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Underground 'Cold War City' For Sale
Hogwash McFly writes "A huge underground complex that was built as a nuclear refuge for the British Prime Minister in the 1950s has been put on the market. Code-named Burlington, the bunker now has a population of only four maintenance workers, yet sprawls over 240 acres and accommodates 60 miles of roads. Underground power stations supply energy for 100,000 street lamps and amenities include a railway station and a pub called the Rose and Crown. Among ideas suggested for the £5,000,000 bunker include a data centre, wine cellar, rave club or fifties theme park. It is not clear whether a tank for keeping laser-equipped sharks is included, however."
I've always wanted to start my own city.....
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I recall some Canadian relatives discussing a bunker called the Diefen Bunker. I think they said it's a tourist attraction now. They give tours as if it were a museum.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Imagine the killer bud you could grow in that place.
as stated before, we really need to filter out these damned ad articles.
But... isn't he going to need it when the terrorists attack?
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I think it's worth spending that money just so you can say you live in motherlands basement.
Actually I remember an episode of "The Avengers" where emma and steed were trapped in an underground city..
"Insolvate Russia"?? That's a new twist. Can't handle it! -1 Troll
The Canadian version is the Diefenbunker. Located in the village of Carp (near Ottawa), it's now decomissioned, and a tourist attraction. Guided tours are available in the summer.
Mmmmmmm. Floor pie!
I don't know about anyone else, but I'd like to turn in into my own British Bat Cave. Kind of like where a combination of James Bond and Bruce Wayne would live.
Do I get the "four maintainance workers" with the city? Is slavery illegal underground? Oh, and I welcome our new underground mole-people overlords (couldn't help myself)
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For a time, the massive bunker's only inhabitant was Margaret Thatcher's previously unknown geek son, who wasted away his days coding, playing D&D with his online friends, and playing scrabble against himself while sheepishly avoiding the opposite sex.
He is noted to have posted on many USENET boards, "oh yeah? Well you should see MY mom's basement, where I live. It's soooo much cooler than yours."
Sorta makes you wonder what kind of place they replaced it with.
> ...sprawls over 240 acres and accommodates 60 miles of roads...
...100,000 street lamps...
60 miles of 30 foot wide road covers 218 acres.
>
That's 417 street lamps per acre, or one for every three feet of your 60 miles of road.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The history of the place has to be put together from different parts of the article. At first glance it seems that it was created from scratch for government officials but read the whole thing: First it was a mine which was worked out. The mine was converted into an ammo dump for WWII, at which time it became a military installation. And then in the 50's, before ICBMs and missile submarines, it was finally made into a bomb shelter. Fairly reasonable then when nuclear warheads numbered in the dozens worldwide. The only real question is why it wasn't decommissioned in the 70's (when ICBMs and subs made getting there from London unlikely) and turned into something else instead of waiting til now.
One could sell it to the NSA, lots of room for more computers to crack crypto and spy.
Or create a new city. So when war does come around again if you have a condo in this city you will do well.
It could be used as a European maximum security jail, and if the residents don't produce and live like humans turn off the power and air. Sort of like Escape from NY but with fewer avenues of escape.
Turn it into a museum. Put all sorts of stuff down there, plains, trains, submarines, crown jewels maybe even parliment.
Starring Christopher Walker, Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, and Sissy Spacek. Oh, nevermind!
Click here or here.
Here is a report on the bunker with many photos. It is actual the "Burlington" bunker in Corsham, declassified by the MOD (==DOD). More photo's here.
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WELCOME to Cold War City (population: 4).
I hope one of those employees is the barkeep.
The only sentry is a garden gnome outside one of the entrances.
Dave: "'E's got gno-o-omes"
Gaz: "Aye, 'e bloody well would have."
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
The Federal Government of Germany tried to sell of its bunker some years ago.
Despite some more or less reasonable offers it never got sold as the potential buyers were not willing to accept certain obligations, such as equipping it with a new structural fire protection. It is now sealed and flooded.
Too bad, actually
Alex
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
pics ...r lington/photos.shtml
http://www.chocolatechipdesign.co.uk/nettleden/bu
But I just could not find an aerial photo! WTF!
A guy walks into a bar... well, I forgot the joke, but the punchline is that he's an alcoholic.
A post-apocalyptic tale based on a novella by Harlan Ellison. A boy communicates telepathically with his dog as they scavenge for food and sex, and they stumble into an underground society where the old society is preserved. The daughter of one of the leaders of the community seduces and lures him below, where the citizens have become unable to reproduce because of being underground so long. They use him for impregnation purposes, and then plan to be rid of him.
