Nuclear Bunkers on the London Underground

[@allangibson8494]

The entire Seoul underground railway system is however a nuclear bunker. Seoul’s underground was designed on the basis that no one in Seoul is further than 5 minutes walk from a shelter and includes shopping centers and swimming pools.

[@derekcable]

I believe the Moscow underground network is likewise.

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

​@derekcable That can't be true for the entire network, because the oldest parts of it date from before the War.

[@RichardWatt]

@@derekcable Moscow has had rumours of "Metro 2" that served that purpose for the Party Elite and government officials for decades.

[@SwitchbackSylveon]

A lot of Eastern Bloc metros were built deep underground in case of nuclear war, since most were built during the cold war

[@eastlancsesteem]

Imagine the London Underground was like this.

[@BromideBride]

I'm sure there used to be an underground city near Wimbledon Common back when my baby sister was growing up. I remember seeing a documentary series about the multi national inhabitants and their artistic use of recycled materials.

[@EugeneMurray-z1b]

Just made me laugh out loud I love those Underground/Overground Stations

[@simonhodgetts6530]

What an utter Womble!

[@yopuivideo]

I grew up wondering about where the "secret nuclear bunkers" might be hidden, only to find out much later in life that that one old bloke in the shed who used to chase us off the abandoned RAF base was actually guarding a secret regional HQ nuclear bunker.

[@terrylear4219]

Where was this.

[@davidjames579]

I've heard The Winchester pub in Crouch End is a shelter. Well, it's where you go till "this all blows over".

[@MrJofArnold]

New Cross. Is flats now though of course.

[@davidjames579]

@@MrJofArnold in the film its set in Crouch End. Yeah I know the actual location is in New Cross, and it is now an apartment block.

[@WEC8198]

He’s making a joke @MrJofArnold.

[@mallettdw]

In 1970 I worked in the Kingsway Trunk Unit. This was shortly after it was removed from the secrets list as it no longer provided protection from the newer types of nuclear weapons. There was a locked door which had given access to Chancery Lane Station. The USA "hot line" terminated in the exchange. The tunnels included air conditioning equipment, generators and extensive food stores and artesian well for drinking water, all of which were said to be able to support the occupants for, if I remember correctly, 6 months or more. The entrances would be sealed with heavy lead plates. The tunnels were below the Central Line and when using the Restaurant or Bar one could hear the trains passing overhead. Rumour was that it had been built prior to 1939 as part of the projected Fleet Line but had flooded when the "lost" fleet sewer was encountered. A strange place to work in winter as you would enter under a dark sky in the morning and emerge into the dark at finishing time. If you didn't come to the surface during the day you wouldn't see daylight from Sunday Evening until the following Saturday Morning. Hence the suggestion that long time Kingsway staff grew rats tails.

[@richards6269]

Probably a detail that has gotten lost in time but have you any idea what platform of chancery lane station that door to the kingsway tunnels is? Long shot I know.

[@mallettdw]

@@richards6269 Sadly not. It was nearly 50 years ago. Maybe the Secrets of the London Underground TFL museum people would know.

[@AFCManUk]

You can also ride a 'spooky, semi-abandoned Tube line' anytime of the week. Just take the Northern City line out of Moorgate 😉

[@quantisedspace7047]

Is that line into Moorgate still operating ? I thought the line to Finsbury Park was closed at roughly the same time as the Widened Lines.

[@AFCManUk]

@@quantisedspace7047 Very much so . I took a ride from Moorgate to Crews Hill not too long ago.

[@Roland-pw5xj]

For the premium experience, get out at Essex Road and walk up the spiral staircase (if you can find it).

[@KasabianFan44]

@@quantisedspace7047 The Northern City line is still alive and well. In fact, it’s now used more than ever - as since 2015 it sees all-day services seven days a week (before 2015 it was only open Monday-Friday until 10pm). And in 2018 its off-peak timetable went up from 6 to 8 trains per hour each way (though the pandemic has unfortunately semi-permanently reduced that back to just 4 per hour).

[@ktipuss]

Finsbury Park is where the pantographs were lowered on "up" (inbound" trains who connect to third rail from there; is that still happening?

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

I had a seat in PINDAR IN 1993 while I was working at the MoD. The joke was that all through the actual Cold War the MoD ops room was on the 4th floor. PINDAR didn’t open until 4 years after the Berlin Wall came down…

[@saulnicholas9461]

Hi Jago. I worked in Harrods in the 90s fitting marble in the escalator shaft. We entered underground by St James park, walked to Harrods proper along a tunnel past a metal door with the royal coat of arms on it, it was said this was an entrance to Buck palace. There is also an electric train running on tyres carrying the huge takings from the store.

[@roderickmain9697]

Nearly 50 years ago I started work at ICL's support group working on computer comms kit.. One of my colleagues was required to visit London to tackle an issue with some military kit. Her instructions were to go to one of the tube walking tunnels where there was a re-enforced (big bolts) door and knock. After a short period of time, the door was opened from the inside and she was met by an armed guard who showed her into a room a short way into the tunnel beyond. She was just told "heres the machine. Fix it or find the problem". After several hours analysing what was going on via memory dumps and so on, she reported that the problem existed at the other end of a cable which disappeared into wall. She was fairly confident she knew what kit was connected at the other end and offered to look at it and potentially fix that problem. However, the people she was talking to did not want to know and simply ushered her out again. So not a bunker per se but .... well, neither of us know exactly. In all probablity, its not there anymore so probably not breaking the official secrets act.

