Last year I was given the unique opportunity to visit the Nottingham War Rooms. The site is about to be re-developed so it was a rare chance to see a British Regional Seat of Government bunker that has lain relatively untouched since the end of the Cold War.
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One of the most striking aspects of the bunker is its atmosphere. The lack of light, coupled with the musty air and remnants of the past, creates an almost haunting environment that evokes fear and fascination. Listen while I navigate the darkened hallways, uncovering artefacts, revealing the stark reality of the Cold War.
The voices you will hear are Dan Cordle, an Expert in Nuclear Culture & History and Parmi Uppal, Estates Manager for Homes England.
Developers web site https://www.nottinghamwarrooms.co.uk/
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Transcript
Dan Cordle: This started for me about 11 months ago when I got uh, an email and I work on nuclear lipiterature, nuclear culture and that means I sometimes get some slightly strange emails from people I don’t know and this seems to be one of them at first. And who said we’ve bought a nuclear bunker, would you be interested?
Ian: So what makes this particular bunker special?
Dan Cordle: This is one that’s just been left as it is. So you’ll walk around and there are artifacts left there, there are bits of documentation, there are signs on the doors and on the walls saying what should go in the room which was their little itinerary for each if nuclear war was about to happen, how they would stop the place. This was built in the early 1950s, it was a regional war. About a decade later uh, it was converted to a uh, regional seat of government. So in the early 1950s it, it was thought that people would liaise with central government. Uh, by the early 1960s it became clear that there may not be a central government to lia with and then subsequent to that it might have been a sub regional control. So kind of another node in the network. There’s some speculation that it might have been uh, an accretion site for Python which was a plan to disperse government onto Scottish ferries and other things and then for people to sort of come back together after the catastrophe and whoever was around to of accrete in various places and to try and reform government. There have been some changes since so some artifacts have been nicked sadly but there are still quite a lot there. Uh, and there have been. The removal of the asbestos has uh, changed the layout somewhat but it remains a really significant space uh, that we have the opportunity to go round.
Ian: As you can imagine I couldn’t wait to visit this location. So here I am with Palmi Uppal the estates manager for Homes England who is the custodian of the site.
Parmi: We took it on blind so uh, we had the due diligence done in the sense that it was desktop. Nobody had gone inside the bunker. So all we had was asbestos survey which said you can’t go in all contaminated asbestos dust everywhere and it was like a black hole. So you can imagine that. You know I was tasked with looking after a property that I actually didn’t know what was in there. We were going to go in. So we had the masks on, the you know, the goggles, the white suits and it was dark in there. There was no lighting, nothing. It was absolutely scary. It was scary. And you know I remember going in and walking around and there’s no air in there anyway. But then you’re thinking it’s dark, no air, you’re going into somewhere you don’t know what to expect.
Ian: Well let’s step in through, through the entrance here. So where are we going to go first?
Parmi: So We’ve got a 1950s side which has got the uh, original generator room and there’s the Lansom tubing room.
Ian: M. Let’s. Yeah let’s go and check that out. And then we do the 1960s. So we’re just coming in through the entranceway here. The flooring has been painted of red colour which is um.
Parmi: That’s original. That is, that’s original. Um, and obviously there’s original light fittings and that but some are missing.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: Uh, you’ve got the big green Blast door which is really.
Ian: So there’s this massive door with big manual sort of like bolts on it. Looks almost medieval. Well the entrance is very handy for the gents I can see is chance but we can’t go in this one I don’t think.
Parmi: Yes, yes, let’s go in. Why not?
Ian: Okay, let’s go in. We’re just getting the light on because it’s very dark in there.
Parmi: So uh, this room was actually. There was a lot of paperwork stored in here. It was full of files all the way up. So if you see. Look at these. Original, original shower, original shower curtain that.
Ian: Gone solid.
Parmi: Solid, yeah.
Ian: Wow.
Parmi: And the original toilet paper, which is like tissue paper.
Ian: And what’s that that’s written on those?
Parmi: It says government property.
Ian: Brilliant.
Parmi: So it’s like the tracing paper.
Ian: Government property toilet paper. I’ll have to take a photo of one of those. So which way are we going to turn? Uh, now?
Parmi: So I think we. We’ll go this way. Left.
Ian: Okay, so we’re going to go left. There’s a staircase going that we’re going to go down. Yeah, we’ll go to the grey concrete wall. Is it grey that they’re painted? It’s.
