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Report - - Horsham District Council emergency center,July 2017 | Underground Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Horsham District Council emergency center,July 2017

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RustyG

The world's most awkward urbexer...
28DL Full Member
I've always wanted to visit this site ever since reading about it on subbrit and seeing a handful of photos from when it was still in use, to my knowledge it's the only surviving local government fallout shelter near me and being right under the council offices I never thought I'd get to have a look round it. But then as luck would have it I read a comment on a youtube vid sayinng the building above was empty and being redeveloped. Not wanting to waste what could be my only chance I grabbed my go pro and headed over to horsham!

Driving passed I could see that the redevelopment was well under way, scaff and hording on the road side. I parked up and went for a cameraless recce, it took all of 30 seconds to work out my route in and another 30 to make sure no one else was there. I've never seen a demo site with such a shoddy attempt at hoarding, if anything it was too easy getting in, but I'm not gonna winge!

Gaining access to the offices looked as easy as getting passed the hoarding but I could see that the place had been stripped right out, and anyway that wasn't what I was here for.....

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I headed down a flight of steps into a small underground carpark and saw a small door way with what I straight away recognised as a blast door, so far so good!

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Through the blast door there was a small cupboard of a room containing old BT and electrical junction boxes and then through just a normal wooden door was the main operations room. The carpet tiles were soaking and from the smell of the place it had been like it for a fair old while. Loads of the funky suspended ceiling had come down creating piles of squidgy goop.

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None of the computers or desks remained just a few 'portable dose rate meters' strewn about the floor, their cardboard boxes soaking up the water and a solid state tv projector bolted to the wall

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Off of the main operations room there is a toilet, both mens and women's with what looks like an open inspection hatch for a sump pump or somet, it was filled with rusty water and I couldn't see the bottom

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Next to that was a small kitchen with laminated instructions for the coffee machine pinned to the wall, which pointed out that improper use and cleaning would void the warranty, because when you're on the brink of nuclear annihilation the last thing you want to do is void the coffee machine warranty!

There were a couple of empty store rooms, I think one may have been sleeping quaters for when the site was operational.

The communications room still has desks in it with 'sound proof' partitions between them. One of the stations still has its radio in place...
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Through another internal door and you are in the bowels of the operation, a room with all the air filtration machinery and electrical switchboard gear. Another emergency exit, this one with an absolutely mahoosive blast door, easily double in all dimensions compared to the one I came I through

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Another two thinner blast doors lead to the stairs going up to the offices, I went up to the next floor, the place is literally a building site so I didn't bother going any further.

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The plant room is hiding a beautiful lister generator, keys in her, just begging me to give her the crank! With 35 hours on the clock, she's not even run in yet and I bet she's never been run at anywhere near full load!
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As always, apologies for the gammy phone photos and if you want to go visit this one you better be quick, it may not be there by the end of next week!

I've just finished editing my go pro footage, you can watch it here:

 
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the126

Reckless & irresponsible
28DL Full Member
Well done for getting in the place!
Shame its been empited out. About 15 years ago I was doing some electrical work in the offices above and we used to cut through here as a short cut to the underground car park. Back then it was pretty mint- beds, desks, equipment all still in there

Did you see any evidence of the escape tunnel?
 

RustyG

The world's most awkward urbexer...
28DL Full Member
@the126 I would loved to have seen it when it was operational mate, with all the coms gear n maps n that still in place. I didn't find any escape tunnel and there isn't one mentioned on the subbrit page, just the three entrance/exits. One going up into the offices and the other two exiting out into the covered car park, which I did think was a bit strange, having both emergency exits coming out under the building you'd think that if the offices did collapse all three exits would be blocked by debris!

@Wevsky I know mate, I was gutted when I found the place under an inch of water, I was hoping it would have been in better condition than it was. It's a shame that no one has tried to save the place, the way I see it it's an important part of out national and local history that pretty soon will be gone forever, buried under a load of flats!
 

monk

mature
28DL Full Member
Well done for getting in the place!
Shame its been empited out. About 15 years ago I was doing some electrical work in the offices above and we used to cut through here as a short cut to the underground car park. Back then it was pretty mint- beds, desks, equipment all still in there

Did you see any evidence of the escape tunnel?

Did you get any pics back then mate ?
 
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