Protecting The BBC (Literally)

November 4, 2010 at 10:46 am

So hands up who knew that the BBC still has a secret underground bunker, 10-floors deep into a mountain in the middle of nowhere, built during the Cold War in case there was a nuclear Armageddon?

Buried 10 storeys into the hillside is a fully functioning nuclear bunker, built at great expense in 1966, at the height of the Cold War. So few people knew of its existence that, even when it was being built, visiting trainees were told not to ask why all that concrete was being mixed. Those involved in its construction were obliged to sign the Official Secrets Act, and even now you won’t get a peep out of the BBC press office to acknowledge the reality.


Measuring 175ft long, the bunker – known to high command as Pawn: Protected Area Wood Norton – remains ready for service in the event of an attack on London. It is said to have beds and ping-pong tables and is connected by tunnels dug into the hillside to a mast on top of the hill which is fitted with a super high-frequency satellite dish.

It made sense at the time to have a broadcaster on the air at a time of nuclear attack, but the Russians aren’t coming any more. So now the only question is…why on Earth would the Soviets have thought that silencing the BBC was in their interests?

The BBC are squealing that freezing the telly tax is equivalent to waterboarding – so how about selling this Cold War relic off to raise some money?

Cross-posted on Biased-BBC