Parmi: Yeah, gray. The concrete. I mean, um, obviously you can see the Lansom tubing system as well.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: On the roof. And the fire damprs. Yeah, all that’s original. Even the fire.
Ian: So these Lansom tubes, that’s the pneumatic messaging system where you’d put the message in, like, a container and it would be pushed around through it.
Parmi: Ah, was a vacuum suction. So it’vacuum sucked all the way around the building to provide, you know, information and messages.
Ian: This place is so atmospheric.
Parmi: And can you smell the difference that the musty y kind of oil smell?
Ian: Yeah, it’s a combination of dampness and sort of chemically oily smell.
Parmi: Have you seen these? This has just been, um, dumped here, but it’s u.
Ian: So this is soap with her Majesty the Queen’s, um, um, monogram on it. Er, just gonna take a photo of.
Parmi: Mean. That is fantastic.
Ian: Ye.
Parmi: You know, the original soap on the. On the. So.
Ian: So we’re just walking into another room. What was this counter for? What. What was this to hold?
Parmi: So it says on here, this is the counter room. So room 150. So it’s got an itinerary. Um, each room that we walk into, we’ve tried to keep it as original and tried to keep the original lists, like the inventory checklist for each room with each room so that it doesn’t get moved about. So this is where obviously the. It’s like the post room and you know, the counter system where they passed on the messages or did.
Ian: So, for example, this one says seven tables, nine chairs, 12 trays or desks, two bins, um, and 10 hooks for hat and coat.
Parmi: So these are. There’s two rooms here. So one is the teleprner room and the other one’s the counter room. But they’re joined, uh, with the partition.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Uh, that you can see across.
Ian: Well, uh, and there’s still the original sort of desks with the, uh, drawers.
Parmi: Let’s have a look. See if there’s anything in there.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: You know, every time I come in here, I’m. I’m surprised with something. Something different, honestly.
Ian: So it’s lucky dip.
Parmi: Yeah, that’s it. I mean, what does that say? Test the quick brown fox.
Ian: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. So that checks every key on a keyboard. And it looks like it’s like a teleprinter or fax message. It says land reg, land registry, last service 1977. Does it say 19 service October 77?
Parmi: Yeah, that’s right, yeah. Uh. God, you’ve got good eyes. There’s a sign here that says the telephone is not secret.
Ian: Brilliant.
Parmi: So basically, don’t put your messages through the telephone.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Because somebody could be listening.
Ian: You just shine that over a bit. Uh, that’s great.
Parmi: That is fantastic.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: And it’s dated 4th of the 5th, 1967. I look at signed as well.
Ian: Yeah, looks like J.W. orm or something like that. Those are the messages that they’ve got in. Because you’re not going to get the postman delivering.
Parmi: No, no, I think it was like, um, um, you know, like telegrams. Um. Yeah, like that.
Ian: Yeah. Right. Okay, so radio transmissions or. Or tellle telexs and things like that.
Parmi: I mean, look at this strip of message. So it’s like a braille message, isn’t it? Almost, yeah.
Ian: So what we’re looking at is, uh, a board with loads of hooks on it. And the hooks used to have messages attached and what they are, are, uh. Um. I can’t remember what these are called, but they’re like paper tape with holes punched in them. And again, it’s a test message. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Parmi: I mean, look at that. Look at that sign. Take care when disposing of smoking material.
Ian: Oh, that’s got to get a photo that. Yeah. You forget that. You know, people would have been, um, smoking down. I would have thought that would be quite a fire hazard.
Parmi: Well, the concrete building isn’t going to go up in smoke.
Ian: Yeah. But the rest of the contents in it, my.
Parmi: So this is a comms. So you’ve got the telephone.
Ian: Oh, yeah. You can see the tele. So there’s telephone racks in here where all the BT lines would have come into, um, the building. There’s some remnants of telephone wire in a pile, um, on the floor here. And, um, there’s more remnants of teleprinter messages by the looks of it.
Parmi: Yeah, I think these were maybe. Maybe the site was used.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: You know, um, there’s a message on here that says we are interested in using English trailer operator self drive trailer for reloading our goods to England.
Ian: Somebody in Germany. Because look, the name is Die Essim Buch.
Parmi: Yeah, yeah. And it says, uh. Yeah, because I was going to say.
Ian: Uh, you know, maybe it was a wrong number.
Parmi: Brilliant.
Ian: Wow. Um, here’s a, uh, lovely old metal filing cabinet and it says the keys for this filing cabinet are held by Mr. Knight, the GPO maintenance engineer. There’s a telephone directory for the Nottingham area and some, uh, boxes of fuses. I.
