Dorking Deepdene Railway Control Centre - Surrey - January 2018

Gromr · Jan 20, 2018

Another local one that I've been wanting to do for ages, but never got round to it until now.
It's filled full of asbestos, so I made sure to bring my good PP3 mask, but even that wasn't enough probably.

History

During World War 2, the Southern Railway took over the Deepdene Hotel near Dorking in Surrey for its wartime emergency headquarters. In the grounds they excavated an underground control centre taking advantage of a network of existing natural caves that had been acknowledged 300 years before in the diaries of John Evelyn. Because of the natural protection afforded by the location of the caves they were eminently suitable for the development of a bunker to house both the headquarters' telephone exchange and Traffic Control who also had their underground control centre there with underground divisional controls at Woking (South West Division), Southampton (Western Division), Orpington (South Eastern Division) and Redhill (Central Division)

The Explore

I got a message in the morning saying it's doable and to go soon. So a few hours later I was there and inside.
I'd been meaning to do this one for a long time now, especially as its pretty local, so now was a good a time as any.

It's actually not a very large bunker, but its nice for its modest size. The infamous 100 steps lived up to its reputation as terrifying. I only went up a few steps, but that's enough.

I actually bumped into another explorer here who got the fright of his life as I turned the corner and shown my light at him in a moment of confusion and panic. Turned out to be someone else who got the memo and took a trip down to see it from a little further afield.

A nice little bunker, rich full of history.

Photos

Dirus_Strictus · Jan 20, 2018

Quote - It's filled full of asbestos, so I made sure to bring my good PP3 mask, but even that wasn't enough probably. - Quote

Very nice images of this place. So you protected your lungs, but what about all the debris that could be adhering to your clothes? Which is why, in my working days, we always wore disposable overalls when examining building / testing for the damned stuff and cleaned our kit properly afterwards. Once saw a fully kitted up explorer come out of a well known contaminated mill (since demolished) in West Yorks, remove his mask and overalls, lift the tail gate of his Estate and chuck them in the back. Only problem in my experience was the fact that he had his wife sitting in the front seat and two kids in the back. He only laughed when me and my mate pointed out what he was probably doing to his family.

Gromr · Jan 20, 2018

That's the trouble. That stuff sticks to your clothes, really you need disposable white overalls as you say and then bin them (in a safe place). But even then you still have the issue of it sticking to other stuff like my camera bag etc.

Horrible stuff.