[@jhbouhbouhbouhbouhbo]

What did she think the kit at the other end was?

[@YouChwb]

@@jschreiber6461 And maybe affected by damp or water damage.

[@barneypaws4883]

There are SO many tunnels hidden down there anything could be kept secret for very good reasons of course.

[@paulsengupta971]

I worked in a number of telephone exchanges in Italy which were built as concrete bunkers with massive blastproof doors, one of which was built into the side of a mountain, much like a James Bond villain's lair. It had similar equipment to a James Bond set inside as well, flashing lights, tape drives and all!

[@roderickmain9697]

@@jschreiber6461 Actually a bit more sophisticated than that. We had machines which switched packets of data (not unlike ethernet but simpler). It seemed likely the comms machine she was shown was connected to a similar one at the other end and/or interfaced to some mainframe(s). You could tell from the packet headers whether it was master to slave and which was which.

[@Kevinfordsynthesizers]

Interesting sir, in the 80s I was contracted to supply equipment to one or two nuclear bunkers outside of London where ‘authorities’ would run things to the best of their abilities should the balloon go up. They were very 1960s James Bond-esque inside and with a bit of a problem; The air filtration and aircon units needed attention and repair every two or three weeks - failing valves, pressure switches etc, and as the maintenance guy told me at the time, the one person who would not be permitted in the building if the bomb went off would be him, therefore all the people in power were going to die inside the bunker of either oxygen starvation or radiation poisoning, and anarchy would reign. ‘Don’t bother taking shelter mate ‘cos we’re all ……’ was his advice to me. It was a fascinating time in my career.

[@LondonTransport466]

*Travelling on the Victoria Line almost makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter.*

[@davidjames579]

How would we tell the difference?

[@VietnameseBall911]

This train is now arriving at The New Walthamstow Republic

[@acoustic_tourist]

Pimlico has fallen…

[@malthuswasright]

It's better than the Central or Northern lines...

[@davidjames579]

@@acoustic_tourist Nuclear Bombs have dropped Millions of Pounds worth of Improvements.

[@bugsby4663]

As someone who was a Station Supervisor at Westminster and accessed 95% of he many many rooms in it, I can confirm there is no nuclear bunker although there are an awful lot of fire doors to lock and unlock along with many lobbies leading to lobbies leading to switch rooms. The air circulation isn't top notch and when one lot of stairs flooded after a torrential rain on the Embankment, it was so stifling, my glasses steamed up as soon as I walked in.

[@darrenpeters1566]

Yes but what about the other 5%? ;) Seems strange a supervisor isn't able to access 5% of his area of supervision. Oh hang on there's a knock at the door I'll come right

[@grahammason8407]

I used to work in a Royal Mail sorting office where there was a Mail Rail station..used to go down there to collect work from the platforms...When it was operational, at the East Bound Central Line at Tottenham Court Road it used to run next to the wall opposite the platform..it would make quite a rumble as it passed by.

[@linalmeemow]

I spent a day in the Kingsway tunnels doing its fire risk assessment as part of its preparation for sale from the BT property portfolio about 15 years ago. It's a huge complex, and there are parts of it that were still occupied by the secret service. We were warned not to go down some of the tunnels as it would result in men with guns coming to meet us! I can confirm there was a bar down there for the BT staff with a couple of full-size snooker tables and fake windows with paintings of seaside scenes in them. Lots of asbestos too!

[@johnd6487]

That sounds familiar.. I think some guys from one of the urbex channels on here recently broke in there for a look round

[@davidjames579]

How can you sell a place that has tunnels occupied by The Secret Service?

[@linalmeemow]

@@davidjames579 That would be a question for BT and the secret service, I can only tell you what the FM for the site told me.

[@linalmeemow]

@@johnd6487 Yeah, I saw a video that sounds like the one you're talking about a year or two ago. It definitely looked like Kingsway, the anonymous entry door off High Holborn looked like the one we used - right by a Rymans if I remember right.

[@davidjames579]

@@linalmeemow No problem. Just seems a bit odd. The new owners would be expected to be constantly telling people. And doesn't seem very secure for the Secret Service, and for their secrecy to be maintained.

[@zaert21]

As someone who works at parliament - I would point out, we also have direct access through to the station. (we still have to pay don't worry :P ) Theoretically if they wanted to turn it into a bunker, we already have the connecting part to the station that is underneath the main road.

[@cliveshergold9467]

My father (who died in 1981, so this is an old story) told me of some enthusiasts who carefully compiled all the publicly available information on sub-surface London - tubes, rivers, sewers, shelters, what have you - and were about to publish the resulting map. They received a visit from two men in suits, who strongly suggested that they abandon plans to publish. "But it's all public information!" they cried. The answer: "Yes. The problem is not the mapped features, but the white spaces between them".

