The "Official" Paddock Cabinet War Bunker Tour Picture Thread - May 2009

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ukmayhem

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I thought due to the amount of Members that went on the tour yesterday i do a thread that everyone can add there pics and experiences instead of having loads of threads on the same place.

Keep the Pictures to a Maxium of 8 each to save people with slower internet connections waiting all day to view.

"Paddock was built at the start of the 2nd World War below the Post Office Research Station in Dollis Hill. The purpose of the two level citadel was to act as a standby to the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall. The bunker became operational in 1940 with the War Cabinet meeting there on 3rd October.

Churchill did not like the new bunker and by the autumn of 1943 the standby cabinet war rooms were relocated to the North Rotunda in Marsham Street, close to Whitehall; Paddock was abandoned the following year.

During the cold war, Paddock was suggested as a replacement for the North London Group War Room at Partingdale Lane, Mill Hill but this was rejected by the GLC. It was also, along with Station Z at Harrow, suggested as the Main Control Centre for the whole of London with the 4 (later 5) Group Controls reporting to it. The idea of 1 central control was never adopted and the upper floor at Paddock was relegated to a Post Office social club.

Following closure of Post Office Research Station, in the mid 1990's the site was sold to a property developer who converted the Research Station into luxury flats with a new housing estate on the rest of the site. The single storey surface building above Paddock was demolished but the citadel, which has local authority listing was untouched and two access points were retained one an unobtrusive steel door in a wall between two houses and the other a brick blockhouse beside the road which also houses a small electricity sub station. The site has now been handed over to a housing association."


I had a really good tour was very interesting listening to Nick about the Bunker, It was alot smaller than i imagened it to be avery wet inside all in all well worth the trip and at least i can say i have seen it. Big thanks to everyone who organised it.

Here's my Pics

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Was pretty hard to get amazing pics due to the moving tour but i done my best.


Matt
 
Nice one

Tommo and myself enjoyed the trip too,and I was sternley reminded to keep up at the back as I didnt want too many peeps in the frame..will add my pics later.

Stu
 
Excellent stuff! Klempner told me about how good this was. Great to see some photos.
 
Top job mate. A quality explore and quality pics. The structure looks really damp in places, i suppose this is expected though being below ground level. Nice one. ;)
 
hey all, thought i would add a couple, was a good day out, could of done with a couple of hours down there with a tripod to get some really nice pics

cheers stu for coming along :mrgreen:

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Looks like a great day was had by one and all but what the hell is that

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Looks like it's eating the brush
 
It looked like Lemon Meringue was really wierd.

lol

they are stalimites, surely i was not the only one to remember the ryhme, "the girl who was playing in the corn fields and the mites that went up and the tites that came down lol i will never forgot about stalitites and stalimites again

guess it depends who took the tour for u, nick did mine last year and he never said it, this year was some one diffrent cant remember is name
 
Many thanx to Tommo

Very enjoyable day down Churchill` bunker..my couple of pics

Stalactites meeting the Mites

They look like fried eggs!

Crompton Parkinson diesel engine

Often referred to as the Map room...Army,Navy and Raf heirearchy could view what was going on

Relays on the distribution frame

Battery room...no ventilation ducts in here!


Once again,many thanx to Tommo who let me tag along.

Stu
 
This was a great tour, we were on the 3pm tour but didnt go around with the rest of the tour, we got the chance to slope off with MarkR and get quite a few people-less shots.
Will get the pics up soon.
Didnt know who was who on the tour tho, I prob saw you guys, but wouldnt have known...
 
Good stuff.
It's looking a little damp down there though. I thought a bit of preservation for such an historical site might be in order?
 
Does anyone have/ know of any pics from before they built above and the water got in?
It was great to have the chance to look round and many thanks to markr for our lil tour ;)
 

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