during the Cold War as a potential regional government headquarters. Since being decommissioned in 1992, the bunker has been open to the public as a tourist attraction, with a museum focusing on its Cold War history.
The Bunker Guide
The Guardhouse
The Guardhouse
The Guardhouse
Built in 1952,like the bunker, by the Air Ministry and disguised to look like a farm cottage, the bungalow hides what is hidden below. The bungalow was built onto a flattened area carved out of the hill. The trees were left growing close to the building to provide air cover and the door and windows are heavily steel shuttered. Designed o
Built in 1952,like the bunker, by the Air Ministry and disguised to look like a farm cottage, the bungalow hides what is hidden below. The bungalow was built onto a flattened area carved out of the hill. The trees were left growing close to the building to provide air cover and the door and windows are heavily steel shuttered. Designed of course to keep the real enemy out-you and me. The guardhouse consists of a cage from which the guards vetted visitors, inspected visitors passes and had the visitor book signed. They had their own kitchen, bedroom, toilet and office. in here was also the decontamination room and in its early line the armoury. This is the entrance to the bunker.
The Tunnel
The Guardhouse
The Guardhouse
This is 120 yards long, it is the entrance to the bunker and has the generator room at the entrance end and the home office radio room at the other. The tunnel has a 90 degree bend in it aid defence and to reduce and to blast pressure had it come down the tunnel. In its early life as an RGHQ , there would have been 48 three tier bunk-beds down the right-hand side.
The Generator
The Guardhouse
The Home Office Radio Room
Situated now at the entrance end of the tunnel, they were originally in a building some 3/4 of a mile away but moved to the bunker in the late 1960s when the bunker was converted in a RGHQ. There are two generators each producing 125KVA. The sockets are the bunker are all marked essential or non-essential. If one of the generators were t
Situated now at the entrance end of the tunnel, they were originally in a building some 3/4 of a mile away but moved to the bunker in the late 1960s when the bunker was converted in a RGHQ. There are two generators each producing 125KVA. The sockets are the bunker are all marked essential or non-essential. If one of the generators were to break down then essential sockets would have taken priority. There is enough diesel buried underground to last for three months.
The Home Office Radio Room
The Home Office Radio Room
The Home Office Radio Room
By law , all county councils had to have bunker. The Essex man was under the county hall in Chelmsford with the standby being at Mistley. Just like the present day, the Government in this bunke4r would have directed county council who in turn would have directed the borough councils. It is from this room that the bunker could have commun
By law , all county councils had to have bunker. The Essex man was under the county hall in Chelmsford with the standby being at Mistley. Just like the present day, the Government in this bunke4r would have directed county council who in turn would have directed the borough councils. It is from this room that the bunker could have communicated with those other bunkers by radio. Approximately 120 telephone lines are going into the large mast in Kelvedon hatch which was built to withstand an atomic attack.
The Blast Doors
The Home Office Radio Room
The Blast Doors
These doors weigh just under 1 1/2 tons each and have been tested twice in the last 10 years to ensure they would withstand the wind pressure that might have been put on then had then blast come down the tunnel. This is entrance to the bunker itself.
The Bunker
The Home Office Radio Room
The Blast Doors
Built in 1952 for the Air Ministry as a SOC (sector operations centre) it then had a short period under the home office civil defence dept. it was then it the last 1960s converted into a regional Government Headquarters. The bunker itself is on three levels and is a type R4. The walls are 10ft thick reinforced concrete with a thick pitch
Built in 1952 for the Air Ministry as a SOC (sector operations centre) it then had a short period under the home office civil defence dept. it was then it the last 1960s converted into a regional Government Headquarters. The bunker itself is on three levels and is a type R4. The walls are 10ft thick reinforced concrete with a thick pitch waterproof skins and a faraday cage encasing the bunker. There are 24000 gallons of water buried underground in tanks on top of the bunker roof next to the mast. The whole bunker sits on a gravel base which acts as a shock absorber. We have calculated that there are about 40,000 ton of concrete in the walls.
The Main Stairwell
The communications Room
The communications Room
As you can see there are 3 levels to the bunker. There are 2 other stairways, one in each opposite corner of the bunker oblong. Here you are approximately 80 to 100 feet below the surface.
The communications Room
The communications Room
The communications Room
The room used to be much larger and contained great banks of the dolls eye telephone exchanges. Latterly there was the more modern digital type exchange with computer screen.
