This place is pretty special, Another one of those places you come across during your research and think wow! For many reasons this place had eluded me; How excited I was to finally have a look around unfortunately I was not the only excitable small person inside here; 10 minutes in we were followed around by primary school kids!
After I had played the role of youth leader and tried to stop one of them from sobbing, I escorted them out and had a go at trying to take some pictures…usual torch frustrations but I did manage to capture some of it! As with many hidden gems of the uk it wasnt accessible for very long not even a week!
This place was huge I’d say the biggest deep level shelter Ive been to date, (there is some evidence on the internet that it is the Uk biggest but i cant find definitive proof!). Its 6500ft total length designed to shelter 6000 people during WWII. 80 ft underground it was the most expensive air raid shelter ever built!. It was used in 1948 to store food and was finally sealed due to health and safety concerns in the late 80’s.
What made it special was the condition of it! Complete signs and toilets and sections of unspoilt paved tunnels despite the very square design of the tunnels which has led to all size rockfalls scattered all over the tunnels!.Very strange layout in parts and as with many underground sites the map didnt tally! The electrical room, generator and largest ladder section with what was a ventilation fan and then escape hatch which is concrete capped, strangely situated in the mens toilets! definitely not your average location!