Parmi: Are they fuses?
Ian: Yeah, I think they are. Either that or they’re little lights. They could be little.
Parmi: They look like little lights, don’t they?
Ian: Yeah, bulbs almost like Christmas tree loads. All bits of wire do not switch off. That says we’re sort of going around by Torchight. So, um, if you can imagine, we’re sort of delving into some of the darkest areas here. I’m not even m sure what that would do.
Parmi: What is that? It’s not even like a desk, is it?
Ian: Uh, no. Is it the wrong way up? And classic old, um, um, fire hose on the wall with the operating instruction. So it’s like a long fire hose that could be wheeled out all down the corridor and into the room to try and put out a fire.
Parmi: So this. We was told that because it’s contaminated, they said it was contaminated, that we would have to get rid of it. But I fought for these to stay because I said if this building was never used, it was never used. So how can it be contaminated? It can’t be, can it? Because it’s never been, uh, operational. And look at the bottom, you’ve got like the chain and stuff that keeps it in place. Because I think it’s very important to have this, I mean, have these in the corridors. When you look even upstairs, you go down the corridor, on the ends of each corridor you’ve got the fire hoses.
Ian: No, it’s great that, you know, you’ve battled to keep as many of the original features as you can.
Parmi: I don’t want to keep everything as original. And I think that’s the, the purpose. You know, what we can keep, let’s keep what we can’t keep. And you know, 100% is contaminated and could be a risk to somebody. Then when the building is active, then fine. I mean, these, these could be put into Perspex and closed off if there was a risk. So I think there is a lot of work still to do.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Uh, in terms of preserving the, uh, Original structure.
Ian: Yeah. Room 154. Solitary table and two coat hooks. And a missing clock.
Parmi: Yeah, a missing clock, yes. Unfortunately, it was missing before we acquired the site.
Ian: Um, this place is a maze to try and find your way around.
Parmi: I mean, I think we’re. I think we’re coming up for air, to be honest.
Ian: But still, the original signs are up here. So we’re now on corridor A, which leads to corridor B, apparently.
Parmi: Right, here we are to the main, uh, uh, one of the main attractions.
Ian: So what am I looking at here?
Parmi: So here we’ve got the lancem tubing system, the messaging system. So you’ve got these red kind of semicircle balls on each of the shoots.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: So the plastic messaging, kind of like cylin like cylinder.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Would go up there.
Ian: Ye.
Parmi: Through there and then all the way through the building.
Ian: There’s a very fine collection of keys on the wall here on sort of a wooden board. Uh, very important locations such as the mail toilet and the female toilet. Kitchen cupboard, roof key, loads of roof ladder.
Parmi: Roof ladder, bin, main door.
Ian: Oh, very important. The door for the bin, I would think. And a collection of cleaning stuff. It looks like this is all the original. Right. Um, you’ve got Ministry of Public Building and Works detergent powder, which looks in quite a clean box, to be fair. Disinfectant powder. Uh, Ministry of Public Buildings and Work spraying fluid.
Parmi: It’s solid.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: I mean, look at. Look at the, uh, Denzo paste den. Wonder what that was for.
Ian: For preparation of all metal services before wrapping dentsso tapes. And also as a preventative for screw threads, valve spindles and various other things.
Parmi: So the packaging is like the no frills range. I.
Ian: It definitely is. Ye. Yeah. There’s no.
Parmi: There’s no pictures. It’s just writing.
Ian: No frills. Yeah, just black and white, uh, print on a white box.
Parmi: It’s really fascinating. Look, it Says Industrial Soaps Ltd. Dear.
Ian: And a nice Shell oil can as well. An ordnce crumpled up Ordnance Survey map of somewhere in Staffordshire. Um, Sudbury.
Parmi: Is Thatbury.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: U. Um, towards Derby.
Ian: Doveridge. That’s towards Derby.
Parmi: Yeah. between Derby.
Ian: Think so. Don’t know what the relevance of that.
Parmi: Was, but, um, I think maybe because land register was in there. So there’s quite a lot of ma.
Ian: Yeah, right. Wow.
Parmi: And then you’ve got your barrier cream. I wonder what that was. Use for ye. Ministry of Public Building and Works. £7, it says on there.
Ian: Yeah. A fine collection of 50s 60s fire extinguishers. Right. Wow. Fantastic.
Parmi: All right, let’s go.
Ian: Yep.
Parmi: Right, here we’ve got, uh, the cupboard.
