yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 First of all apologies for so many blurry pictures. I deleted a few, but some, like the cardboard coffin or looking up one of the stairwells, I left in. Trying to take pictures on my particular phone with one hand meant I wobbled a bit taking some of them (the other had the guided tour doodah in it, the wand mentioned in the wall notices). The first picture of my bike is in the gravel car park which I later realised is on top of the complex itself. So, the secret nuclear bunker as it is now called, is in the Essex countryside not far from Brentwood. The land was bought off the present owner's grandfather by compulsory purchase in 1950. A local road was shut and screens raised to hide what the builders were doing. They removed a small hill and put down a few metres of gravel as a cushioning device before building the concrete bunker with carbon steel reinforcing then popped the hill back on top. They constructed the standard tacky cottage they liked to use to hide doors as one of two entrances. It's a big place. The entrance corridor is designed to make it difficult to move along whilst being shot at as well as a blast reducing measure. There were a few films running in some rooms. One comment that stuck was that when morphine ran out for the surviving population at large after a nuclear incident the police would be authorised to use firearms to put people out of their pain. This made me think of the Monty Python Bring Out Your Dead sketch where the not yet dead husband is claiming he's getting better as his wife tries to put him on the death cart. There is a huge amount of diesel stored there still (increasing in value as I type), plus large tanks of drinking water. All human waste would be stored in a giant tank until it could take no more, then pumps would push it out into the next door hollows dug in the surrounding fields and woods. It was still being maintained up until it was declared surplus to requirements and auctioned off, the same family managed to get it back. Apparently one of the generators was taken to pieces to be repaired when it was shut down and the thing is still sitting there in pieces. The final pictures show the communication aerial and air vent, plus a ropey looking tracked vehicle that was there back in 95 when myself and Strange Dave visited on our trail bikes before the visitor road in was built. It doesn't look as if any restoration work has taken place. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 Just incredible @yen_powell. What are the temps like below ground.......and how long does it take to do a full walkthrough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 Just now, XTreme said: Just incredible @yen_powell. What are the temps like below ground.......and how long does it take to do a full walkthrough? Same as up top I reckon, they have both doors open through the day. Took about an hour and half, would have been longer if I had watched all the films, but we all saw Protect and Survive when they released it in the 80s, so I know how to wrap grandma's body in plastic and label it clearly and to wipe down my tins of food before opening them to get the fall out off them. 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 Just now, yen_powell said: Same as up top I reckon, they have both doors open through the day. Took about an hour and half, would have been longer if I had watched all the films, but we all saw Protect and Survive when they released it in the 80s, so I know how to wrap grandma's body in plastic and label it clearly and to wipe down my tins of food before opening them to get the fall out off them. When was it decommissioned and the family bought it back? Wondering what price they'd have paid? How many people do you think that complex could take? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 52 minutes ago, XTreme said: When was it decommissioned and the family bought it back? Wondering what price they'd have paid? How many people do you think that complex could take? Early 90s it was decommissioned. I think I saw the figure £550,000 somewhere. It was definitely a sealed bid auction, I remember that clearly. The name label on the side of the old PC screen is a friend of one of the group I was there with, it was bought from their employer as it was the right age and type to go on display. A few hundred people were expected to live inside, with military unit living outside to defend it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 28 minutes ago, yen_powell said: Early 90s it was decommissioned. I think I saw the figure £550,000 somewhere. It was definitely a sealed bid auction, I remember that clearly. The name label on the side of the old PC screen is a friend of one of the group I was there with, it was bought from their employer as it was the right age and type to go on display. A few hundred people were expected to live inside, with military unit living outside to defend it. Compared to the Russian one that I posted the vid up, it was pretty low key really. Why did they site it in that specific location though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Fallsalot Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 A million questions @yen_powell the next one is going to be how much does it weigh 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 6 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said: A million questions @yen_powell the next one is going to be how much does it weigh It depends on what I'm thinking about. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 21, 2021 Author Share Posted November 21, 2021 1 hour ago, XTreme said: Compared to the Russian one that I posted the vid up, it was pretty low key really. Why did they site it in that specific location though? So the cast of The Only Way Is Essex could all be saved in the event of a nuclear war. It's just a drunken Uber trip away for them. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boboneleg Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 Can you imagine the fight and scramble to get in there for those 'in the know' if it had all kicked off 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MooN Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 I had a school friend who's grandfather was, or had been, "regional coordinator " fo the local administration in case of nuclear attack. if ever you asked him what would happen his reply was invariably " you're all going to die" Jolly bloke he was... 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 50 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said: A million questions @yen_powell the next one is going to be how much does it weigh Lazy fucking twat......I've sorted out your Ride Report for you again! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 34 minutes ago, boboneleg said: Can you imagine the fight and scramble to get in there for those 'in the know' if it had all kicked off And Yen wouldn't have been one of them......he'd have stunk the place out! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six30 Posted November 21, 2021 Share Posted November 21, 2021 place is massive. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catteeclan Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 Brilliant Yen. Very much like the one I did a few years ago in Norfolk. Some really good guides there too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 Something I've never mentioned to you @yen_powell......but it was your thread on the Victorian toilets years ago that started my interest in all this abandoned shit. So you are actually a Social Media Influencer! What you say @Tym? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 22, 2021 Author Share Posted November 22, 2021 2 hours ago, Catteeclan said: Brilliant Yen. Very much like the one I did a few years ago in Norfolk. Some really good guides there too. This place had no guides only the speaker things you carried with you. It also had no cashier, it was all self service in the canteen, even paying in an honesty box (cash only preferred, but a self service card machine was there as well for entry/tea food etc. Years ago we used to pay for the trials practice ground across the road by putting money in a sunken box with no one to check. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yen_powell Posted November 22, 2021 Author Share Posted November 22, 2021 1 minute ago, XTreme said: Something I've never mentioned to you @yen_powell......but it was your thread on the Victorian toilets years ago that started my interest in all this abandoned shit. So you are actually a Social Media Influencer! What you say @Tym? It's not an interest you have, it's just a burning obsession that sooner or later someone will have left some loose change just lying about. This has made you the man now known across all of Spain as El-Trespassero! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTreme Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 11 minutes ago, yen_powell said: It's not an interest you have, it's just a burning obsession that sooner or later someone will have left some loose change just lying about. This has made you the man now known across all of Spain as El-Trespassero! Nazi Gold and U-Boats would be better really. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tym Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 1 hour ago, XTreme said: What you say @Tym? Id say Bob said it best. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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