Leeds, Region 2 War Rooms
Introduction:
You may remember @Hector Rex 's colossal report from here way back in February, impressive wasn't it? @BoroLad and I certainly thought so anyway, enough so to prompt a visit of our own the weekend after reading it! Sadly the rate of demolition this place went under meant that a lot more of the bunker had gone missing, and after BoroLad nearly broke his ankle in there meaning a shortened trip, I decided at the time I didn't have enough material to really create a 'decent' report. Anyway, I've been pretty ill this week and I've become rather bored so I thought I'd might as well share my photo's and experiences of the place, it's not like it's been widely covered either, so it's another 'look inside' a now demolished structure.
History:
Almost immediately after the fall of the Third Reich and Japan in 1945, tensions between the Allies and Soviet Russia began to climax. The division of Germany and notably the construction of the Berlin Wall saw US and Soviet troops staring one another down from street to street. This was the beginning of the Cold War, a war different from any other fought before...
The construction of our bunker began in 1952, just seven years after the end of the second world war. This bunker was designed for a totally different war though, a nuclear war. In 1952, Britain's V Force was in it's infancy, the Vickers Valiant having made it's maiden flight the year before in 1951 and by November 1952 the USSR had test flown the first variant of Tuplev's TU 95, the world was preparing for the age of the long range Nuclear Bomber. Britain saw the threat of a first strike from the Soviet Union as a serious threat and adapted her defences accordingly. The idea of behind the construction of the Regional War Rooms by the Royal Observer Corps was to create a safe haven for local government members to gather in the event of a nuclear strike on Great Britain. From a regional bunker the local area could be managed and the public, or what was left of them, could be informed of the latest developments and news. Smaller ROC Posts would feed information to the Regional Command Bunker so that a clearer picture of the impact location and size of the bombs could be measured and radioactive hotspots mapped. This bunker along with 13 known other regional command bunkers would have reported directly to the central war room in London, whose job it was to monitor the whole of the UK. The concept of these bunkers weren't a bad idea, but in theory, you only have to watch threads to see how things would have probably ended, pretty grimly really...
The Bunker's where built to withstand and direct hit from a 500lb conventional steel bomb, and where placed on the outskirts of the Cities they where serving so not to get caught up in the initial blast of a nuclear weapon, the idea being to protect the inhabitants from radiation rather than the actual blast.
The Leeds Region 2 War Rooms where in operation from 1952 until around 1968 when Leeds Council took control of the bunkers top floor leaving the bottom half mothballed, this was mainly due to the creation of the Hydrogen Bomb, the bunker was too close to Leeds and would have been wiped out in the event of a direct hit on Leeds. The new Regional Headquarters bunkers where constructed with the new Hydrogen Bomb in mind, 4 of them I believe. The bunker had been abandoned since 1986, it had become quite deeply flooded up to waist height at least, fortunately drained by demolition crews by the time of our visit, demolition was completed in early 2015.
Pictures:
The lights still half full with rain water was interesting to see...
I was in trainers so my feet did get a little wet in here... Worth it though!
The Ruston Hornsby Engine and generator set... I'd like to think this set got preserved, but I don't know what happened to it...
And that's all from here, I wish we'd gotten the chance to photograph more, but never mind...
Cheers for reading!
TAW
Introduction:
You may remember @Hector Rex 's colossal report from here way back in February, impressive wasn't it? @BoroLad and I certainly thought so anyway, enough so to prompt a visit of our own the weekend after reading it! Sadly the rate of demolition this place went under meant that a lot more of the bunker had gone missing, and after BoroLad nearly broke his ankle in there meaning a shortened trip, I decided at the time I didn't have enough material to really create a 'decent' report. Anyway, I've been pretty ill this week and I've become rather bored so I thought I'd might as well share my photo's and experiences of the place, it's not like it's been widely covered either, so it's another 'look inside' a now demolished structure.
History:
Almost immediately after the fall of the Third Reich and Japan in 1945, tensions between the Allies and Soviet Russia began to climax. The division of Germany and notably the construction of the Berlin Wall saw US and Soviet troops staring one another down from street to street. This was the beginning of the Cold War, a war different from any other fought before...
The construction of our bunker began in 1952, just seven years after the end of the second world war. This bunker was designed for a totally different war though, a nuclear war. In 1952, Britain's V Force was in it's infancy, the Vickers Valiant having made it's maiden flight the year before in 1951 and by November 1952 the USSR had test flown the first variant of Tuplev's TU 95, the world was preparing for the age of the long range Nuclear Bomber. Britain saw the threat of a first strike from the Soviet Union as a serious threat and adapted her defences accordingly. The idea of behind the construction of the Regional War Rooms by the Royal Observer Corps was to create a safe haven for local government members to gather in the event of a nuclear strike on Great Britain. From a regional bunker the local area could be managed and the public, or what was left of them, could be informed of the latest developments and news. Smaller ROC Posts would feed information to the Regional Command Bunker so that a clearer picture of the impact location and size of the bombs could be measured and radioactive hotspots mapped. This bunker along with 13 known other regional command bunkers would have reported directly to the central war room in London, whose job it was to monitor the whole of the UK. The concept of these bunkers weren't a bad idea, but in theory, you only have to watch threads to see how things would have probably ended, pretty grimly really...
The Bunker's where built to withstand and direct hit from a 500lb conventional steel bomb, and where placed on the outskirts of the Cities they where serving so not to get caught up in the initial blast of a nuclear weapon, the idea being to protect the inhabitants from radiation rather than the actual blast.
The Leeds Region 2 War Rooms where in operation from 1952 until around 1968 when Leeds Council took control of the bunkers top floor leaving the bottom half mothballed, this was mainly due to the creation of the Hydrogen Bomb, the bunker was too close to Leeds and would have been wiped out in the event of a direct hit on Leeds. The new Regional Headquarters bunkers where constructed with the new Hydrogen Bomb in mind, 4 of them I believe. The bunker had been abandoned since 1986, it had become quite deeply flooded up to waist height at least, fortunately drained by demolition crews by the time of our visit, demolition was completed in early 2015.
Pictures:
The lights still half full with rain water was interesting to see...
I was in trainers so my feet did get a little wet in here... Worth it though!
The Ruston Hornsby Engine and generator set... I'd like to think this set got preserved, but I don't know what happened to it...
And that's all from here, I wish we'd gotten the chance to photograph more, but never mind...
Cheers for reading!
TAW
