Ghost of a flea: Military citidels under London

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August 08, 2005

Military citidels under London

In September, 1940, it was decided that "the cabinet would remain in Whitehall until it was bombed out or communications broke down." The Flea's curiousity about all things in underground London leaves me with a burning desire to visit various military citidels and air raid shelters built under London in response to this decision.

The initial plan was to relocate the core of the machinery of government to the suburbs of north and northwest London. The War Cabinet would use a bombproof citadel known as PADDOCK at Dollis Hill with supporting bunkers at Cricklewood and Harrow. PADDOCK was built 40 feet underground and had some 22 rooms centred on a Map Room. The bulk of the supporting civil servants would be accommodated in neighbouring schools and colleges left empty by evacuation.

But before the war started, the plan was changed. Now, the core or seat of government would remain in London for as long as possible and protected accommodation was developed for it. The most famous was the bunker under the New Public Buildings that was partly occupied by the Central War Room, later to became known as the Cabinet War Room. Work had begun on this in 1938 by reinforcing the building�s basement and equipping it with air conditioning, communications gear and some basic domestic facilities. It could house 400 staff and its activities centred on the Map Room, which collected information relating to the war effort and collated daily reports.

By 1943, ten thousand civil servants could be housed in "citadels" (purpose built bunkers) and "fortresses" (steel framed buildings) under Crossbow Conditions. I have, of course, taken the opportunity to visit the Cabinet War Rooms. It was a foggy late-autumn night outside and I had the place entirely to myself. Spooky. Spookier yet would be a view from one of the loopholes at the Admiralty Citadel. All too easy to imagine the sight had things gone differently and with the Hun rampaging through London. It is a reasonably obvious building despite its ivy facade though I had never noticed the air vent placed by a public loo. It is a bit hillarious and disconcerting think this is all situated under the ICA.

Q-Whitehall is an unofficial name for another part of what seems to be a vast, interconnected underground complex though I prefer the more sinister "Post Office scheme 2845", a new contender name for the Flea's hypothetical electroclash band of the future. I assume "post office scheme" was a nice cover given the rest of the Royal Mail's activity under London. The Flea's crime-fighting technology could usefully be supplemented by a Flea-portable mail rail device especially since the cads shut it down. An engineer offers another excellent idea for a rail-line that is far too much fun to mothball.

"It is really very sad because it has been such great fun to work on, like a big boy�s plaything,� he said. �But it is the only way to get a bag of mail from one side of London to the other in under 30 minutes. It really deserves a good future. If I was in charge I would set it up as a white-knuckle ride, but I�m sure it will find a more practical use."

Despite (too much) time in Marcham Street I had somehow never noticed the Rotundas lost in the Brazil-like shadow of those now (thankfully) vanished DoE towers. One would think the Rotundas would be hard to miss given they were designed to withstand a hit by a 500lb bomb while housing "several thousand Government officials in complete safety from enemy attack for up to three months." Other yet more obscure facilities include the No. 4 Central Buildings in Matthew Parker Street, the Faraday Citadel Building (the "citadel of the City") and Curzon Street House reportedly in use today by MI5. There are also various suburban bunkers including the PADDOCK facility at Dollis Hill (the "other Cabinet War Room") the Admiralty Citidel Oxgate, now used to store carpets, while the Air Ministry had Station Z in Harrow, reportedly still in use as a communications centre. The Army Citadel at Kneller Hall in Twickenham was never built.

Outside London, but of interest, is the UK Government Emergency War Headquarters bunker facility at Corsham, Wiltshire built in a WWII-era underground factory. "This is the bunker where the UK Prime Minister would have issued the order for nuclear retaliation."

It is thought to have been replaced by a definite Flea-destination, the Montague House bunker, known as PINDAR. As the reported home of the Defence Communications Centre the facility is not open to the public so I am unlikely to visit any time soon no matter how nosey I may be. I would settle for learning what the acronym stands for... in my past (and future) life as loose brains for British ministries the clever-acronym-which-nobody-could-remember-what-it-stood-for (CAWNCRWISF) was a favourite bugaboo.

More underground goodness in Manchester. Just remember: no tresspassing!

Posted by Ghost of a flea at August 8, 2005 08:24 AM

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