Teleprinter Room
The communications Room
Teleprinter Room
Teleprinter were the main form of communication. The cables were buried deep underground and were so thought to be safe from the blast. The system of communication was fairly complex and was nicknamed the "chicken wired system" which allowed message to be passed by many route to get to their destinations
Scientists Room
Scientists Room
Teleprinter Room
The scientist job was to determine where the bomb had exploded, how big it was , whether it was an air or ground burst and of course the wind speed and direction so they could determine the speed of radiation and issue various warnings. The red warning was the attack warning and would have been broadcast from the main BBC bunker at Evesh
The scientist job was to determine where the bomb had exploded, how big it was , whether it was an air or ground burst and of course the wind speed and direction so they could determine the speed of radiation and issue various warnings. The red warning was the attack warning and would have been broadcast from the main BBC bunker at Evesham. The black warning meant that fallout was imminent, the grey warning meant fallout within the hour and the white warning meant all was clear.
BBC Radio Room
Scientists Room
BBC Radio Room
From here the prime Minister could have spoken to the nation and warnings to the region and London could have been broadcast.
The Floor
Scientists Room
BBC Radio Room
Called that for obvious reasons. In the bunkers first life as a rota station there was a big hole right through both floor above, through which controllers could look down on the big plotting map below. This was as operations room and the position of the aircraft were plotted on this map by 15 or 20 airmen around the table, In its RGHQ li
Called that for obvious reasons. In the bunkers first life as a rota station there was a big hole right through both floor above, through which controllers could look down on the big plotting map below. This was as operations room and the position of the aircraft were plotted on this map by 15 or 20 airmen around the table, In its RGHQ life, this was still a plotting floor only this time it was plotting where the bombs had exploded and where the radiation was spreading. There is also a reconstruction of a Royal Observer Corps Bunker. These smaller were the bigger bunkers eyes and ears. They were only about 3 feet below the surface and approximately 12X15 ft in size, they had a complete chemical toilet, a hand pump to pump water out and a battery to run the light bulb. The 3 occupants were expected to stay down there for 3 weeks. On their roof was the GZI- Ground zero indicator, a pinhole camera that would pick up the flash of a bomb from that measure the size of the bomb and height of the blast. There was also pressure and radiation detected equipment.
The R.O.C. Personnel would send this vital information to the bigger bunker so that the whole picture could be plotted and troop and other movement main in relative safely.
On this floor also is the strong room which would have held state secrets, gun to defend the bunker and possibly gold. There is also military radio room to communicate with the military as opposed to the civilian side of the country.
Filter Room
The Plant Room
The Plant Room
The fresh air comes down the air shaft behind blue doors into this chamber where the big fan pumps it in the bunker. If the air were to have be contaimated because a bomb has gone off, then the smaller fan would have been started. This is connected to the 4 banks of filters that filter the air going into the bunker.
Sewage also flows to th
The fresh air comes down the air shaft behind blue doors into this chamber where the big fan pumps it in the bunker. If the air were to have be contaimated because a bomb has gone off, then the smaller fan would have been started. This is connected to the 4 banks of filters that filter the air going into the bunker.
Sewage also flows to this level where it is then blown to the surface by compressed air and then flow into two sewage fields into the woods outside. The extractor fan can clear the air in the bunker of gas or smoke in about 10 minutes.
The Plant Room
The Plant Room
The Plant Room
This Room is the heart and lung of the bunker and the most machinery in here is just one giant refrigerator, keeping the bunker cool. One of the biggest problems int he bunker was keeping it cool, the human body produces heat, as well as all the machinery. The main air fan can change the air in the bunker in just about 3 minutes. There is
This Room is the heart and lung of the bunker and the most machinery in here is just one giant refrigerator, keeping the bunker cool. One of the biggest problems int he bunker was keeping it cool, the human body produces heat, as well as all the machinery. The main air fan can change the air in the bunker in just about 3 minutes. There is also a re-circulation fan and a fan to keep all the machinery cool.
