Kelvedon Hatch: The UK’s “Secret” Nuclear Bunker

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[WarwickRoadAndy]

I designed the traffic sign in the thumbnail. It was part of highway works for a new Sainsbury's store in Brentwood. I was saying at the time it can't be that secret if we were providing signs to it, the Russian would find it with ease :-D

[giewhcs]

Nice video! Kelvedon Hatch is my favorite nuclear bunker. When I visited it, I told the taxi driver to take me to the “Secret nuclear bunker”. He was confused, so I showed him the location on Google Maps, and he said, “I guess it isn’t very secret!”. I’ve been to the U.S. equivalent at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, which is bigger, yet lacks any of the equipment and furnishings from that era (the government took it all). The Titan Missile Museum in Tucson, AZ is interesting too.

[TalesOfWar]

For those interested in this kind of thing, look for the old BBC drama called "Threads". It's set in Sheffield after a nuclear attack and follows some survivors. They use the actual members of staff from the local council who would have been conducting said operation with their actual procedures. Be warned, it's not pretty. It doesn't have a happy ending. It's essentially a "you survived but probably wish you didn't" kind of story. It's fantastic, but like I say, extremely depressing.

[StefanMedici]

Here in NZ a whole lot of rich North Americans and Europeans have been buying up land over the past couple of decades for bolt holes. What they seem to forget is in the case of doomsday, they wouldn't have time to get on their jet to come here. As a local though, I'll appreciate the work they've done, and will certainly sample their wine cellars.

[IDidntSetAHandle]

Visited this and the main thing I got from it was "What a depressing life".

The new Fallout series satirises the bunkers well, but I would take them over what I saw at Kelvedon any day.

[yetanotherbeliever]

I grew up there and the signs are absolutely authentic. They had to put a fire escape in to allow tourist to visit so it wouldn't keep out a stiff breeze anymore

[mdmn-ARCA]

That's right near where I live, the roadsigns slways give me a chuckle whenever I see them.

[muzzy]

I visited a couple of weeks ago £12.50 per person, pay on exit via an honesty box believe it or not. Well worth it- fascinating place. It's actually surprisingly quite small all things considered. The only thing in terms of its current readyness is they had to dig a new exit out of the top of the bunker near the cafeteria to (somewhat ironically) comply with modern fire regulations so that will have compromised it's blast resistance quite badly however it'll still be a very good Fallout shelter I guess.

[beautifulsmall]

Colin Furze Ltd is the UK's largest domestic underground facility builder, not sure if he can reach Switzerlands coverage this year.

[confusedbeard]

When I was in the Swedish airforce in the late nineties we visited several interesting bunkers and such. In the northern part of Stockholm there is a complete underground hospital that can handle several thousand of patients. It even has it's own train station and special train that can use the narrow subway tracks. Just north of Uppsala there is a bunker with radar and is able to take several of biggest nukes ever made.

[douglasdow]

In terms of countries, other than Switzerland, that are still nuclear ready, i think you might look at Finland. They created a massive network that I believe is still in place and working.

[AeroGuy]

In WW2 the Germans built a massive bunker northwest west of Esbjerg, Denmark near Blavand called Tirpitz museum. It was going to take the gun meant for the Tirpitz and pieces of the barrel are still on the site. After the war the Dainsh military tried to destroy it, but couldn't. It was turned into a museum sometime between 2007 and 2018 and evidence of the attempts to destroy it are displayed on the tour. Even after the use of explosives, the bunker is still structurally sound.

[Mike-hupp]

Please make an episode on the Deifenbunker. It's Canada's equivalent, very similar, but has its differences and a great thing to see for anyone that is ever in Ottawa.
Thanks for another great episode.

[martinstallard]

2:59 a real life fallout vault
8:03 military early warning systems
11:32 the Beckham's are welcome

[steveclarke]

It's a place i used to visit regularly (3-4 times per year) so I know it well. Basically put its a 3 story late 1950 office building buried underground, which you might think would not be interesting; however the design is cleverly done for its purpose. The water tank acts as additional radiation protection above the top floor, which is where the accommodation and canteen are located, middle floor is office space and medical with the bottom floor is services and security. The heavily built concrete reinforcement also acts as a Gaussian cage and if you go to the museum you can see how thick the walls are when you go out via the top exit.

Ok why did i visit so regularly, well someone i know does a LARP game which uses the facilities (think of it a like the a mix between the Stargate and Fallout TV franchises) and we used to stay there from Friday evening until Sunday lunchtime. I played one of the facilities medical staff who did stuff on base and the players did plot and story arcs both inside the bunker and outside in the woods where combat could happen using "Airsoft" replica weapons (to be clear this combat did not happen in the bunker).

So we got to know the people running the place quite well, enough to say hi and hows things. After the museum closes in the evening, its quite atmospheric and sound echoes in the stairwell making it seem spooky.

[haakonwylie]

So if the Govt only has a bunker to protect just the few top officials and that's it, but the entire rest of the country is left to fend for itself, who would even bother to listen to them afterward?

[steel]

If you're in the UK and want your own bunker, research the underground variety of US Storm Shelters as a starting point. Many are designed with food and water storage in mind (granted more as a precaution against the door getting buried under wreckage than serious long term survival, but its a start and many older homes in the US have storm shelters that were converted to rudimentary fallout shelters).

[idacoetzee]

In the event of a major population destroying attack - those who survive having experienced the violence and loss of loved ones are unlikely to welcome the bunker survivors ie the obscenely wealthy back above ground.

[S-Ltd]

I lived near there and very nearly bought a house in Kelvedon Hatch. Years later I moved to the South Hams in Devon and there's an R6 bunker near me up on bolt head which isn't accessible. I also visited the hack green R6 bunker some years ago which was a fascinating place.

[goodfes]

My grandmother lived locally to this and when the family first opened it up, must have been early 90's, we immediately visited. Fascinating place, I was working in Telecoms and I'm sure there were landlines into the bunker, I recall there was a basic aged UK wide map of telco installs in the 'comms room/broadcast room' and being told it had largely been given up by Government and was being put to use supporting a new thing called the 'internet'. Whether true or not no idea. My grandmother, bless her, told me that the locals all had an idea something odd was there but it was not openly discussed.