Broadland District Coucil Emergency Planning Centre

[southy1981]

Visited today with the kind permission and a BIG thankyou to John Frary.
Was joined by ShadowOps who found the place before me, where as i kept riding round in circles!!

We met John and after a brief conversation, he took us through the council offices and out to the bunker.
He was a bit bewildered as to why we wanted to go in there, but as we explained, places like this were built for a reason, and as it is not used anymore (for its intended purpose anyway) other people might want to see what it was like before being used for a different reason.

The bunker was built in 1991 as an emergency planning centre for the council, what these emergency's may have been, we don't know. Speculation sways me that the centre could have been used for the same reason the COBRA centre in London would have (and still is) used for, the execution of any plans for any event that may, or may happen in the Norfolk area, being it a terrorist attack, a major incident, a plane crash, a major fire which could of wiped out the city, we never know?!.

The bunker itself externally and internally is in very good shape, although, John did say it leaked like a sieve!!, and he even said he would not of thought it would of survived a nuclear blast!!, although the bunker is semi sunk, the underground portion does look well protected.
The plant room, toilets, radio room and planning room (which is still used as a meeting room today, although people don't like using it, who can blame them, there are no windows for starters!!) are all on the top floor, strange as you would think these areas need to be protected the most?.

Venturing down the stairs, we were met with a number of rooms, which as from the photo's, you can see are mainly used for storage etc etc.
The kitchen is still there, with most utility's intact, and there was a rather nice picture of a plane sitting on a filing cabinet.
The kitchen did have a strange look pump type device, simular to the pump you see in an ROC post to pump waste water out. Maybe this is what it was used for, as John said, it does leak like a sieve!!!!!

Upon opening some of the storage cupboards, i did feel my rectum twitch as i saw what looked like a RPG, but happily it was only a model?? (or was it!!)

Making our way along we came across 2 different rooms which were also used for storage, and came across the two massive water tanks which held the copious ammounts of water to keep the bunker hydrated.

The next blast door we came to led to the escape hatch, which was accessed up a very daunting, but solid ladder up to a concrete platform, the escape hatch itself was secure and would not budge.

Only one room was not accessible, we made our way to the surface and headed home.

ShadowOps will probably add his photo's (his camera was better than mine!!) soon, and i apoligise for the mismatch photo's which i have uploaded, PhotoBucket is messing me about!!

Enjoy

[southy1981]

Photo's i could not fit on to my previous post



















Again, thanks to John for letting us look round, and to ShadowOps for taking the time to travel down to look round with me.

Andy (southy1981)

[SaltGeorge]

Good work to get in there Andy.. it looks like the council are struggling to fimd a use for it, I doubt it features in many of their civil contingency plans!

[Shadow_Ops]

good pics southy, I will put mine on tomorow afternoon. spoken to my landlord and shown him the picture on the camera and he said it looks like a 4 inch mortar.

[coops]

Great pics mate what an intresting place

[Bunkerkid]

Good report! Although I don't think looking at the stars on these boxes after the bomb went off would be so popular with the staff....

[Shadow_Ops]

heres me view of the place:
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[Krypton]

Fantastic stuff guys this place looks really interesting i would quite like to see it someday!

Good working for getting int here

[BA]

Great stuff guys
Really nice shots

[southy1981]

Firstly, can i just say, in shot number 15 added by ShadowOps, i do not look that ugly in real life, i was talking and trying to look surprised at what i was holding, and the picture got taken at the wrong time!!!!

Yeah this place was brilliant, i dont think it is included in any plans for its intended use anymore.
Seemed strange that all the comms gear was still in situ, as it also looked as though it could be activated straight away.

Unfortunatly, a lot of these places now are used for storage, which is a shame.

We did find out that the Norfolk County Hall does also have an underground bunker, with walls rumoured to be 1 metre thick, so that is next on my list to tap up someone there!!

Andy