[@jackiespeel6343]

Have you come across the book 'Beneath the City Streets'? I read the second edition which made reference to changes from/further information available to the first edition.

[@cliveshergold9467]

@@jackiespeel6343 No, I haven't seen that book. I once picked up a book in a charity shop because it was called 'Rivers of London', and I expected it to be on a similar topic. As it turned out, I really enjoyed it (and the sequels), but for very different reasons!

[@tomburnham5119]

@@jackiespeel6343 Yes, I had that when I was young. In many ways the predecessor of the Duncan Campbell book Jago mentioned.

[@brianartillery]

It always amused me that the original site of the London Flood control, was situated in the abandoned Kingsway Tram Tunnel - a literal stone's throw from the Thames. May I suggest that you have a look at the glorious Subterranea Britannica site? You'll definitely fall down a rabbit hole there. A 'quick look', will guarantee at least three hours passing in real time.

[@jonb3311]

Secret Bases is another rabbit hole.

[@dodgydruid]

My late grandfather and my father both mentioned the "exit" from the Whitehall Citadel onto the tube lines to allow those in the citadel to leave and join trains. My grandfather was a GLC executive at County Hall and was given a place of survival should the four minute warning go off and because he was in control of London's water and sewerage he had quite an involved job post blasting in trying to rebuild London's water supplies etc. There was also the royal train, accessed from directly under the palace and would in times of trouble race to nearest to Northolt where royals would ascend into the air on a RAF plane to a safe haven. One of the small things me grandfather did was in times of a nuclear attack he would order the gates to the Holborn tramway station to be opened to give the public folks at least a sporting chance... The old station came under his control when London's flood defence HQ was sited under there in a Portakabin.

[@quantisedspace7047]

"Royal Train" accessible from under The Palace, which could get to Northolt ? Do you have any direct evidence for this ? I find it difficult to believe that a train could be stabled under The Palace and that there was a secret line (presumably underground) to Northolt. I can believe it nowadays that there might be a spur of the V Line, but even then the logistics of shunting other trains around it for it to get a clear run onto the Central Line and then via another secret spur to the airport.

[@JamesWilson-gw2ij]

@@quantisedspace7047we went to the moon…. Nothing is impossible. My grandad worked for the FO and then moved on to declassification of documents…..there’s plenty he never told me and plenty he did

[@MelanieRuck-dq5uo]

Heading as far away from London as you can is excellent advice!

[@bluebellnutter]

There was a rumour that the reason the Ongar extension of the Central Line remained open despite being ripe for closure was because of the large bunker (now a tourist attraction) near Ongar, and the tube was to be used to get staff there quickly from Central London. Certainly it closed not very long after the Cold War ended, although this is possibly coincidence.

[@jackmartinleith]

Ah, that's the "Secret Nuclear Bunker" at Kelvedon Hatch.

[@de-fault_de-fault]

I heard the “this dorm building was built from a design meant for a prison” story about one at my school in the US, too.

[@IMBlakeley]

There was a tale when I was at my technical college as a student that there was a nuclear shelter beneath the car park. Later I got to visit the said bunker and yes there was hidden room but it was more a civil defence store, generators, waterproof clothing, batteries, tools etc

[@patrickgomes2213]

I used to watch an UrbEx KZbin channel. I think it was “The Proper People” but I can’t quite remember which channel it was… they went into a school that had closed a year or so before the explore and at one point found the school’s bunker stock. A bunch of outdated items that had probably rotted ten years into the life of the storeroom. A moot point as a) the bomb never came and b) even if it had come, the shelter would have been a starvation chamber - given that the food stocks had gone.

[@PeterGaunt]

Fascinating and, as always, well researched and presented.

[@aliendon73]

There is Churchills second bunker situated at Dollis Hill. Close to the Met line station. I have actually been in the unfinished station near Golders Green, lots of times. We just called it Bull & Bush station. Most of the station was finished below ground, apart from the platforms. It is a very spooky place to be at night.

[@Batters56]

I have three bits of info: At Embankment station you can see some flood doors and winding mechanism above the entrances to the platforms. At Baker Street there are some very chunky doors underground that I can’t find a picture of now. At Vauxhall tube station some of the long corridors that form the subway under the bus station used to have what looked like doors that could meet in the middle in a V shape pointing outwards. There was a metal V in the floor and ceiling too. I always assumed this was to take the energy out any pressure wave getting underground near to where MI6 presumably has an underground something or other. I’m also reminded there’s been various incident of bangs and tube stations filling with dust leading to evacuations in the last 15 years.

[@TheCatBilbo]

I served in the Royal Observer Corps (No.4 & 23 Group) until the 1992 Stand down. That was very interesting, the underground monitoring posts, the buried & 'semi-buried' HQs. If anyone wants a 'Cold War rush' then there are various sites around the UK that were saved & are open to the public.

[@DarkSitesChannel]

The old Oxford ROC Group HQ is actually located in the grounds of Oxford Brooks University. Not something they advertise is next to the accommodation for students.

