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The Doomsday Bunker, MoD's secret command centre (including a pine bed for the ‘Principal’)
Last updated at 23:10pm on 06.09.08
It sounds like something out of the BBC drama Spooks – but the Ministry of Defence's secret command centre deep beneath Whitehall lacks the glamour of a TV set.
Designed to house the nation's political and military leaders in a crisis, the bunker will become the operational hub of Government if Britain comes under attack.
As a unique set of photographs in the Mail on Sunday's Live magazine shows, however, the three-storey network of rooms and passages is stark and utilitarian rather than humming with James Bond-style security devices.
Secret: The utilitarian walls of the command centre
Even the bedroom marked ‘Principal’ – presumably earmarked for the Prime Minister, though no one is allowed to say – is austere. It contains a simple pine double bed, flanked by a couple of bedside cabinets.
Next door is a room with children’s bunk beds, and along the corridor is the Principal’s cramped office, which contains a desk with three phones, one marked ‘White House phone’.It also boasts a level of luxury not seen elsewhere in the complex, having a fridge, a two-seater sofa and its own lavatory.
Hidden world: The starkly furnished bedroom for the 'Principal'
The Defence Crisis Management Centre, reportedly built during the Eighties and Nineties at a cost of £120million, has always been shrouded in secrecy, and it took photographer David Moore months of negotiation to gain entry.
He said he did not know why he had been allowed access, though he was aware that senior officials had lobbied on his behalf. His pictures reveal a spartan world where corridors are lined with galvanised steel piping and the colour scheme is muted limes and yellows.
The shelter can house up to 100 people for three months, and there are cupboards of basic foods, soap and toothpaste, as well as breathing apparatus and decontamination suits.
The structure, entered through a decontamination area, includes dormitories, briefing rooms and a broadcast studio. One of the photos shows a pile of appropriate reading matter, including thrillers by Len Deighton and Ian Fleming.
Reader views (1)
It seemed the right thing at the time in the early 80's to build a nuclear shelter. The Russians had them so did the Swiss and many other countries as it was thought the proverbial clock was at "one minute to twelve" My saying is if you do a job then do it well so with that in mind I built what was to become a showcase for a modular reinforced concrete construction that would serve as a design for Councils who had no idea how to go about protecting them selves to allow them run the services to their area should all come unstuck. So I and my team built the first one to a very high standard of strength and radiation protection that could serve 76 people at rest or 20 working people. Just like the pyramids it is still there, now under my house waiting for ....................I don't think it was one of my best decisions it cost me then, over £250.000 and could have bought several houses. Ho Hum
- John Emin, London