They should make it into a real life Half-Life theme park. That would kick ass.
60 miles of 30 foot wide road covers 218 acres.
umm...yeah, you see, in the middle of the american heartland, in the south, southwest, and west, 30 foot wide roads are pretty common place. However, in places that are really cramped for space (New England and old England, for example) you have roads that are noticably less wide. Some one way roads in my neck of the woods (Boston) are barely wide enough to accomodate 1-way traffic. The street on which I live, on which it is permitted to park on both sides of the street mind you, is about 12 feet across. There are even some "roads" in Boston's oldest neighborhoods that really are just narrow alleys that could never accomodate a car.
By road here, they could mean a series of very narrow one way roads and well-paved footpaths. Or maybe everyone in the underground city was supposed to be riding a vespa (a very logical idea, I'd think), or something similar, in which case all of one's roads could essentially be well-paved footpaths. In fact, in such a situation, electric scooters would be the ideal vehicle (low-power requirements, non-polluting, not very loud).
my pet machine
In the plains east of Denver there are a number of abandoned Titan missile silos. They were built under land leased from farmers and ranchers, and when the missiles and classified equipment were removed the government returned the structures to the landowners. For many years, teenagers snuck into them at night to toke up and hook up, and the owners had little success trying to block the entrances.
Occasionally a developer would announce a plan to turn them into energy-saving underground homes, but none of those schemes got very far...by now, I understand most of the owners have sprung for a load of Ready-Mix to close the entrances for good.
rj
SOLD
I hear some company by the name of, The Umbrella Corporation, just bought it.
When work feels overwhelming, remember that you're going to die.
It's in England therefore there is no 'barkeep' instaed we have a landlord.
and i've got just the name for it...
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
I can just see it now. "Lightning bolt!... Lightning bolt!... Lightning bolt!"
The purpose of these bunkers was so the political elite could survive the nuclear holocaust brought upon their subjects. In my opinion they ought to have suffered the same fate as the people if anything really bad happened.
Of course only essential people were allowed--cabinet ministers, and attractive secretaries, and a few maintenance people. This way, the politicians could restart civilization with their superior genes and the young ladies who worked in their office.
Close to the earth's core, the only place it is warm enough to support life...Zion...
Here's a tour. It's a huge installation. Not in bad shape for a bunker, but will need considerable work to be usable.
Two things could be done with this complex. Turn it into a museum, say The Museum of the Apocalypse. Include a amusement park, a bar, a cannabis 'chill center', a dance hall for raves, etc...
Or sell it to modern billionaires who are more important than the British Prime Minister.
After all, it's not like the 10000 Hydrogen bombs and 1000 ICBMs actually went away. They're still around. Which means that an underground shelter might still be a wise precaution.
Better yet, turn it into an art museum. That way, if the bombs do go off and the urban center surfaces of the planet are destroyed, the great art masterpieces will be saved for the human survivors living a hundred generations after WarDay.
Which is why the Yamantau Mountain complex in Russia, some 1 300 km from Moscow, has raised so many eyebrows.
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
How about 'the worlds largest library?'
Not only would it have tons of books (literally), it would also act as a time capsule when the zombies come.
If I purchase it will they deliver it to my Texas ranch?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
can be seen here.
Best regards, A.C.
I mean, in the 50s, a pint of beer was 9 and half pence, a pound of hash were 10 bobs and a good meal under one pound....
If you truly respects this price scale, you can consider me your first landlord 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
... and buy that thing for the slashdot community! It's only 5.5 £ / user.
/. servers, underground soccer, ...
We could do whatever we want with it. Put in a thick internet pipe and have some fun. Lan parties, new secure location for the
"Hundreds of swivel chairs delivered in 1959 are still unpacked."
Frickin' rotating chairs!
Grunt: Captain, the killer bud is advancing! What can we use to stop those evil plants?
Captain: Fire...and lots of it...
Grunt: Err, are you ok, sir? Your eyes look a little red.
Captain: Wow, my hand looks so huuuge.
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"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
:-) How the history will describe this buiding?
...).
"Techno-slaves built the secure shelter for their king for the case of event that the king decides to presses the button labeled 'nuclear destruction of the world'." ???