[@adydubq]

There was talk of turning it into a nightclub but the fire regs made it a non starter and now it’s just storage.

[@derekcable]

In the later 80s while working for the PSA/DoE i serviced the lifts which gave access to the tube shelters at Clapham North and Clapham South. The ones at Clapham common and Stockwell had been sold off by that time. Majestic wines were using the one at Clapham common for storage as the temperature was quite cool and stable, the one at Clapham south is now used for growing soil free eco friendly vegetables i believe.

[@tonys1636]

The Clapham ones were also used as temporary accommodation for immigrants after the war, Polish, Eastern European and Caribbean until the paperwork was completed. The Communist fleeing ones were then moved to now not needed and unused Army and RAF bases. The Caribbean immigrants had jobs before arriving so once the I's dotted and T's crossed were on their own.

[@derekcable]

@@tonys1636 I knew about them being used for some of the Caribbean immigrants but not the others. I also believe they were used to house the soldiers for queen Elizabeth coronation. Another bit of interesting history of the deep shelters 👍

[@CJonestheSteam72]

Did you get a talking to by a police officer regarding your filming? We'll raise the alarm if you disappear in the near future

[@nawbus]

Oh in the sticks, beyond civilisation, North of Watford, there were a number of nuclear bunkers dotted around the country. One near me, Hack Green, is now a fascinating museum. The road signs to it pronounce 'Secret Bunker'!

[@SiggyPony]

"Those youtubers are cowards...." 😅🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@PrograError]

INB4 he got sued for defame /s :wink :

[@cncshrops]

A brave claim.

[@uktrains5679]

Fantastic video Jago. I find these hidden bunkers linked to the London Underground really fascinating. I've seen videos of the deep level shelters and Kingsway exchange, just amazing how such huge structures were constructed underground. Looking forward to the North End video. Thanks.

[@Roaddogdrone]

I have two bunker stories: there’s a bunker in Ealing underneath Dean Gardens on Northfield avenue which had an entrance building visible in the 80s when we lived nearby. The other is the Goodge Street vent which is still there which leads to the underground line was used by the US Army in ww2 as their London HQ

[@gdwnet]

6:20 - the wedge shaped building on the left is a place I worked for two years. Just thought I would throw that out there.

[@flemmingsorensen5470]

Please never stop with your "terrible" jokes - love the dry sense of humor, mixed with interresting facts 👍

[@MrGreatplum]

I love this sort of thing. I used to work for a travel firm whose HQ at the time was on the former site of a substantial hotel that was commandeered by the southern railway as their hq in the war. Whilst the hotel was demolished, the tunnels and cellar remain in situ underneath the office block (now converted into flats!)

[@willwallacetree]

Dorking

[@MrGreatplum]

@@willwallacetree - indeed - I found the door open to the tunnels once!

[@BucBoydy]

Always love the joke at the end!

[@isashax]

What a fascinating subject! Thanks Jago!😊

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I think ‘V For Vendetta’ might’ve accelerated the conspiracy theories behind Underground stations lol

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

Didn't one of the recent(ish) James Bond films do something similar?

[@PrograError]

@@andrewgwilliam4831 I believe that's Skyfall (the 3rd of the Daniel Craig saga) got a chase in the tube...

[@camberweller]

Weird things underground? I’ve heard rumours of giant worms along the Arrakis Line.

[@boohaka]

Thanks for the advice! ❤

[@RogersRamblings]

Another excellent investigation that went down like a bomb.

[@DavidBromage]

The Central Government War Headquarters was built underground at Corsham in Wiltshire. There were persistent rumours about secret platforms and even secret sidings inside the Box Tunnel, at least until cab ride videos started appearing on KZbin.

[@brianartillery]

I've seen it. It's impressive, but rather let down by the fact that the USSR knew of it's existence quite early on. It had a satellite monitoring it at all times, flying over the site several times a day. That whole area of England is riddled with tunnels and bunkers - it was once the largest munitions store in Britain. A TV show once asked about the tunnels, and was told by a Military Police Officer, that they were a myth. Unluckily for that MP, they were standing not far from one of the huge surface exits used by Bristol Aircraft, who had a large underground engine factory during the last war. A look at the area around Corsham on Google Maps will show you that something is under there. It's fascinating, and if I were a bit younger, I'd be back down there like a shot. 'Secret Underground Cities', by NJ McCamley is possibly the bible on this subject.

[@Mark-p8n2u]

The Burlington Bunker complex at Corsham does/did have a spur railway entrance at Box tunnel which fed two platforms inside the bunker. The spur entrance has been blocked up but it still visible on Google earth. There are also videos on youtube of the underground platforms/engine sheds. The whole complex was kept secret until about 2011 when the BBC were allowed in as it was decommissioned. My theory is that early on in the cold war they planned to use trains out of Kensington Olympia to get the Royals et al out to Corsham given it't proximity to Kensington palace + it was a motorail terminal :)

[@barrieshepherd7694]

@@Mark-p8n2u The spur link to the GWR mainline was used to transport items from the underground munitions factory - some say they manufactured aircraft down there. There is also a story (folklore maybe) that to thwart spies seeing a train depart from the spur it's departure would e syntonised with a train entering the main tunnel, that train would stop in the tunnel and the munitions train would depart on its way - to the casual observer appearing to be the train that was seen entering.

