It may seem almost alien to us in 2024, but for a good portion of the 20th century, the threat of nuclear war was a very real one, with many people terrified that the sky would darken with Soviet ICBMs and that the world would be forever shattered by the ensuing conflagration.
Because of these fears, many countries built a network of bunkers and fallout shelters by way of preparation. And the good news for us, sitting pretty in 2024 with only a sorta moderate threat of nuclear Armageddon, is that a lot of these bunkers opened up with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The UK, as one of the major players in the Cold War, has no shortage of such bunkers. So many, in fact, that it can be a challenge trying to figure out which ones are the most interesting. Thankfully, that’s what we’re here for – to make these tough decisions so that you don’t have to.
Join us, then, as I talk you through some of the most intriguing bunkers in the UK.
Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, Nantwich
And so we come to nuclear bunkers built specifically in response to the Soviet threat during the Cold War. Built in the 1950s, Hack Green existed to protect the regional government in the eventuality of a full-blown nuclear war with the USSR. It was renovated in the 1980s in response to renewed concerns over Soviet aggression and closed its doors in 1992 before being sold to a private company.
The company in question opened Hack Green’s doors to the public in 1998. The interior positively drips with Cold War atmosphere – there is a simulator designed to show visitors what it would be like to live there during a nuclear attack, and there is a mannequin with simulated burns and radiation poisoning to hammer home the horrific realities of nuclear explosions.
But fear not – there’s a “find the Cold War mice” scavenger hunt that sidesteps the more grisly aspects of the bunker and gives the kids something to occupy their time that isn’t, y’know, looking at burned mannequins.
Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, Brentwood
Another relic of the Cold War, Kelvedon Hatch is found in the southeast of the UK, and is the region’s largest and most extensive subterranean facility.
Kelvedon Hatch is located in a patch of compulsorily-expropriated farmland (read: the government forced the original residents off the land, like something out of Communist China), and was built in the early 50s for the same reason anybody built bunkers in the early 50s – to give politicians somewhere to hide in case the bombs started falling.
The complex was conceived as part of an RAF initiative called ROTOR, which was an anti-Soviet air defence network. The entrance is located in an inconspicuous bungalow, where visitors walk down a long tunnel into the bowels of the earth before coming out on the lowest of three floors.
The bunker retains a lot of the stuff that was left down there in the 1980s, giving it a cool “War Games” kind of feel, and there are contemporaneous public information videos giving an insight into the worries people had about nuclear war at the time.
Scotland’s Secret Bunker, Fife
Taking a leaf out of the Kelvedon Hatch facility above, Scotland’s Secret Bunker (yes, that’s the actual name) is concealed below an innocuous farmhouse in the eastern Scottish region of Fife. It was constructed in 1952 as part of the same ROTOR network that Kelvedon Hatch belonged to, and was named RAF Troywood while part of that network.
In the 1960s it was transferred over to the Civil Defence Corps, an organisation that was created to help in the aftermath of large-scale disasters. While operational, the bunker had broadcasting capabilities, a telephone switchboard system, and even a functioning cinema.
The bunker met the same fate as most of the UK’s nuclear bunkers in 1992. With the fall of the USSR, such facilities were no longer deemed necessary, and it was decommissioned and fell into private hands. That’s good for us, as it’s since become Scotland’s best Cold War museum, with a fascinating insight into how the facility would have run at the zenith of Cold War paranoia in the 50s and 60s.
North End Underground Station, Hampstead Way, London
The bunkers we’ve profiled above all have something in common – they were all decommissioned, and they all later opened as museums (whether in public or private hands). This next one is no such beast, and the only you’ll ever get to see it is if you’re willing to indulge in a spot of urbex – and a healthy disregard for trespass laws.
North End Underground Station was conceived like any other tube station, with work commencing in 1903. At that time, the station was informally called the ‘Bull & Bush,’ after a nearby pub that the workers took to frequenting between shifts.
Local land sales resulted in a lack of new housing in the area, however, which meant that the proposed station was no longer needed. Despite the station being largely complete, construction was abandoned and the land above the station sold on.
