Hello and welcome to the 'other' underground, WWII bunker. This bunker is a bit special as it's located way outside central London in Neasden, North London. It's also only open 2 days of the year.
While it's not decorated or maintained in the historical fashion that the Churchill War Cabinets in Westminster are kept, it's another real peak into the bunkers built for the anticipation of the worst during WWII.
Here's the information that we were provided for the tour:
In WWII, when air raid attacks became serious and the possibility of bombs feared, particularly on Whitehall, capacious shelter accommodation was urgently necessary. Chartwell Court, 151 Brook Road, originally a cutting edge wartime communications research station where boffins worked on the ENIGMA code breaking machine, was selected as the site of the new emergency auxiliary HQ to the Cabinet War Rooms at Storey’s Gate and Great George Street, Whitehall, to accommodate selected personnel in the event of crisis in a safe place.
Planned by the Committee of Imperial Defence, which was headed by Sir Warren Fisher, the arrangements effected by Ismay & Hollis created a purpose-built, reinforced concrete, totally bomb proof subterranean war citadel 40 feet below ground. Comprising a map room with useable wall space of 1000 sq ft, a Cabinet room with seating for 30 people and ancillary offices, housed within a sub-basement protected by a 5ft thick concrete roof, over which would be the first basement of a larger plan area containing office and a myriad of habitation amenities, 37 rooms in total, for the War Cabinet and its secretariat, chiefs of staff, joint planning committees etc. The entrance was purportedly concealed within a single storey building within the GPO research station. At a construction cost of £250k the work was completed in 18 months (Jan 1939 - June 1940) under the strictest secrecy - even King George VI was not privy of its whereabouts.
Paddock was the code name first dubbed by Churchill - possibly arising from Tattersall’s stud farm, Willesden Paddocks, from which the name Paddock Road is derived.
Churchill appears to have had some affinity with the closely and conveniently located Neville’s Court, a 1935 range of up market flats, which was also earmarked as quarters for up to 30 staff but, along with Paddock (which he was to visit only twice) became redundant by 1944 for the preferred North Rotunda in Great Peter Street, Westminster. Churchill’s desire to have a more centrally-London based HQ, his recurrent complaints about the damp at Paddock, and the limiting ground conditions of the site, would ultimately result in its eclipse and consequential derequisitioning of Neville’s Court.
The land was sold in the years before 1980. Brent Council, recognising the historic importance and significance of the site, made planning permission conditional on public access twice a year to the bunker. Stadium Housing Association (part of the Network Housing Group), developer of the site, said “We have inherited an important piece of Britain’s wartime history . . . we do not have the means to recreate the bunker as it would have looked in the 1940s . . . but we will let people get a flavour of what it was like in Churchill’s day”.
Unfortunately during the 1980s - 1990s the contractors building on the site above damaged the 'seal' to the bunker unknowingly - allowing water to slowly seep into the bunker for over 10 years, damaging floors, walls, and rusting machinery. Our guide mentioned that when Subterrania Britannica took over the site in the 1990s it was 3ft deep underwater. Today there are pumps and generators moving water out constantly, but it's a constant battle.
You can see on most of the ceilings and floors are covered with stalagmites and stalactites, not to mention the mud and puddles.
The two photos above were taken in the room where the air intake was filtered and pumped into the rest of the bunker.
You can just see how much rust covered everything that had been made of metal.
A stalagmite!
This room was in a meeting room, one of the few rooms that Churchill actually visited once, much to the delight of an 85 year old woman who, for lack of better words, has a serious crush on that man. However, this room has got to be the scariest room I've ever been in. See that fluff? It's spider webs. Millions and millions of webs covered everything. Floors, walls, ceilings. I half expected to look over and see that giant spider from Lord of the Rings lurking in the corner, ready to eat us lonely travellers... fortunately I saw nothing of the sort. Just webs. Gulp.
Coke, anyone? Now our guide did tell us that during the 60s and 70s parts of the bunker were used as an entertainment hall for swing-dancers and other hooligans, so I imagine the left over Coke is from that era. I have no idea how to date Coke, though, and I have no desire to taste it.
This playing card had been sitting on the table for so long it had fused to the table.
These were in the room that handled all the telephone switches. One of the boxes (not pictured) had a tag on it reading CWR - Cabinet War Rooms, in other words.
This was the mold that apparently was "totally safe, but please don't touch it.". To me, it looks like something that would sneak up on you in a cheap horror movie and smother you to death.
The movie would be called "Attack of the killer MOLD!"
It was a lovely tour, and as informative as it could be given that there is little to no information about the bunker. Most of the rooms don't have enough remains in them to determine what they were used for, and Churchill never stayed here, only visited once.
Still, a wonderful opportunity that doesn't come around very often.