[@daveoftheclanburgess]

Corsham had at four ordnance factories as well as communications bunkers, dating from the quarrying prior to WW2 (ordnance factory covered almost anything directly in support of the effort - one of these factories machined armaments two made munitions and there was the Bristol engines factory, plus an undeveloped area). The Bristol engine factory was the last to be opened and never fulfilled its potential. The munitions production stopped soon after the war and areas were used for storage only. The remainder was abandoned or turned into the comms section, which was Joint Service. There are two good books mention the place, I can't find my copy of one of them but the other is Dangerous Energy by Wayne Cockroft (get an original print if you can as the picture reproduction in the print-on demand from Amazon is awful). There are few stories of former quarrymen finding their way into the secret areas as they knew the local tunnels better than the military and RO staff. The railway siding on the westbound Great Western Railway route was not a full height siding and had to be modified for the munitions trains and was never full clearance. There were access adits from the mainline for personnel only but blocked early on. The trains to escape London were to be prepared from Paddington as the alert level raised but I doubt they ever practised as thoughts and plans changed a lot on that 70 years. TURNSTILE was the name, I think.

[@Mark-p8n2u]

You can see clearly from this Crown Copyright 2005 footage the railway tunnel entrance to the Government Burlington bunker. This footage is part a series that was taken I believe as part of the decommissioning process and there are others which show the rails and shed areas inside the complex. :). kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4OydGiarqegbMU

[@crabtonia]

Fascinating...enhanced, as usual, by your droll and delightful Narration...thank you...dgp/uk

[@neilforbes416]

5:10 Kingsway Trunk Switching Centre - where elephants come to change over their proboscuses! LOL

[@Brian3989]

In Birmingham the deep exchange was named Anchor. Of course modern telephone networks are not like those50 years ago with fibre cable links.

[@neilforbes416]

@@Brian3989 Ummmmm....... I was having a joke here! Playing on the reference of trunks and those rather prominent parts of an elephant's anatomy!

[@stephenspackman5573]

@@neilforbes416 Don't worry, some of us stayed with you.

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

Mornington Crescent was used to protect anti enemy puns from external action, starting in the early 1970s

[@andydrew2003]

Good thing they all got stuck in Nidd after being cocky and trying to do a diagonal from Kensington Olympia...

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

@@andydrew2003 But that would be illegal, anyway, unless you were using the Fortesque-Bramley rules.

[@hublanderuk]

Is huffing allowed allowed or do I need to get a Checkmate at Knightsbridge, a Castle at Tower Hill or a Bishop at Westminster.😉🤣

[@TheCatBilbo]

​@@hublanderukYou can get a 'Yoo-hoo!' at Soho anytime, ducky!

[@BerlietGBC]

Friend of mine now retired was one of the engineers at Westminster and he arranged some memorable trips there for a group of us from LTM , I’ve a picture of us all stood on the clay before the lower slab was cast, it was a very difficult challenge to build the station while keeping the service going , happy days

[@barrydevonshire9749]

In thunderbirds the Bank of England was robbed via an abandoned tube tunnel. That must be true to. Thanks Jago

[@davidjames579]

It was set in 2065 so the tunnel might not be abandoned for some years yet.

[@ninebangtrojan4669]

There are\were tunnels under the BoE, a sewage worker got given a huge cheque for letting them know you could access the vaults via a tunnel He was rewarded for his honesty as he could have stolen millions but didn't

[@RJSRdg]

​@@ninebangtrojan4669Some years ago I went on a training course at Accenture in Old Briad Street (between Bank and Liverpool Street). The training room was in a basement and we were regularly interrupted by the sound of Central Line trains the other side of the wall.

[@grahamhead4120]

Great video as always!

[@jadeboswell-rz2ly]

Well Jago, that video really blow me away. Think you for another great Sunday fix.

[@timparkin9805]

I was able to visit the former communications complex at Chancery Lane about 18 years ago and spent several hours down their exploring the complex. Somewhere I have photographs I think...

[@Gilesfly]

Government bunkers featured in "Domain" by the late James Herbert. He got info from journalist Duncan Campbell whom I believe did a feature in the Guardian many years ago on the subject. "DOMAIN" is a fantastic horror story. Nuclear war with added mutant rats!!

[@loftlegacy]

Regarding Westminster, I once read the reason Kensington Olympia station has such long platforms as it was the government evacuation point if nuclear war was imminent. District Line from Westminster then off to the “Burlington” bunker in Wiltshire. City centre bunkers are not the best idea. Birmingham built one costing millions then someone realised it would be at ground zero and 100 million degrees!

[@michaelwilson6584]

At East Finchley, just before the tunnel entrance (southbound), there is a series of large holes which look like something to do with water or drainage. As a child playing in Cherry Tree Woods, I was fascinated about these substantial structures.

[@6yjjk]

The relatively new western extension of the Helsinki metro definitely has bunkers. They're even signposted.

