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In some UK cities, they build hardened telephone exchanges in the late 50s early 60s to try to guarantee communications in the event of a nuclear war. The one i
by keithpeter 11y ago
In some UK cities, they build hardened telephone exchanges in the late 50s early 60s to try to guarantee communications in the event of a nuclear war. The one in Birmingham is now used for data cables and isn't open to public because of water-table rises.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/b/birmingham_anchor_exchange/index.html http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/b/birmingham_anchor_exch...
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/lifestyle/birminghams-hidden-spaces-anchor-exchange-6449340 http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/lifestyle/birminghams-hidden...
The Anchor exchange construction project had a cover story: an underground for Birmingham that, alas, had to be cancelled later because of changes in the market!
The main one in London was re-purposed from an abandoned underground station, itself used as a communication centre in the 2nd world war.
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/k/kingsway/ http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/k/kingsway/
So a civil defence use for such tunnels sounds very plausible. No budget line, no need for any questions &c.
- petepete 11y agoHere are some pictures of Oldham's nuclear bunker. And no, I have no idea why it was deemed necessary to build one in Oldham. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/oldham-civic-centre-nuclear-bunker-9316659 http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchest...
- Graham24 11y agoThe block of flats I live in used to be a UK telephone exchange, and it has some seriously thick concrete walls and massive steel girders. I dare say this was partly to house the old electro-mechanical exchanges, but it does look like it'd survive a bomb blast.
- noer 11y agoThere's a building in lower manhattan that was designed for that purpose as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street Technically there are two buildings built for telephone switching, but I don't think the other building (375 Pearl St) is nearly as overbuilt.