North End lay abandoned for over 40 years. In the early 1950s, however, the British government found a new purpose for the site – as the location of a floodgate control room and nuclear bunker.
In 1984, the opening of the Thames Barrier obviated any concerns about the underground being flooded (whether through natural means or as a result of Soviet nukes) and the station was no longer needed. It has sat largely abandoned since then, though it is still used as a storage space for the London Underground.
Guardian Underground Telephone Exchange, Manchester
The GUTE, AKA Scheme 567 (because what is an underground Cold War facility without a cool code name?) is a series of hardened subterranean tunnels constructed in the northern city of Manchester. They were constructed to ensure the protection of telephone lines in the event of nuclear war, and for a long time they were the subject of something called a ‘D Notice’, which basically meant that the British press was prohibited from talking about their existence at all.
The complex is located under Manchester’s Chinatown, and there are two well-known entrances – one within Chinatown itself and another at the rear of the Piccadilly Hotel. In keeping with its super-secret hush-hush nature, most entrances to the GUTE are disguised as plain, anonymous doorways that do nothing to draw attention to themselves.
The tunnels were, up until the 2000s, still in use. In 2004 there was a fire in the tunnels, which caused huge issues throughout the city and resulted in around £4.5 million a day in lost business. Since then, they are reportedly still operational, but most of the pre-fire equipment and fixtures have been stripped out.
The Churchill War Rooms, London
OK, so this one has nothing at all to do with the Cold War – as any budding history buff knows, Winston Churchill kinda predates the Cold War a little bit. No – this network of bunkers and tunnels was where Churchill and his cabinet hunkered down during WWII and is one of five Imperial War Museums to be found across London.
The war rooms started construction in 1938 and became operational in August 1939, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. They saw use by Churchill and his team throughout almost the entirety of the war, and it was only with the surrender of Japan in August 1945 that they were abandoned.
Nowadays, the War Rooms are, as mentioned, a museum. They are dedicated not only to the history of the bunkers themselves, but also to Churchill’s life. They are easily one of the most fascinating places to visit while in London, and should be on the bucket list of every visitor to the British capital.
The York Cold War Bunker
The ancient city of York has its fair share of dark history, especially in some of the blood-stained pubs nestled down its back alleys. Still, a lot of people are so overwhelmed by its Roman, Viking, and Medieval history that they miss a more modern hangover from the city’s Cold War-era.
The York Cold War bunker is no joke. It’s a two-story nuclear bunker nestled in the city’s Holgate area and was set up in 1961 with the mission of monitoring nuclear explosions and the resultant fallout in Yorkshire, should the region have ever found itself in the armegdon of a nuclear war.
Never a city to sidestep a money-making opportunity, York’s Cold War bunker is open to tourists willing to cough up the cash and is now under the English Heritage umbrella which, to be fair, has done a fine job of restoring it.
Visitors to the York Cold War bunker can immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the conflict and explore everything from the air filtration and generating system to the kitchen, canteen, and dormitories, as well as the fully equipped operations room.
Western Approaches Museum, Liverpool
While the Churchill War Rooms have been modernized and renovated to more comfortably accommodate modern visitors, the Western Approaches Museum in Liverpool offers no such concessions to modernity. This place remains exactly as it was when it operated and offers one of the most fascinating glimpses into the Allied war effort that you’ll ever come across.
The Western Approaches Museum was formerly the command center of the appropriately named Western Approaches Command.
This operational command was responsible for the safety of British shipping in the Western Approaches (a rectangular area of the sea immediately to the west of the British Isles), and the restored command center hosts a variety of artifacts in its era-appropriate rooms.
More excitingly, the curators of the museum have just been given permission to house a captured U-Boat – U534 – that will be unveiled for public viewing in 2026.
Nuclear or Non-Nuclear, There’s Some Cool Shit Beneath the UK’s Street
And there we have it—seven of the most interesting extant underground bunkers and networks in the UK. Though it’s not possible to visit all of them (at least not legally, and we’d never suggest that anyone enter any of these without permission from the appropriate authorities), they are nevertheless all fascinating insights into a bygone era—not only for the UK but for the whole world.