[@Powered_By_Pies]

Got to love a good 'secret tunnel/base/bunker' video every now and then. The mixture of facts and rumour always get the imagination juices going, a bit like the fabled 'Guardian' tunnel network supposedly sprawling underneath Birmingham - people know it exists, just not to what extent. It could be a suburban metropolis of multiple levels, or it could be a single tunnel that leads to an underground room with a generator and a box of cables in it.

[@Farlington]

As I'm still subject to the Official Secrets Act and am unsure of what parts of my experience are now declassified or not, I have to be somewhat careful. I remained fairly clueless about much of what I did see at the time and of course there's a lot of time that has passed and much has been mixed up in my memory. All of this to say, that bit about the Post Office Railway not being able to carry passengers isn't actually true. It could and did (though very far away from Royal standards), my friend and I used to jokingly refer to it as the Logan's Run transporter (google the Logan's Run TV show Solarcraft). I'd go into more detail, but that's where my first line comes in since it seems unusual that there's no mention of it. Still secret? Or more likely it breached some health and safety rule and nobody wanted to take responsibility (or armed service personnel were legally considered freight). Either way, I don't remember any Buck Palace station being part of the network so I think that part of your video holds true. Now I better get going as they'll be sending the Sandmen after me. Gotta run!

[@slartyblartfart7402]

Ticking all my railway / Cold War boxes Another excellent informative video More pleas 😀👍

[@Theoldcontemptible]

What is interesting is the government did have a large nuclear bunker in the case of third world war. I believe it was up in Scotland and based in a format airplane engine factory from the second world war. It was chosen because of its size, the fact that it was still largely secret to the outside world and the fact it was dug into hard rock. Fun fact, it's size resulted in the engineers building the place to creat a pub called the rose and crown. However it's was later determined to be thoroughly useless as a bunker, not least because there was no way for the houses of parliament to actually get there before the bomb dropped.

[@philwoodward3922]

you're confusing Scotland with Wiltshire - thats the former CGWHQ at Corsham (google Burlington Bunker and all will be revealed)

[@jneumann1578]

My own student accommodation was in fact designed by a prison architect (I did some research into this at the time to verify it), although not intended as a prison. It was quite stark and dour and fitted nicely with the fact that during my time there there was also a quiz going round to guess if photos were taken from our north campus or from North Korea.

[@HuntingCatIsBack]

Wasn't there also talk of a buyer under the Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts before it became a real-world HQ for the Avengers?

[@jneumann1578]

@@HuntingCatIsBack Having spent my time in Manchester, I couldn't possibly say, I'm afraid.

[@johnadlington5416]

Great video!

[@EonityLuna]

Not exactly nuclear bunkers, but many underground MRT stations here in Singapore can function as bomb shelters as well - these will be signed up with a yellow triangular "CD Shelter" logo, CD here standing for civil defence, and are formally referred to as Civil Defence Shelters. These stations are designed to be hardened against bomb attacks, with giant blast doors at every egress point including inside the train tunnels. Blast doors in train tunnels and public areas are held open during normal station operation (obviously), and the station is usually designed in such a way as to hide these doors away while they are open. When closed these doors can fully seal off the interior of the station from the outside world, protecting the station from any potential chemical, biological, or radiological attack as well.

[@Flagwaver49]

Got to get to that postal railway. Saw it in Ladybird books. The telephone exchage on Uxbridge road is rumoured to have a tunnel to and from central London.

[@maycontainnuts3127]

heres a suggestion; i heard recently that theres meant to be a burried chamber underneath norwich castle that nobody's been able to find yet and that its existence matches up with some ancient king who was burried under there centuries ago, the main issue with that story being that underneath norwich castle today is a mall with a lovely tea shop and a pretty affordable cinema.

[@journeyingjohn3275]

@Jago East slope (now wholly replaced) *was* modelled after a Swedish open prison / youth centre. It was cost effective building in the '70's with a design life of 30years, it was finally decommissioned after almost 50... PV, York and Kent houses are also now gone....

[@talksinsentences]

The "Swedish Open Prison" halls of residence tale goes back to at least the mid-80s when it was said of Wavell, Fyfe, and Adam Smith houses at Aberdeen.

[@philwoodall9023]

I heard it on a visit to Essex.

[@paulsengupta971]

Never hears that at Queen Mary College in London.

[@Kruspe2011]

They said it of Halls at Leeds in the '70s

[@tlantis]

Also Cryfield at Warwick in the 90s (though we heard Dutch women’s prison, for added artistic verisimilitude)

[@craigyllyn]

Sarratt Treacle mines out to the north west of London are worth searching for. Pinner chalk mines used to be visited but I think there was a safety issue and are now closed. I did go down many years ago 30 ish I think. Well worth it.

[@minimoocher822]

A nearby neighbour who I once met at a BBQ was the retired Head of Property Maintainence at Buckingham Palace (His actual title was a grander than that but I've forgotten) - he had some interesting stories to tell - including one where the security 'authorities' wanted to trace where some of the numerous forgotton and unmapped underground passages - some now difficult to transit - from the Palace actually connected to before sealing them. They did this by pumping large volumes of harmless coloured smoke under pressure through them. He laughingly said that over the next few hours this caused all sorts of panic in parts of London as coloured smoke started appearing in rail stations, rail tunnels, from roadway manhole covers and under and inside buildings - both government and otherwise - including the basement of the Houses of Parliament....

