Cold War Bunkers - and defensive architecture above ground

[Yokel]

I think it might be an idea to have a thread dedicated to Cold War bunkers and the like, so that these things do not clutter threads discussing fortifications left over from the two World Wars or earlier. The 'Scallywag' bunkers thread is a good example. There is lots of public domain information that could be collated - such as information about ROC monitoring posts, underground stores at disused air bases, or publicly known facilities that have been decommissioned and put out up for sale. However, taking about current command and control facilities, or hardened communications, is not a good idea.

 

[Retd_crab]

A bit like this thread

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www.arrse.co.uk

 

[Moderator]

A thread about cold war bunkers? They are secret doncha know?

 

[Yokel]

A bit like this thread

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www.arrse.co.uk

Yes - however not just ones in Army barracks.

Also on a similar thread there were comments about 'defensive' architecture in Cold War era public buildings and even city centres. Making life harder for Spetznaz? Preparing for hordes or rioters?

 

[Yokel]

There was also this old thread: Historical Nuclear Preparation

There are lots of places to post things about Cold War bunkers and nuclear preparations, and related topics that have nothing to do with Second World War history.

 

[Provost]

There was also this old thread: Historical Nuclear Preparation

There are lots of places to post things about Cold War bunkers and nuclear preparations, and related topics that have nothing to do with Second World War history.

There's a fair bit of crossover. Many of the Cold War sites were developments of pre-existing WW2 facilities.

 

[Yokel]

There's a fair bit of crossover. Many of the Cold War sites were developments of pre-existing WW2 facilities.

Of course - but talking about 70s radio kit on a WW2 thread - really?

However - since we are talking about building design, were any lessons from the Blitz and how buildings react to blast ever taken into account in post war building design?

 

[MoleBath]

A treasure trove of information

Home – Subterranea Britannica (subbrit.org.uk)

 

[Effendi]

Have you looked at this forum? They have an amazing collection of places that members have visited over the years (I might have, maybe, when I still lived in the UK). They get away with it due to the UK trespass laws being a civil offence rather than a criminal offence - don't break anything, don't take anything, just leave footprints behind, and you can't be touched.

28DaysLater.co.uk

www.28dayslater.co.uk

 

[Yokel]

I was hoping for examples of above ground architecture from the seventies/eighties that was influenced by Cold War security concerns - anti sabotage measures, coping with civil disturbance and so on.

I would have guessed that was in NI, but Google says no - my search is here.

 

[oscar1whisky]

I was hoping for examples of above ground architecture from the seventies/eighties that was influenced by Cold War security concerns - anti sabotage measures, coping with civil disturbance and so on.

I would have guessed that was in NI, but Google says no - my search is here.

Manchester city centre, with tunnels now used by assorted service companies.

 

[CutLunchCommando]

I was hoping for examples of above ground architecture from the seventies/eighties that was influenced by Cold War security concerns - anti sabotage measures, coping with civil disturbance and so on.

I would have guessed that was in NI, but Google says no - my search is here.

There is such an HQ in south Belfast somewhere. No tower though.

The article:

Protect and die: Cold War Architecture / from the archive / issue 4 — the modernist

[Historical note: Following the liquidation of the ‘Gorbachev revisionist clique’ and military action by Warsaw Pact forces to reinforce the GDR’s Berlin ‘Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier’, tensions between NATO and the USSR worsened rapidly. The Cold War became a hot one. Cruise missile attacks on V

www.the-modernist.org

I think he is fishing with this bit though...

Don’t forget Jodrell Bank radio telescope. It first recorded Sputnik’s squawking pips announcing the USSR’s mastery of space in 1956. What else did it observe?

 

[Yokel]

Manchester city centre, with tunnels now used by assorted service companies.

What was the purpose of a hardened building like that in a city centre? Local authority? Utilities? Hardened against criminals, rioters, terrorism, or Spetsnaz?

Were any Spetsnaz precautions part of Cold War architecture?

There is such an HQ in south Belfast somewhere. No tower though.

The article:

Protect and die: Cold War Architecture / from the archive / issue 4 — the modernist

[Historical note: Following the liquidation of the ‘Gorbachev revisionist clique’ and military action by Warsaw Pact forces to reinforce the GDR’s Berlin ‘Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier’, tensions between NATO and the USSR worsened rapidly. The Cold War became a hot one. Cruise missile attacks on V

www.the-modernist.org

I think he is fishing with this bit though...

