# Southrn Water Emegency control bunker - Jan 2008



## Maniac (May 2, 2009)

Seeing the recent post about the Thames water underground bunker reminded me of this one in Gillingham in Kent. It's a lot smaller than the Thames water one, and was built with a simelar purpose in mind. 

Southern water built 3 of these in the 1980's - one at Brede in Sussex,one at Twyford in Hampshire and this one at Gillingham in Kent. They were all to be used in the event of a nuclear attack to allow southern water to monitor and control its infratructure, or what remained of it anyway. It was completed, but never fully kitted out or used and was decomissioned fully with the removal of the faraday cage and other equipment sometime in the 90's. 

It was origenally an underground reservoir which was re-inforced and turned into the bunker. 

I apologise for these photos, this was one of the first sites I visited and photographed in January last year, and I didn't have a very good camera or know how yo use it properly then! 

Outside the bunker






Decontamination shower





This would have been a domatory sleeping 9 people in tripple bunk beds. You can see the position of one of these by the 3 lights on the wall, 1 for each bunk. 





One of the massive air filters on the ventilation system





Electrical control panel. You could select Mains or generator from this panel. 





Corridor that linked all the rooms





There was a tiny kitchen area with 2 huge water tanks in. 





Chemical loo





1 way air valves. The Air inside the bunker would be kept at a positive air pressure relative to outside to prevent contamination entering the bunker. 





What would have been the main operations room, the only photo I have of it that's any good





Emegency escape shaft





Showing the size of the door locks on the main blast doors.





Thanks for looking!

Maniac.

Edit: can a mod please correct my spelling of Southern in the title!


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## chelle (May 2, 2009)

*Nice one there Maniac*

Love this one lots..boy have we started something now!

Stu


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## fezzyben (May 2, 2009)

Great stuff buddy, I'm loving all this bunker stuff


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## Foxylady (May 3, 2009)

Blimey, that's some hefty door lock! 
Excellent stuff, Maniac.


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## Maniac (May 3, 2009)

Foxylady said:


> Blimey, that's some hefty door lock!
> Excellent stuff, Maniac.



It's quite interesting to see the slight differences in construction between this one and the thames water one. I always presumed there was one 'template' for designing and building these places, but looking at both sets of photos, it seems they are quite different to each other in a number of subtle but significant ways - the locks on the blast doors are just one example of these, as the ones on this bunker appear much more substantial than the ones on the thames water bunker. 

Maniac.


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## Engineer (May 3, 2009)

*Bunker.*



Maniac said:


> It's quite interesting to see the slight differences in construction between this one and the thames water one. I always presumed there was one 'template' for designing and building these places,.



I seem to remember that some around the country are converted reservoirs?


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## double-six (May 3, 2009)

Wow! I love seeing things like this! Definitely makes you wonder what's lying around out there...


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## BigLoada (May 5, 2009)

This is ace man. I dream of finding underground reservoirs and waterworks stuff. Fascinating indeed!


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## jonney (May 5, 2009)

Here's a link to Kent History Forum which shows the same bunker I think http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=265.0 this next link gives a bit more info http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/articles/2009/01/21/south_s15_w2_bunker_video_feature.shtml


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