[@Saint_Dan132]

how intresting, i like the urban legend aspect of the railway very intriguing

[@pendremacherald6758]

This video released three days before Fallout London. Nice timing.

[@jackiespeel6343]

I read 'somewhere' (while doing some unrelated research etc, a long time ago) that one of the problems with constructing or extending the Jubilee Line was that it had 'to go round John Major's deep bunker.'

[@dougmorris2134]

Hello Jago, there was an UndergrounD station on the Central Line extension in the W10 area that is a devil of a job to find. It does exist at very close to West Ashfield, a place only known to those that I Hobb Knob with when giving the correct signals. I believe that there were some very unholy happenings in the SW1 area during excavations causing too much noise. Best wishes from Oxfordshire.

[@safebox36]

I actually love that FO London just outright used 1970s promotional material for Protect and Survive.

[@TheWizzylizzie]

Not London, but have you ever visited the WW2 tunnels in Ramsgate? I can't believe I grew up there not knowing about them. There's a whole network, with a railway-linked backstory. Love your stories and steady narration, thank you 🙂

[@xander1052]

As a note, British Museum Station is also in the Broken Sword series and in that it's directly connected to the museum.

[@Dan89201]

This channel is one of those channels that shouldn’t be interesting but is actually very captivating

[@Michelle_Schu-blacka]

I reckon some those unused, abandoned bunkers and parts of the tube could be used as housing. I'm not sure how you solve the lighting issues. Maybe you turn them into 'exclusive' luxury homes for rich people to use when they're in London. They'll buy it if you tell them it's exclusive and there'll only be other rich and famous people using it.

[@DEFarnes]

Love the vague mention to UEA's Waveney Terrace.

[@asprinwizard]

Yep. That was always the rumour - and why I opted for the Village instead.

[@HuntingCatIsBack]

@@asprinwizard Norfolk Terrace or go home.

[@rufflycorrect]

Back in the early 80's I was told that there was a fully maintained nuclear bunker complete with comms with access from under Westminster bridge. The person who told me claimed to have a contract to go in and do maintenance work every so often, and I had no reason not to believe them. They also said that between maintenance periods the facility was filled with inert gas both to protect it from oxygen related decay or possible fire and presumably to discourage would-be intruders.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

Quite possible - Westminster Bridge House was the stronghold of the Home Office and their wireless section.

[@gerard5705]

Another great video, thanks

[@neilthehermit4655]

I was a schoolkid during the eighties and lived neat Alexandra Palace. At the time there was some underground excavations in the Palace grounds and also a nearby sports field. Officially it was something to do with water drainage, however it seemed to take a long time, and a lot of rumours went around as this was a series of local government shelters...Almost certainly bunk ?

[@davidmorton5272]

A few years ago I downloaded a small book from Kindle titled "London's Lost Pneumatic Railways" written by Ian Mansfield. Have you come across this book or the railways he writes about?

[@mrtnsnp]

In Berlin you can visit various underground features, from bomb shelters from the second world war to escape tunnels thereafter. One such air raid shelter was housed under an U-Bahn station. Given that Berlin is built on mud, the tunnels are shallow (and typically follow the street-pattern). It is unlikely that the air raid shelter would have been able to withstand a direct hit. But since this shelter was right next to one of the Flak towers, bombers tended to avoid the area. It is impressive to visit the shelter, you can still smell the fear, well almost.

[@paulsengupta971]

I've been to the old government shelter near Bonn. Fascinating visit, and I just happened to be on the tour on the day they were exercising the closing and opening of the massive concrete sliding door. Yes, I was on the inside. Yes, I crossed my fingers that it opened again!

[@emjayay]

And the same people run fascinating tours of the semi-collapsed flak tower/bomb shelter. Right next to the end of one Berlin Wall era underground tour there's a very long block-wide park with all kinds of related stuff. It's where buildings East Germany blew up to make the wall security area larger used to be.

[@andydaly6586]

I have always wondered if the bunker that stood by the queen Vic pub in North Cheam was connected with the proposed Northern line extension back in the day and repurposed. I remember the building back in the 80s.

[@ulazygit]

BT’s Kingsway TE was a store for BT during its London Office Plan delivery … I’ve been in the tunnels many times and was part of the team readying the property for sale. Your shot shows Furnival Street entrance - the current entrance is 31-33 High Holborn … and the tunnels are reputed to be haunted! Some of the tunnel linings are marked up LT, others GPO …

[@ulazygit]

Meant to include that the tunnels went on sale late 90’s/early 2000’s …

[@sssdddkkksss]

Could you do a video on transit-oriented-development around existing stations? Especially Kidbrooke. But you could look at Southall, Hayes & Harlington, Croydon, Sutton, Nine Elms, Elephant & Castle, Lewisham, Deptford Bridge, Woolwich, Plumsted, Beckton Riverside, Barking Riverside, Rainham (Beam Park), Barking, llford, Stratford, Wembley Park, Walthamstow Central, Tottenham Hale, Meridian Water, Brent Cross Town, All the Actons, Cheshunt, Luton Airport Parkway, Welwyn Garden City, Carpenders Park, Chelmsford, Queens Park/Kilburn High Road, Canada Water, Tolworth, Wandsworth (Gasworks), Neasden, and more.