Ian: My.
Parmi: Which is a store room, but it’s just been left. Like, we haven’t actually gone in and looked at every piece of, so, clothing.
Ian: This is like a bomb site. It’s basically two sh. Well, two shells or more than one. Shel. She. Yeah, two shelves on either side of a quite small room. In the middle of the floor is just a huge pile of clothing by the looks of it, like overalls or jeans.
Parmi: The overalls, I think.
Ian: Right. And then on the floor is a boxing to the Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry of Agricultural, Fisheries and Food, Adelstone Station. And some sort of what looks like a specimen possibly, possibly in there, which we definitely won’t be touching. And also on the shelves there’s a box marked very urgent by first passenger train.
Parmi: Swine fever.
Ian: Um, pathological specimen, Swine fever, which we definitely won’t be opening.
Parmi: I think we need to be taking three steps back on. Yes.
Ian: Yeah, we won’t be going any further into there now. 105. This, I think, is the commissioners.
Parmi: Yes, it is. Yes, I think it is.
Ian: You can tell immediately because it’s the only one with carpet. So this is where the person who would have had the power of life or death over, um, the people of Nottinghamshire, um, would have, um, resided. And I presume there would have been maybe a small office in here for their assistant because there’s a lancem tube.
Parmi: Um, then it says, when dispatching, open sending door, insert Carriry and the tube in the direction of the arrow shut. Sending door immediately. Carrier inserted. And before sending another carrier. Gosh.
Ian: Wow.
Parmi: Your cooperation will improve service.
Ian: And that’s me almost tripping over a metal shelf.
Parmi: Right. Me just. This is the hidden treasure.
Ian: Hidden tre. Oh, my goodness. So this is a, uh, big bag full of Queen Elizabeth II monogrammed soap.
Parmi: Smells lovely.
Ian: Doesn. It does, actually.
Parmi: Uh, they did want to throw this away, but.
Ian: Oh, what?
Parmi: But I thought. No, let’s keep it.
Ian: Now, what we got? Oh, what’s in here? Ministry of Agriculture, uh, Fisheries and something. Civil Defense Manual. Unfortunately, blank. Just the folder covers, by the looks of it.
Parmi: Look. Yeah, just the covers, yeah, just the coverors, yeah.
Ian: Wow. And, um, probably the world’s biggest collection of metal shelves. Some of the labels on here, uh, map material. So it’s probably Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries again.
Parmi: So, yeah, these are just two rooms, so you can see the asbestos that’s been taken off the walls and then you’ve got, like, the air handling system. So that had to be Removed because they predicted asbestosust dust inside in the back in the chutess.
Ian: Wow.
Parmi: This is rice. This is my favorite room. No, it’s not. They’re all my favorite rooms. Okay, so this is the plant room.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: So some of the features and everything has been left in situ.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: Such as the generator.
Ian: So the one mark, keep close. You going to open? Um.
Parmi: Yes.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: 100% I’m going to open it.
Ian: Wow. Is that the generator?
Parmi: So this is the original generator.
Ian: So made by Lancashire Dynamo and Crypto limited and we’ve got a year.
Parmi: No, no, it just tells you how many bo.
Ian: Oh, no, hang on. 1953. Made at Trafford Park Works in Manchester, which is where I’ve come from today.
Parmi: Oh, is it?
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Okay.
Ian: And it’s a big beast. It’s safe to say it. Look, it looks like an aircraft engine. Which will be the.
Parmi: And the brass.
Ian: Look at the brass on. That’s an amazing piece of.
Parmi: Can you see that? Can you see the toilet brush?
Ian: There’s everything in here.
Parmi: They don’t make it like that no more.
Ian: Yeah. I’m not surprised somebody’s left a toilet brush behind, to be honest.
Parmi: Right, guess what else is here. But u. Look at this box.
Ian: And that says four bomber, high explosive. Something.
Parmi: What do you think? Come on, give me three guesses.
Ian: What’s it. But it can’t be behind explosive, uh, m tools. Something like that.
Parmi: Right, uh. Are you ready?
Ian: Yeah. U bends and piping. I wouldn’t have guessed it was going to be piping.
Parmi: No, but look at the box.
Ian: But I love the box.
Parmi: The box is fantastic.
Ian: Let me just take a photo. The front of that. And, um, somebody may be at to decipher what I’ve been unable to decipher them.
Parmi: You want to go into the women’s toilets. Uh, obviously on a normal, you wouldn’t be able to.
Ian: No.
