A number of military citadels
are known to have been constructed underground in central London
, dating mostly from the Second World War
and the Cold War
. Unlike traditional above-ground citadel
s, these sites are primarily secure centres for defence coordination.
It is already well known that a large network of tunnels exists below London
for a variety of communications, civil defence and military purposes (see, for instance, War Plan UK by Duncan Campbell
or Beneath the City Streets by Peter Laurie
). It is very much less clear how these tunnels, and the various facilities linked to them, fit together. Even the number and nature of these facilities is unclear; only a few have been officially admitted to.
PINDAR
The most important military citadel in central London - and arguably in Britain - is PINDAR, a bunker built beneath the Ministry of Defence
on Whitehall
. Its construction, which took ten years and reportedly cost £126.3 million, finally came to a conclusion in 1994
, but PINDAR became operational two years earlier, in 1992
.[[ Secret sites ]
, keconnect.co.uk, accessed 23 April 2006] The high cost became the subject of some controversy in the early 1990s
. Much of the cost overrun was related to the facility's computer equipment, which proved extremely difficult to install due to the very limited degree of physical access to the site.
PINDAR's main function is to serve as a crisis management and communications centre, principally between the MOD headquarters and the actual centre of military operations, the Permanent Joint Headquarters
in Northwood
. It is reported to be connected to Downing Street
via tunnels under Whitehall
. Although it has been rumoured that it connects to some secret underground transport system, Armed Forces Minister Jeremy Hanley
told the House of Commons
on 29 April
1994 that "the facility is not connected to any transport system."
Although PINDAR is very definitely not open to the public, it has had some very limited public exposure. This came in the 2003
BBC
documentary on the Iraq conflict
, Fighting the War, in which BBC cameras were allowed into the facility to film a small part of a teleconference between ministers and military commanders.
Admiralty Citadel
The Admiralty Citadel in 2006
The Admiralty Citadel
, London's most visible military citadel, is located just behind the Admiralty
building on Horse Guards Parade. It was constructed in 1940
-1941
as a bomb-proof operations centre for the Admiralty, with foundations nine metres deep and a concrete roof six metres thick. Not surprisingly, it was considered virtually bomb-proof.
Sir Winston Churchill described it in his memoirs as a "vast monstrosity which weighs upon the Horse Guards Parade" - and ivy has been encouraged to cover it in an apparent attempt to soften its harsh appearance. Its brutal functionality hid a very practical purpose; in the event of a German invasion, it was intended that the building would become a fortress, with loopholed firing positions provided to fend off attackers.
The Admiralty Citadel is still used today by the Ministry of Defence
.
Cabinet War Rooms
Cabinet War Rooms
The only central London citadel currently open to the public is the
Cabinet War Rooms
, located in Horse Guards Road in the basement of what is now HM Treasury
. This was not a purpose-built citadel but was instead a reinforced adaptation of an existing basement built many years before. The War Rooms were constructed in 1938
and were heavily used by Winston Churchill
during World War II
. However, the Cabinet War Rooms were vulnerable to a direct hit and were abandoned not long after the war. The Cabinet War Rooms were a secret to all civilians until their opening to the public in 1984
. They are now maintained by the Imperial War Museum
.
The section of the War Rooms open to the public is in fact only a portion of a much larger facility. They originally covered three acres (1.2 hectares) and housed a staff of up to 528 people, with facilities including a canteen, hospital, shooting range and dormitories. The centrepiece of the War Rooms is the Cabinet Room itself, where Churchill's War Cabinet met. The Map Room is located nearby, from where the course of the war was directed. It is still in much the same condition as when it was abandoned, with the original maps still on the walls and telephones lining the desks. Churchill slept in a small bedroom nearby, with a telephone room (disguised as a private toilet) next door that provided a direct line to the White House
in Washington, DC
.
Q-Whitehall
Q-Whitehall is the (possibly unofficial) name given to a communications facility under Whitehall.
The facility was built in a 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter tunnel during World War II, and extends under Whitehall from Trafalgar Square to King Charles Street. The project was known as 'Post Office scheme 2845'. A detailed description, with photographs, was published just after the war in the January 1946 edition of the Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal.
Sites equipped with unusual amounts of GPO/BT telecommunications plant are given a BT site engineering code
. This site's code was QWHI, and this is presumably the origin of the name Q-Whitehall.
The site provided protected accommodation for the lines and terminal equipment serving the most important government departments, civil and military, to ensure the command and control of the war could continue despite heavy bombing of London.
At the northern end, the tunnel connects to the BT deep level cable tunnels which were built under much of London during the Cold War
. At the southern end, an 8 ft (2.4 m) diameter extension (Scheme 2845B) was built to the Marsham Street Rotundas
.
Access to the tunnel is gained via an 8 ft (2.4 m) lateral tunnel and a lift shaft in the nearby Whitehall telephone exchange in Craig's Court.
Spur tunnels, 5 ft (1.5 m) in diameter, were built to provide protected cable routes to the major service buildings either side of Whitehall.
The Whitehall tunnels appear to have been extended in the early 1950s. Files in the National Archives
which may relate to this have been closed for 75 years and will not be opened until the 2020s.
The journalist Duncan Campbell
managed to get into the BT deep level cable tunnels below London, and described his adventure in a New Statesman
article in 1980. He found a (closed) entrance to Q-Whitehall below Trafalgar Square
. He has since put some pictures of this trip on a web site. [[ Duncan Campbell's tunnel trip ]
; [ Duncan Campbell's tunnel trip in the web archive ]
]
Footnotes
See also
Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
Burlington
- a city-sized shelter beneath Wiltshire
Subterranean London
External links
[
More Photos of the Admiralty Citadel ]
[
* ]
Link to Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
<London infrastructure>
<London Government>
<Subterranea>
<Westminster>
<Military of the United Kingdom>
<Fortification>
Cabinet War Rooms
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