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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Susie Beever & Matt Gibson

Underground UK city built to survive nuclear attack remains untouched to this day

A vast underground bunker with its own railway station and hospital lies deep underground in rural Corsham, Wiltshire. The Cold War-era network of tunnels and secret rooms was constructed in the late 1950s amid fears of a nuclear attack.

Codenamed Burlington, it was intended to home around 4,000 people including government officials, scientists and members of the Royal Family. The prime minister at the time - Harold Macmillan - would have taken shelter there where he'd have run whatever was left of the country in the event of a nuclear strike, The Mirror reports.

The underground city never needed to be used for what it was built for but was maintained until 1991 when its upkeep became too costly. The existence of the bunker remained top secret, though, until 2004 when it was officially declassified.

The telephone switchboard room (Crown copyright)

Eerie images of the location reveal abandoned tunnels, buggies for travelling around within it and even a telephone switchboard to communicate with the world above. There are sufficient resources there to sustain life for up to three months.

The 35-acre base was built into a disused quarry and is complete with a kitchen, canteen, accommodation, laundries and even a makeshift hospital. Burlington also had an subterranean lake as a main water supply, and 12 fuel tanks to run generators for three months, keeping the bunker a relatively cosy 20C.

Pictures of the late Queen and 1950s icons on one of the walls inside the bunker (Crown copyright)

Impressively, the bunker also had its own railway station connecting it to the main rail line between Bristol and London for those trying to quickly escape the capital. Rumours were abound that the bunker even had its own pub - the Rose and Crown - modelled on real Whitehall boozer The Red Lion favoured by Government aides, although these have never been confirmed.

Also still preserved in the underground network are murals painted by artist Olga Lehmann depicting British people and society. Incredibly, the paintings have remained intact and in "remarkably good condition" over the decades.

Buggies which would have been used to navigate the tunnels remain in the bunker (Crown copyright)

Nuclear war became a very sudden and real threat in the 1950s as tensions rose between the Soviet Union and the West. So much so that Governments were forced to quickly create shelters which could act as a refuge should the worst case scenario hit.

Several bunkers can still be found scattered around Britain to this day, including in York, Brentwood, Nantwich and Fife. In 1955, plans were put into operation which would preserve human life in the instance of Britain being hit by up to 132 atomic bombs.

The 35 acres of tunnels and rooms would have become the new Government headquarters in event of nuclear apocalypse (Crown copyright)

A statement from the Ministry of Defence almost two decades ago said: "A formerly secret Government underground site near Corsham in Wiltshire, which was a potential relocation site for the Government in the event of a nuclear war, was declassified at the end of 2004."

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