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Site Last Updated: 4th June 2025

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Nuclear bunkers in the UK

Following the end of the Cold war, the nationwide network of bunkers fell into disrepair and were largely sold off. The huge underground emergency War HQ at Corsham near Bath also got mothballed. Some of the bunkers entered active military service, whilst others were sold off privately. Local councils also have ‘hardened control rooms’ which mainly date back to the Cold War and Nuclear era. However these now act as emergency control rooms, and are not referred to as nuclear bunkers.

During the Cold war there were a number of different types/categories of nuclear bunkers. Subbrit [1]] have done a fantastic job of listing the current status of the huge number of bunkers that were scattered across the country, but its worth highlighting a particular few which are either still active or related specifically to Civil defence.

Pindar - MOD Building London

Whilst the Corsham War HQ bunker closed, in 1992 a new bunker (known as PINDAR) was built below the MOD building in Whitehall. The bunker ibecome operational in 1992 and cost £126.3m to build. It is a "protected crisis management facility" which is the main communication point between Whitehall and the Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood.

The bunker comes equipped with a broadcasting studio (how this would feed into the BBC network is unclear) and accommodation to house its inhabitants when working a 3 shift cycle. Those who would go into the bunker are "Ministers, senior military and civilian personnel, plus service and civilian operational and support staff" and is manned permanently. Much of this information comes from a Hansard question and answer session available (hansard info) and for photos inside the bunker you should visit David Moore's website. According to David Moore's site it appears that the bunker is at least 2 layers deep. From David Moore's website [2] we know that the entrance to the bunker is sign posted "To Bomb Shelter Area" and that the bunker has a basement where diesel generators generate the power. An interesting note from Hansard is "A variety of routes exist which would enable the occupants to escape from the facility in the event that the building above it had collapsed." Most likely these escape routes involve using the Q-Whitehall network which has more details about the secret tunnels with which they should connect. What is interesting about the idea of building collapse is that if it collapsed then the building would provide an extra shield for the bunker below from radiation.

Military Bunkers

There are a number of key military bunkers across the country, the main one being HMS NorthWood otherwise known as the Permananet Joint Headquarters. This centre has played a pivotal role in recent conflicts, and would be the key location for any wartime military response. The RAF have 2 bunkers – one at High Wycombe and the other at RAF Boulmer. However its worth noting that these bunkers do not relate to Civil defence as they are operated by the military. They would however play a critical role in responding to a NATO conflict.

Regional Government bunkers

The Cold War plans always envisaged regional teams holed up in bunkers to bring normality and restore order. As discussed on our War Planning page, this concept has unlikely changed however bunker accommodation is no longer integral in the UK Civil defence plan. We know this because:

  1. Some have been completely demolished
  2. Only a couple remain in public hands
  3. They are over 70 years old and would need structural checks and maintenance
  4. The North East has no nuclear bunkers from the Cold War era that are still active [see list below]! (Alternative former ROTOR bunkers may however but were never designated as such during the Cold War)

The regional government bunkers went through a variety of different names and plans but the principle generally always remained the same. Were war to break out, a Regional commissioner (senior level MP) would lead the region, holed up in its nuclear bunker. This would include a variety of people from the BBC, to Fire, police and utilities – all represented to restore normality to each region.

The government can always forcefully buy them back - and were they to do so security at the sites would increase and be an instant flag of changes in posture. However in the unlikely scenario where a nuclear war broke out I wouldn't rule out the possibility that some of these sites could still be used. It would make sense that a regional group would consider bunker accommodation if it was suitable as one possible base location. Considering they are designed for that purpose and may well still function fairly well.

Activating a bunker

It must be considered that a nuclear bunker is going to need a number of key elements which without, will make it unusable:

  • Water supply
  • Electricity supply
  • Active filtration technology - designed to filter radiation
  • Security - i.e. from hordes of members of public trying to get in
  • Structural integrity - you don't want the thing falling down the minute there's a rumble!

I am no expert on the current bunker status but would suspect at least Item 3 has not been maintained on any of these bunkers (except for active military ones) and so quite a bit of work would be needed to activate the historical bunkers to make them genuinely usable.

You'll note from the section below that apart from the North East, each region does still have one bunker that was in use until the end of the Cold War and 3 of these are maintained as museums!

The situation today

You are welcome to Google each bunker (RSG/RGHQ) and thanks to Street view and satelites you can see what remains of the key sites below. These are amalgamations by region and the * indicates the versions that were the most recently used (i.e. at the end of the Cold War). Thanks also to Ringbell for a lot of the easy to use locations. [1]

Status' correct as of September 2024

[PB = Purpose Built as Regional Bunkers] [MU = Museum open to the public]

The UK Warning & Monitoring Organisation

For full details about the UKWMO please see the extensive work found here [2]. The purpose of this page however is to provide a list of links and statuses for the former UKWMO bunker network which co-ordindated the information received from hundreds of Royal Observer Corps (ROC) mini bunker posts dotted around the country.

Status' correct as of September 2024