As a photographer, I recently had the opportunity to visit the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker located in the Borough of Brentwood, 32 kilometers north-east of London, in the English county of Essex⁵. This large underground bunker was maintained during the Cold War as a potential regional government headquarters⁴. My title is a little tongue in cheek, I lived in Chelmsford for a short while and on my daily commute into London I would drive by road signs directing people to a 'secret nuclear bunker' and I always found this a little ironic.
The Kelvedon Hatch bunker was built in 1952-53 as part of ROTOR, a program to improve and harden Britain's air defense network. It was constructed by Peter Lind & Company of London. The bunker was a hardened (three level 'R4') Sector Operations Centre (SOC) for RAF Fighter Command³.
The three-level bunker was first built on compulsory-purchased farmland as an air defense station (an 'R4' Sector Operations Control or SOC) as part of the RAF ROTOR air defense project. Upon the demise of the ROTOR SOC, the remaining Nuclear Reporting Cell and UKWMO elements were incorporated into a Home Office 'Regional Seat of Government' or RSG. The bunker was able to hold various numbers (in the hundreds) of military and civilian personnel, the numbers changing over the years as the role of the building changed from SOC to RSG and in its later years; 'Regional Government Headquarters' or RGHQ⁴.
From the 1960s into the early 1990s, the UK government (Home Office) maintained the bunker as an emergency regional government defense site. Eventually, in the early 1990s when nuclear threat was seen as diminished, the bunker was sold back to the farming family who had owned the land in the 1950s³.
During my visit, I was able to capture photographs of the various spaces within the bunker. The bunker has had three lives: starting with its role as an RAF ROTOR Station, then a brief period as a civil defense center through to its most recent life as a Regional Government HQ³. Designed for up to 600 military and civilian personnel, possibly even the Prime Minister, their collective task being to organize the survival of the population in the awful aftermath of a nuclear war³.
The bungalow with its protective blast screens is the entrance to a labyrinth of rooms and stairways built into a small hillside. The complex is reinforced with 10ft thick concrete walls and descends to 125ft (38m) below ground ⁴.
Overall, my visit to the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker was an eye-opening experience. The history and uses of this site are fascinating and I highly recommend a visit.
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Source:
(1) Contact – The Secret Nuclear Bunker – Kelvedon Hatch. https://secretnuclearbunker.com/contact/.
(2) Kelvedon Hatch Bunker - Explore a Secret Nuclear Bunker!. https://thetripgoeson.com/kelvedon-hatch-secret-nuclear-bunker/.
(3) The Secret Nuclear Bunker – Kelvedon Hatch – Kelvedon Hatch – Secret .... https://secretnuclearbunker.com/.
(4) . https://bing.com/search?q=Kelvedon+Hatch+Secret+Nuclear+Bunker+machinery+office+equipment+beds+access.
(5) The Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker. http://www.secretnuclearbunker.com/.