Parmi: But I can give you access today.
Ian: Okay, thank you. Let’s have a look. We’ve done the gents.
Parmi: Yeah. The women were fascinated when they came in to have a look at the toilet. All of us, they said, it’s like being in a club and when you all get together in the toilets. But then they, you know, discovered the paper, uh, shower curtains.
Ian: Oh, go that. So we’ve got another solid shower curtain. Um, uh, and, uh, various stalls here with curtains across them. No doors on any of them. Uh, go.
Parmi: You know on this toilet. Toilet paper holder.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: It says read once, then destroy. That means use, um, one perforation at a time. And the toilet paper is still the Original.
Ian: The. Yeah. Government issue. And some very dusty sinks. So we’re going down some steps. So is this into the new. The sorry new bit? The 60s extension?
Parmi: Yes.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: Uh, this is the only thing that marries it together.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: Everywhere else you can’t go.
Ian: And this 60s extension, there’s a staircase going up which is really reminiscent of one of the, uh, rotor bunkers. Like hack green. I can hear somebody whistling’s not the ghost of the regional commissioner.
Parmi: Uh. Oh, no. Some more locked units.
Ian: More locked O.
Parmi: Index cards, contracts.
Ian: O.
Parmi: Should we open this?
Ian: It’s a folder of some kind.
Parmi: I wonder what that is. Like a graphr filter.
Ian: Oh, you know what it might be? It might be a tachometer. You know, like for lorry drive.
Parmi: Yeah. Lorries. Yeah. Tacko. Yeah.
Ian: Ah, I think it’s tacker graph.
Parmi: Do you want take one of this?
Ian: Yeah, I’ll take one of a clean one.
Parmi: Right. Should we go that way?
Ian: Yep. I can’t get over how vast this is. I mean, my, uh. The bunker I’m most familiar with is hat green. And it’s. God, I would say. I don’t know. It’s difficult to compare it.
Parmi: That’sus it looked like this. And this was a tank. There was a tank, a generator here.
Ian: You can smell the oil heating pump. Ah, there you go. That’s what it was for. So it must have been measuring heating flow and outdoor temperature recorder. Uh. Oh, well, so there you go. We’ just found, um, the instrument that those pieces of paper were for. It’s not a tachometer. It’s something to record heating flow and outdoor temperature.
Parmi: Brilliant.
Ian: Mystery solved.
Parmi: All right, let’s go to the, uh, canteen room.
Ian: So what’s this room we’re in now?
Parmi: So this room is the room that’s next to the canteen. It’s room 67.
Ian: Right. Okay.
Parmi: And it’s got loads of filing cabinets. So let me tell you. So this. These black and silver chairs. Because this area didn’t have asbestos in these chairs were in this area. So we decided to keep these chairs.
Ian: They’re quite nice. Nice 60s sort of vibe to them.
Parmi: I think they’re 50s.
Ian: 50S.
Parmi: They original? Yeah.
Ian: Gosh.
Parmi: There’s only one way to find out.
Ian: What’s that? Put them up on ebay.
Parmi: No. Look at him upside.
Ian: Oh, really?
Parmi: Yeah.
Ian: Okay. Uh, so we’re just turning one over.
Parmi: It’tell you at the bottom. 19. Is it 55?
Ian: Oh, that looks like a 6.
Parmi: Is it a 65?
Ian: Oh, I don’t know. Uh, we’re gonna have to tip over another one. Have a Look. Let it be 55, 65. Who thought that I’d be able to date furniture? It’s.
Parmi: It’s only when you get a building like this you realize that actually, how do you tell what’s 1950s, 1960?
Ian: Well, it’s useful. They had the dates on the bottom.
Parmi: Yeah. And this one. Look.
Ian: So look at this.
Parmi: On December 1974.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: So these are, uh, later editionss.
Ian: I love this broken safe over here.
Parmi: Yeah. Purchase PQs lesser.
Ian: And it’s got one of these lovely dial things that you will see on the movies when they’re trying to break into the safe and they’re listening to.
Parmi: But it doesn’tick. Doesn’t click.
Ian: Disappointingly. It doesn’t click.
Parmi: No. It’s a shame, really.
Ian: Maybe that’s just a movving miss.
Parmi: But look at the vibrant colors. The green, the orange, the dark green and the olive color. It’s lovely.
Ian: It’s a psychedelic, um, office furniture from the 1960s with. Still. With quite a lot of grey in here, though.
Parmi: Uh, let me tell you something. Would you believe that these curtains are listed?
