Report - Deepdene WW2 Southern Railway Traffic Control Centre, April 2013.

[Ojay]

Deepdene WW2 Southern Railway Traffic Control Centre

During World War 2, the Southern Railway took over the Deepdene House near Dorking for its wartime emergency headquarters

To the rear of the house were some natural caves, there land was excavated and subsequently turned into an underground control centre, to house a total of 30 clerks

Also the night staff of the Operating, Motive Power, Chief Mechanical Engineer, and Chief Electrical Engineer's Departments worked in the underground network

The network of tunnels included a Control Room, meeting room, switchboard, battery room, main distribution frame a bedroom for the night officer and ventilation plant and toilet facilities

The switchboard was a three-positioned installation with Post Office lines and extensions serving the headquarters staff with direct lines to the various divisional traffic and engineering officers and was in use 24 hours a day

The Southern Railway General Manager Eustace Missenden lived nearby and had a switchboard extension in his house

During the air raids he spent many nights there with his wife and it is reputed that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill was a visitor

British Railways left Deepdene in the mid 1960's and the house was demolished in 1969 with a modern office block being built on the site

In 1997 a survey was commisioned and Redhill Analysts confirmed that most of the complex and two of the small surface buildings were heavily contaminated with both white asbestos (Chrysotile) and blue asbestos (Crocidolite)

Shortly afterwards all four entrances, and the contaminated surface buildings were sealed

After spending the night baking cupcakes whilst bauhausgirl troll'd the internet she insisted I took a look at Deepdene

Funnily enough I had already spoken to canute a week earlier who also suggested I should go and take a look, knowing I like all things bunker related

In the end bhg bowed out as she had to decorate the cup cakes I spent all night baking

Cue soylent green who rocked up at some un-godly hour (Bear in mind this was the start of a messy Leicester piss up and I really did need my beauty sleep)..

Canute had already sent me a map to avoid traipsing around the jungle a further 7 days however it wasn't required as SG sort of had a short cut already sussed from a previous visit


The first clue that something military related was/is nearby is the presence of anti-tank blocks

Externals of a few bits I bothered to take some snaps of..


> Boiler Room

> Entrance No.2

> Entrance No.3

> Emergency Exit

(Pic borrowed with kind permission from canute), cheers


Once inside we spent a good hour or so navigating the tunnels and each room in turn, here a few more snaps...

R14 leading to Entrance No.1

A West-East passage runs through 3 rooms..

R10 looking back upto R14 and R13 on the left

R13

R12

A doorway leads into R5 (Switchboards), this was the main hub of the control centre with tunnels leading off in three directions

(Against one wall are the remains of three floor standing switchboards)

^ Another doorway leads into R6 (Battery Room), which still has battery terminals on the walls and would probably have contained the back up power supply for the telecommunications equipment

There is a dog leg to the South leading to Entrance No.3 and the external boiler house

R4 contains the rusting Main Distribution Frame with some of the panels still in place

(Marked up as 'Exchange' on the Plan)

R3 is a 10ft square tunnel with a concrete roof supported on steel girders

(Looking along R3 into R2)

There is a junction with R7 half way along the West wall that also carries the ventilation ducting

R7 (Wartime Control Room), now stripped of all original fixtures & fittings

..and in operation

R2 is approx 30ft long with an arched concrete roof supported by steel hoops; aside from the ventilation ducting high on one wall and an old telecommunications box on the floor this room is empty

R1 is the Ventilation Plant

The tunnels were well ventilated and the temperature was regulated by radiators in each room

This leads to the 79 step spiral staircase within a 60ft vertical shaft which provided an air inlet and the Emergency Exit at the rear of the complex

Massive shouts to bauhausgirl/soylent green & canute s
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