The Second Level
Corridor
The Main Administrator Floor
The Main Administrator Floor
The three rooms on this corridor are here because the occupants would need to be on 24 hours a day. The first room would have been the commissioners Room. He would have been the cabinet Minister and would have controlled the London Area as though he where the central Government. He would have been supported by his Principle Officer, who w
The three rooms on this corridor are here because the occupants would need to be on 24 hours a day. The first room would have been the commissioners Room. He would have been the cabinet Minister and would have controlled the London Area as though he where the central Government. He would have been supported by his Principle Officer, who would have been another Minister or senior Civil Servant. It is possible, that the Prime Minister would have had the third bedroom.
The British war plan was fairly simple: there was going to be 3 or so weeks of tension followed by a short period of conventional warfare and then the big bang. The Commissioner would have total control of the area and would control our Survival.
The Main Administrator Floor
The Main Administrator Floor
The Main Administrator Floor
This is where the Civil Servants and Utility representatives where based, communicating where possible with other bunkers and coordinating the survival program.
In its ROTA life, there was a hole in the floor, indicated by the white line, exposing the big plotting map on the floor below the WRAF moving the counters to show the position of
This is where the Civil Servants and Utility representatives where based, communicating where possible with other bunkers and coordinating the survival program.
In its ROTA life, there was a hole in the floor, indicated by the white line, exposing the big plotting map on the floor below the WRAF moving the counters to show the position of our aircraft.
There is a small corner of the floor recognising that the bunker had a short period of its life under the Home Office civil defence department. The equipment whilst looking basic was never the less useful. Dosimeters would register the radiation absorbed by the wearer , fields telephone as there would have been no national telephone system. Augers to drill holes indoor to see if there was a Casualty trapped behind them and of household items. It was under the table the we were expected to stay for 14 days or until the all clear has been sounded.
The trunking in the roof throughout the bunker is the air conditioning. The picture on the wall depict various types of buildings at different distance from a small 10 megaton bomb
Common Services
The Main Administrator Floor
Common Services
This was a quartermaster store from which paper and stationery were issued.The paper in the room is the original that has been left down the bunker. Rumour has it personnel has to return their pencil stub before they could be issued with another pencil and that they would have had to put a small metal tube over the stub so that it could be used right down to the last millimetre
Top Level
Sick Bay
Male Dormitory
The Washroom
There was no living accommodation in the bunker in its first life as a rota station and as we had conscription in those days all the housing and billets for the people who manned this bunker were at North Weld- a large ex second world war airfield about 6 miles away. Batteries were stored here as a backup to there communication equipment. In its RGHQ days, it was the sickbay and morgue.
The Washroom
Male Dormitory
The Washroom
There are a number of these dotted around the bunker. The soap has our Queens initials E.R embossed upon it and the toilet paper had government property. The 24,000 gallons of water in the roof would give them just over 4 pints of water a day once the bomb had gone off and once they could no longer replace the water supply they would stop using toilets and shower and used chemical toilets.
Male Dormitory
Male Dormitory
Male Dormitory
There are two tiers bunks in here and because they were not enough beds in the bunker for all the staff to sleep at once they used the "hot bed" system, As soon as one man got out of bed the next man go into the nice hot bed for his sleep period.
in its first life, the hole in the floor was inside the white line , enabling one to look from
There are two tiers bunks in here and because they were not enough beds in the bunker for all the staff to sleep at once they used the "hot bed" system, As soon as one man got out of bed the next man go into the nice hot bed for his sleep period.
in its first life, the hole in the floor was inside the white line , enabling one to look from the top floor right to the bottom and the big map below. Here was the triangulation department, a system of string laid across the table on aircraft bearing. Where these strings crossed indicated the position of the aircraft.
Common Room
Common Room
Male Dormitory
This was the only place in the bunker where smoking was allowed and where they would take what little rest and recreation they were allowed.
Kitchens
Common Room
Kitchens
The kitchens were on duty 24 hours a day to feed each shift as they came off duty. Food would have been brought into the bunker in a period of tension and would have been dried or tinned as there would have been no deep freezers.
The bunkers cost £1 1/2 million pounds to build in 1952. The government spent 10 million in the late 1960s tran
The kitchens were on duty 24 hours a day to feed each shift as they came off duty. Food would have been brought into the bunker in a period of tension and would have been dried or tinned as there would have been no deep freezers.
The bunkers cost £1 1/2 million pounds to build in 1952. The government spent 10 million in the late 1960s transforming the bunker into an RGHQ and embarked a further £10 million for the 1990s to modernise the capital equipment. It would cost £100,000 to build to equivalent today.
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