It would have been capable of tracking any orbital or suborbital object emitting electromagnetic transmissions.

 

[br9mp812]

I was hoping for examples of above ground architecture from the seventies/eighties that was influenced by Cold War security concerns - anti sabotage measures, coping with civil disturbance and so on.

I would have guessed that was in NI, but Google says no - my search is here.

manchester

 

[Electromagnetic]

I was hoping for examples of above ground architecture from the seventies/eighties that was influenced by Cold War security concerns - anti sabotage measures, coping with civil disturbance and so on.

I would have guessed that was in NI, but Google says no - my search is here.

Who are you working for? I remember being warned about chaps like you asking seemingly innocent questions in pub quizzes and the like. What preparations should we make for national resilience? Where are/were the secret buildings and what were they for?

 

[Yokel]

Not sure how to reply to that. If you look at my posting history over a number of years it might give you a clue. My interest in national resilience comes from that. The private citizen or business owner can contribute. Sadly a lot of things were lost when the utilities were privatised - so doing anything would need political action

This thread exists because I created it in the hope that people would stop talking about Cold War stuff on the Scallywag bunkers thread. The above facility looks incongruous to me - but not unlike some Police stations in places like St Paul's in Bristol. If I just saw a picture of I would assume it is that.

In the city centre - not a place for a sensitive facility.

Lastly, I was only yes or no with respect to anti Spetsnaz architecture. Again I am not convinced much could have been down beyond measures advertised by the CPNI on their website.

I too have a contempt for people who want to go advertising the locations of potentially sensitive places, or discussing the fine details of security arrangements.

 

[Electromagnetic]

Not sure how to reply to that. If you look at my posting history over a number of years it might give you a clue. My interest in national resilience comes from that. The private citizen or business owner can contribute. Sadly a lot of things were lost when the utilities were privatised - so doing anything would need political action

This thread exists because I created it in the hope that people would stop talking about Cold War stuff on the Scallywag bunkers thread. The above facility looks incongruous to me - but not unlike some Police stations in places like St Paul's in Bristol. If I just saw a picture of I would assume it is that.

In the city centre - not a place for a sensitive facility.

Lastly, I was only yes or no with respect to anti Spetsnaz architecture. Again I am not convinced much could have been down beyond measures advertised by the CPNI on their website.

I too have a contempt for people who want to go advertising the locations of potentially sensitive places, or discussing the fine details of security arrangements.

Humour. I meant to include a

Perhaps the biggest problem was not warding off a Soviet SF pre-invasion force but countering the extensive spy network. Here is one typical building incorporating a variety of spy equipment, some of which was hidden under the internal floor. A lot of ballistic submarine details were copied and smuggled out using microdots.

 

[oscar1whisky]

The Manchester one pictured upthread was a Guardian Telephone Exchange, one of a chain from Oban to London, built from 1954 and part funded by NATO, according to Wikipaedia.
The tall tower was a lift shaft, used to take in building materials.

 

[Yokel]

Humour. I meant to include a

Perhaps the biggest problem was not warding off a Soviet SF pre-invasion force but countering the extensive spy network. Here is one typical building incorporating a variety of spy equipment, some of which was hidden under the internal floor. A lot of ballistic submarine details were copied and smuggled out using microdots.
View attachment 546318

Indeed. Many of the espionage scandals we know of were linked to very unsavoury individuals such as Geoffrey Prime, who was also a dangerous paedophile. People must have suspected both his spying and his child abuse, but looked the other way.

My background has always encouraged a challenge culture. Morale courage and integrity are all.

 

[br9mp812]

Who are you working for? I remember being warned about chaps like you asking seemingly innocent questions in pub quizzes and the like. What preparations should we make for national resilience? Where are/were the secret buildings and what were they for?

chaps asking questions eh, there was a tale of a lad hitching a lift outside a raf camp on the A1 hes stood there with his blue holdall gets a lift from 2 chaps dressed in M&S suits, he twigs that they are raf monkeys and ask to be dropped at peterbourgh railway,
what do you do on the camp? oh i clean the tables in the cookhouse i m a civvy,
whats that like then?
ok i suppose bar them ********* that look like milkmen with the silly white hats,cannot even use a knife and fork, no manners, and everyone puts shit in the salt and pepper on thier table.
why you got the bag then?
i use it to carry my work stuff, one of the guys in the hats sold it me for a fiver he was saving up to buy his ticket out, spend his nights crying as everyone hated him and he had no mates,
he got dropped a long way from the rail station