Ian: Uh, I wouldn’t.
Parmi: And would you believe that this is listed as well?
Ian: And what are those?
Parmi: The mop. The mop bucket tags.
Ian: Mop bucket tags. So these are sort of like numbered yellow discs with, um, well, numbers on them, obviously. And they’re for mops.
Parmi: Yeah, they were in there. Uh, they’in the cleaning cupboard.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: So each. Each room.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: So it could have been like the regional war rooms. Each. Each place, each cubicle would have a.
Ian: Designated mop, would have a cleaning.
Parmi: Yeah.
Ian: And if you move MOP 48 into room 49, you’d be for the high jump, by the sound of it.
Parmi: You’d be in trouble, put it that way. I wonder what that is gone on there.
Ian: Oh, God. You’asking me to open these things. I don’t know.
Parmi: It’s a jiffy bag.
Ian: It’s a jiffy bag with nothing in it. Um, and it says it’s for Ministry of Defense. DQA Ops North Block 7, Spurgei Government Buildings, Chaffont Gr Drive, Nottingham. Which is the location of the. Of the bunker. So I wonder what was sent in that.
Parmi: God knows.
Ian: Sadly, there’s no postmark with a date on for us to.
Parmi: Discover Avon Mo. It’s in a box.
Ian: Yeah. It’s an old tea chest.
Parmi: Is it?
Ian: Yeah. That’s like tea chests. So a lot of removals and things like that that used to be done with those.
Parmi: I want to know what’s underneath this curtain. Why would they cover it?
Ian: Don’t know nothing.
Parmi: Oh, look at this.
Ian: Oh, we found that’fantastic the advice on the operation of a food mixer with at least probably 50 years of dust o.
Parmi: It’s. Look, it’s not a ninja, but it’s a CE100 mixer.
Ian: Classy. Made by Hobart. Never heard of them. Probably no longer in business. So you promised me a canteen or something?
Parmi: No, I promised you better.
Ian: Better.
Parmi: I promised you the star of the show. I think I’ve said that 10 times now. But everything.
Ian: Hey, hey. No, this. This lo. Uh, up to X expectations.
Parmi: So this is the original kitchen. 1950s kitchen.
Ian: Wow. And um, it’s got all of the original equipment in here.
Parmi: So you’ve got the electrical burners. Yeah, because this would be electrical, wouldn’t it?
Ian: So it’s got. Yeah, electrical Hobbs made by stocks of Oldham. And it’s got loads of actually quite a few of these hobs. And then it’s got these. Actually these are quite nice. These red four mica. Uh, they’re lovely workops, let me tell you.
Parmi: I may not have had anything else cleaned, but had the kitchen cleaned.
Ian: Wow.
Parmi: So you can touch anything in here.
Ian: Look. Can’t feel any dust in here.
Parmi: I can’t open that. I think it’s an oven.
Ian: Yeah. Oh, it looks like they did actually cook something in here at.
Parmi: I think it’s rust.
Ian: Just rust.
Parmi: Do you want to see the original fridge?
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Okay. Here we go. Oh my God. Smell that. What’s it smell like?
Ian: Brand new. Smells like brand new.
Parmi: Yeah, it is brand new because look, there’s a guarantee there as well.
Ian: And another product from Stotts of Oldham. This piece of equipment is the product sts ofs guaranteed against faultly workmanship or materials with the exception of the breakage of porcelain of glass from 12 months from the d to purchase. And it smells. The fridge smells n like you’d go into a shop and open it.
Parmi: Ye.
Ian: You know, have a look at the brand new frge. It would smell like that preational some fantastic, uh, tea urns. So this is like a row of like things to keep the food warm when they’re serving them. And again, looks like they were put in yesterday. Absolutely spotless. So Megan, chips, sir? Uh, certainly.
Parmi: No, your chips are over here.
Ian: Oh, chips are over there.
Parmi: So here you’ve got a friaer and it’s the uh, Falcon deep fat fryer.
Ian: Oh, uh, my favorite brand for electally.
Parmi: Electrically heated it says. And then we’ve got a potato peeler next to it.
Ian: An automatic potato pee. What, you just drop the potatoes in? Yeah.
Parmi: And then it goes round.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: And then it peels the potato.
Ian: Wow. I could do one of those at home. So you drop it in there?
Parmi: Yeah.
Ian: Let it spin for a while and then open it up and then you’ve got nice peeled potato.
Parmi: They were very advanced.
