212. Nuclear Launch Command

In the late 70’s the cold war was hotting up, to monitor and counter the constant threat of nuclear attack five identical command centres were built in the UK. These would monitor the threat and if necessary launch a nuclear counter attack.

I am fascinated to think that the end of the world as we know it could have been launched from one of these five centres. They are all identical. Allowing any of the very few individuals authorised to enter to be able to work in any of the five centres.

I looked into what had happened to these five:

1. Two have been raised to the ground.
   
2. One is in active use (Lakenheath)
   
3. One has been set up as a museum, along with flashing lights and ‘authentic sounds’ (Bentwaters)
   
   

One was left exactly as it was the day everyone walked out in January 1994….

I think we all know which one I needed to see…

Before we begin:
This building is not a museum, and isn’t open to the public. The landowner (a housing developer) is very against people visiting the site, and isn’t afraid to pull every dirty trick to prosecute any unwanted visitors.

Currently the building is as secure as it can be, and whilst it is watertight it is very fragile. The original notes in the main command room at the end are written on Perspex with whiteboard markers, and are as the day they were when the USAF walked out in ’94. One brush past with a sleeve would destroy decades of history. That terrifies me. Whatever you do, please be respectful.

External shower:



Way out (or in…?)



Caged entry to the main corridor:







From the second I’d entered, all that had been buzzing in my head was “Please let there be a big bright red phone…”









The back of the telephone exchange:





A lot of messages were still passed either by paper, or by word of mouth. It’s a failsafe system that’s not going to be intercepted or go out in a tech failure. Therefore each room from the entrance to the main room is connected by these little hatches.



I’m a sucker for retro detailing like this:



I’m gutted I only took this one bad photo of this: The ‘Remindo-Timer’ It allows you to set an alert at any 10 min interval over a 24 hour period:



I’m pleased to say you can still buy these from new, and they still look like this! http://www.american-time.com/products-by-family/specialty-products/james-remind-o-timers/james-remind-o-timers

I love this checklist, check out the final one…





“Protect and destroy this document projector as Top Secret”





Behold Snoopy! (Check out the pencil below)











Latrine (with a really narrow door!)



Map room: The USAF done their best to destroy the map when they left.



But there were still remnants left. Any object taller than 200ft was noted. Although there was a lot of “Name Unknown”



The main control room:

Behold:





Pano:


To reiterate my words above:
This building is not a museum, and isn’t open to the public. The notes you see above are written on Perspex with whiteboard markers, and are as the day they were when the USAF walked out 21-22 years ago. One brush past with a sleeve would destroy decades of history. Whatever you do, please be respectful.

Thanks for reading.