[@Robslondon]

I'm fascinated by anything to do with nuclear bunkers! Have you heard about the wooden escalator in the government's old Burlington bunker out in Wiltshire? Apparently it was initially intended for use at Holborn tube station...

[@brianartillery]

It's on a suspiciously 'long borrow'. Damn Ministry Of Works finagling!

[@Robslondon]

@@brianartillery :-)

[@PokhrajRoy.]

1:22 Haha what a response! Classic Jago

[@The_Untitled]

Once I went inside the ministry of defence when my dad was working there, never knew there was a bunker below

[@PrograError]

I doubt most would these days... unless you are higher on the ladder and on need to know... plus it's probably some file storage or cloud storage facilities by now

[@gardenlizard1586]

I believe any bunker, according to Soviet Diplomat at UN nuclear shelter must be at 16 storeys in depth to escape bomb damage - what ever that measurement is (and have no idea how hypersonic missles have inpacted upon this estimation). Moscow has a deeper network of tunnels below its metro, following the subway above it and so I would expect London also to have a second deeper network as is rumoured to be the case in Washington.

[@Djarra]

There was a rumour of a bunker under the ICA and in 1981 during a performance NU Unruh of Einstürzende Neubauten attempted to break through with a pneumatic drill. Apparently the reality is that the ‘bunker’ is a concrete shell around a plague pit that forms part of the supporting structure of the building which was suffering subsidence after a bomb exploded in the Mall during WW2. Not tube, but the access stairs down to a communal shelter from what is now the Eastbound Elizabeth Line platform at Romford are still there. Although decaying and the shelter, a temporary one of corrugated iron and sandbags, is long gone. A sign is just visible ghosting on the brickwork.

[@johnm2012]

Have you ever covered the London Hydraulic Power Company, Jago? I'm sure it would be an interesting subject for your viewers. Almost as interesting, in fact, as a video about Northolt Park station, which also doesn't have a nuclear bunker.

[@The_Intrepid_Alice_Draven]

I’d be interested to hear about the underground and plague pits in a future video. Keep up The good work chap

[@JagoHazzard]

I recommend my video ‘Plague Pits on the London Underground.’

[@tantaf123]

these videos are at the top of my recommended list :)

[@CJJC]

I enjoy that Jago and the Fallout London dev team both arrived at the combined LT roundel/Protect and Survive logo image.

[@SamNYC2000]

The nuclear bunker story predates the brutalist Jubilee Line extension. I heard it in the early 90s when living there.

[@EugeneMurray-z1b]

I often wonder if those amazingly cavernous stations of the central section of The Elizabeth Line have a secondary use?

[@the-real-iandavid]

In the Avon Gorge in Bristol, there is the remains of the Clifton Rocks Railway; a funicular that, to preserve the aesthetics of the gorge, had to be built in a tunnel 500ft long with a vertical height of over 200ft at an incline of 45%. It was built to allow the toffs in Clifton to ascend from the passenger ships up to their mansions in the village above without having to exert themselves. It opened in 1893, but closed after 41 years in 1934 due to competition with the motorcar. However, at the outbreak of WWII, it was reopened with the upper part acting as an air raid shelter (Bristol was the 5th most bombed UK city), but the lower part was commandeered by the BBC; first as a home for the BBC Symphony Orchestra - by all accounts, the acoustics were marvellous - then, later in the war, it became the backup broadcasting location should things go badly in London. The tunnel remained on standby for the early part of the Cold War, but was closed up once more in 1960. In recent years, volunteers have worked to make the tunnel accessible to visitors on special open days and pre-booked visits. It's not the only tunnel in the Avon Gorge, but the other is just a pedestrian tunnel created to give early 19th century tourists access the "The Giant's Cave"; a natural cave looking out over the gorge 250ft above the river just downstream from Clifton Suspension Bridge. This is open to the public and is accessed via the Observatory on Clifton Down; an old Snuff windmill that now houses a camera obscura dating back to the same era as the tunnel. The cave and the camera obscura both offer unparalleled views of the Suspension Bridge which also presents underground visit opportunities thanks to the recent discovery that the abutments are actually hollow! Nice product placement with the Café Nero cup in your opening shot. I hope you will get paid commission? (The first time I saw a Café Nero sign, I thought it read "Café NerD"!🙃)

[@MrDportjoe]

You got me with "the balloon goes up"! From 1977 to 1981 I was in US army (78-80 in Germany). I had this one NCO who just fllat KNEW the correct term was "If the BEAR goes up." No matter how high the rank of the person telling him different he would not shift.

[@MattyC0900]

Stirling is the one based on a Swedish prison btw, for anyone who was wondering.