Ian: The wonders of modern technology. The museum of British Kitchen manufacturing. Brands that have disappeared.
Parmi: S. So let’s go down. Let’s go down to the dungeons, dear.
Ian: Not again. So we. We’re going down some narrowest steps and there’s a definite smell of oil or petrol’so Lovely smell, isn’t it? Yeah, and quite an echo down here by the sound of it.
Parmi: Can you see the original light fittings?
Ian: Oh, yeah.
Parmi: What’s it sound there? Cow tre.
Ian: Cowree.
Parmi: Couch Tre. Registered 8557 35.
Ian: Yeah. W. Um, Classic industrial light cover that, is’t it?
Parmi: So when you’re in here, you need to take a deep breath and breathe it in. This is a 1950s bunker.
Ian: God. So we’re in a huge echoing room. And I’m presuming this was like fuel Y.
Parmi: Yes, it was. The.
Ian: Was there big tank in there?
Parmi: There was two tanks, I think two tanks in there and a tank in there. But it was before we acquired the site. So. Okay, we didn’t see those, but look at the original.
Ian: The original step ladder. Nice share. Um, spade and broom over there. Classic. And what an echo. Great acoustics. That will sound lovely on the podcast. And somebody’s left their rubber gloves and a trailing ca electricity cable in here. Hel h. Hi.
Parmi: How you going?
Ian: Good.
Dan Coruddell: To the kitchen is this way.
Parmi: Yeah. Anyway, anyway.
Ian: We’Re recording. We’ve been doing the grand tour.
Parmi: Uh, yeah, we can’t call it the grand tour.
Ian: Why not?
Parmi: Because the grand tour is the grand tour. This is not the grand tour.
Ian: Well, I’m getting the platinum tour. Anyway.
Parmi: We’Re going toa go outside for a bit.
Ian: So we’re now going back up some steps to where the entrance was that we came in.
Parmi: Oh, my God, it’s raining.
Ian: It’s raining. Um. Um. We haven’t done the dormitories.
Parmi: Right.
Ian: We do that.
Parmi: Yeah.
Ian: Is that right?
Parmi: Yeah.
Ian: Or are you.
Parmi: I’m shattered. Now shall go.
Ian: Sh. Yeah.
Parmi: This way, this way. You know, the stairs are quite narrow as well, aren’t they?
Ian: Yeah. They’re not very big tread, are they?
Parmi: No. Um. Have you got a big feet? You’ve had it.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: All right, let’s go to the dormitories. So you’ve got the female dormitories and then you’ve got the female toilets on the same floor.
Ian: Right. So were the two sexes separated by.
Parmi: Floor for dormitories, but female dormitories J to M.
Ian: By surname. But how did you w. If you had a load of McDonald’s in or.
Parmi: Something, it’going to be cramped, wasn’t it?
Ian: So how many beds would have been.
Parmi: So those are the female toilet.
Ian: Right. So directly off this dormty.
Parmi: Yeah. And then you got the fire, you got the five dampeners all in the same floor.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: But you’ve also got the bunk beds which are displayed in the next do. Okay, so your question about where they were going to sleep, you will see. So here we’ve got, here we’ve got the map. Look at this massive map.
Ian: Wow. So where is this map found?
Parmi: This is in the bunker.
Ian: But where, where, which room? What was it?
Parmi: I don’t know.
Ian: Okay.
Parmi: But I think this was used by defra. Right, so look, you’ve got Chesterfield.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Matt Lark.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: So this was the room. It was full of the. Full of the chemicals.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: And the insects, you know the insects that I said. Yeah, on the pins.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: And there was like little jars with like poo samples in there.
Ian: Brilliant.
Parmi: It’s fabulous.
Ian: Just the sort of thing you want to be clearing up.
Parmi: More shelving.
Ian: These are the bunkds, more bunk beds.
Parmi: Female dormmaties, look.
Ian: Oh yeah. Store CE97 mattresses.
Parmi: Heck o right, right.
Ian: So how many would they have had in one dormitory?
Parmi: Not sure. Maybe it was full.
Ian: Because you could fit six along there, couldn’t you? So hang on, the inventory thing here will tell me, won’t it? 16 mattresses and eight bunk. Two tier bunk bes.
Parmi: Two tier. Oh yeah, it’s two tier, isn’t it?
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Wow.
Ian: So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Yeah. And I Presumably they would have had lockers or something in here as well for clothes. So if you miss your last train, the one that ha green, they have reenactors there every year and, um, they stay in the bunker overnight.
Parmi: Oh, do they?
Ian: They still got some of the original of these, uh, bunk bes.
Parmi: Yeah, yeah. Okay, let me show you something here in this room. So you’ve got the messaging system there? Yeah, that’s another one. Yeah, there’s another one behind there.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: So I think these were two separate rooms. U so can you see where these tape is on the floor? So these were like cubicles.
Ian: So like offices or something? Yeah.
Parmi: So what they were is, you know, the top dogs.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: The regional directors.
Ian: Yeah, that’s the regional director, Civil Defense.
Parmi: So everybody who was important and hung.
Ian: Up had an office on this floor.
Parmi: Yeah.
Ian: Okay, so this is another big room but it was partitioned into uh, uh.
Parmi: These separate offices’t so these lockers, the grey colour ones? Yeah, these are the lockers that were in each of the rooms.
Ian: Right.
Parmi: And these are listed and I’ll sod some. More treasure.
Ian: More treasure. So we’just lifted a plastic box off the top of the lockers which we’re just going to have a look in and so’got here. We’ve got a dialing instructions for the GPO for Nottingham 1967 and we’ve got some other messages. Instructions for how the messages are supposed to be filed assort of drawing pins.
Parmi: So it says here all messages to be filed in chronological order in the appropriate hour clip.
Ian: So they would have marked to show what hour they’d received the message.
Parmi: Yeah. Um, so you’ve got the phone book, you’ve got the message messages and the hours and the instructions on where to put them. And these drawing pins are probably how they pin the messages.
Ian: Yeaheah. Onto the board, the notice boards.
Parmi: So I kept these. Yeah, I know it’s a bit sad but.
Ian: But no, this little fragments like this helps to um, you know, tell the story.
Parmi: He says he a trunk calls. What’s a trunk call?
Ian: That used to be like long distance calling. So if you were calling a long distance number it would be called a trunk call.
Parmi: It says here call charges. Nearly all trunk calls are cheaper if you dial themeah.
Ian: So he’s here. You’ve got the distance in mask. You would charge more depending on how far you were dialing away.
Parmi: Wow, look at this one. When you answer a telephone always give your name or telephone number.
Ian: O yeah.
Parmi: If you hear a series of rapid pips the call is coming from a coin box telephone of the new type. Wait until the pip stops and then give your name or telephone number.
Ian: Yeah, because the pips will be going while you’re putting your coins in.
Parmi: Yes.
Ian: And look it shows it in shillings and pence. So 4 shillings would be a 10 to 2010 uh min cool at full rate over 125 miles. So 4 shillings was about 20 p.
Parmi: Well, at least the emergency calls were still 999 and the operator was 100.
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: Oh look telegrams and then M speaking.
Ian: Clock 808 one recipe service eight service. That’s brilliant.
Parmi: Recipes, weather forecast 809 one.
Ian: See this is what you had to do before the Internet.
Parmi: Yeah, that’s it.
Ian: Brilliant. Right, let’I’ll put that back up there for you. Right.
Parmi: Right, this is another treat, the BB Ser. So can you smell that? Smell?
Ian: Yeah. Yeah. What is it? Sort of like a wood.
Parmi: And can you right now listen to your voice?
Ian: Oh, yeah. It’s all acoustically treated, so on the walls of these acoustic panels to deaden the noise. So we get a perfect recording in here. No echoes.
Parmi: Yeah. Fantastic, isn’t it?
Ian: Yeah.
Parmi: And the carpet as well.
Ian: Yeah, carpet.
Parmi: Like in the regional commissioner s office.
Ian: Ye. And it looks very, uh, looks very 60s recording studio, like. And another room with the same sound treatment as well. W Incredible.
Parmi: And then you’ve got another room, but I think it’it’s not the recording studio.
Ian: Maybe it’s for like a store room. Um, yeah, maybe where they kept the records to play and things like that.
Parmi: And you’re safe with the. Oh, this one clicks.
Ian: Oh, might work out the combination.
Parmi: Uh, right.
Ian: Fantastic. Well, ary, thank you so much for Rush Ha me round. It’s been brilliant. It’s been brilliant. I really appreciate it.
Ian: The episode extras such as videos, photos and other content are available via a link in the episode information. The podcast wouldn’t exist without the generous efforts of our financial supporters, and I’d like to thank one and all of them for keeping the podcast on the road. The Cold War conversation continues in our Facebook discussion group. Just search for Cold War conversations in Facebook. Thanks very much for listening and look forward to seeing you next week.