Why are the poeple still living in the same shit? The only difference is that we shit has many "advatages" such as 64-bit machines and cars with many horses inside... but the rest is all about the same (just differently named Kindom=Democracy, Kind=President/Prime Minister, cottar=voter,
Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
It's value as a bomb shelter went away when slow flying bombers were no longer the weapon delivery mechanism. As the article says, once the warning time dropped to 4 minutes, evacuating to the shelter became impossible.
Your vision sounds like a milder version of the Stanford prison experiment. You could really mess with some people's psychology.
If you read about it, the webpage states that it was never originally designed to be a bunker in the first place. It was designed to be a tunnel for transporting troops to the western front in the event of a war with France (Pre-WWI).
But does it come with sharks with friggin lasers on their heads? All good underground bunkers come with sharks with friggin lasers on thier heads. :)
The U.S. has a hotel outside Washington that had an underground bunker that was kept secret for many years. It was decommissioned a few years ago. The hotel on top of it continues to operate.
You're right on your evaluation of power in Britain, but you miss one thing - if there is a nuclear strike, or even just civil unrest - anything that offers protection will be taken by the military. Money has value because it is backed by guns.
Incidentally, the Corsham site is well known and there is a good book on it here for anyone who is interested in this.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Good god, you're not kidding! Next time, I'll just buy a ticket to this place instead of messing with all that Steam cruft.
Drop the apology, and you've got the first good one in a while.
Play Command HQ online
I believe I found a page with photos of the shelter in question. Not as glamorous as the article makes it out to be, but meh, it would make a good film location for a remake of Day of the Dead, perhaps.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Now I know why everyone is working on those Star Trek like transporters...
Grand Theft Auto: Burlington
Crikey, just sell it to Michael Jackson.
It is available only as part of a private finance initiative that involves investing in the military base on the surface above.
With the interests in wine cellars there, I'm going to open a brothel, ala The Bunny Ranch (http://www.bunnyranch.com/). Them randy doughboys need a good shag, 'gov.
Of course, I'll have to import "talent" as English women aren't attractive (http://www.rainbowstudios.com/people/thewave/Imag es/London/Large/Beautifull%20English%20Women.JPG).
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Imagine the possibilities!
I grew up in Corsham, so I know the area pretty well.
Under Corsham, and the surrounding towns and villages, is a massive network of limestone quarries. Rumours of a nuclear shelter existed for years, but other parts of the quarries have been (and still remain to be) used for military, for example Spring Quarry and Copenacre (on Google Earth 5125'57.24"N 212'50.94"W). Many are now used for document and other items (like wine as mentioned in the articles) storage.
There used to be a museum in Corsham which allowed access to one of the mines (not the military ones), however this closed several years ago.
... to find Vault 13. It's in England!
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Tell me I'm not the only one who wishes he could buy the place, bring some guns and washing machines down there (and an Apple IIe), play Mama Cass's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" every morning... and setup a system of telescopes and mirrors so I could see if anyone was coming inside.
Office Space trivia game - play it now douche hole.
LAN PARTY HEAVEN! ....reminds me of that old Nuke base they were selling on eBay for 3 mil. like 1/2 the acres of this one, but had alot. Reservior and powerplant.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's only 5 million pounds. It can house 4000 people, that works out to 1250 pounds each. I'll toss in a couple grand to be part owner. :)
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I find it even more hilarious when people making comments about people losing karma for not getting a first post lose karma themselves. It's not self-ownage so much as it is a public proclamation of their idiocy.
I bid 10,000 Quatloos for the Gates-thrall!
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
I always considered the basic premise of the old C64 game "Impossible Mission" to be pretty lame. I'm not so sure any more . . . :-)
sigs are hazardous to your health
My own personal version of StarCraft!!!
Because I have low karma, I need pills.
I wouldn't mind putting in a bid for one of the road signs for the secret bunker just north of here.
Very... eeerrrmmm..
(Must be there to confuse the IRA.)
Or... you could put a house on top of the main entrance and have your mom live in the house while you live in the "basement".
Geez, if you're going to post on
"That's so plausible, I can't believe it!" - Leela
So, you own a place called "Sealand", huh? Does that make you "Seaman"?
me: Look over there, it's Seaman!
girls: Oooo, where!?
Sorry, totally ripped from South Park.
"That's so plausible, I can't believe it!" - Leela
This place is a perfct Evil Lair for World Domination... I can't belive some Evil Genius hasn't already bought it up! It looks like every 60's evil lair minus the henchmen. Or for that matter it looks like a lot of FPS video games!
Bulington Coat Factory should buy it just for the PR sake.
Charles Jo
This is just the old one that they they are selling off. The new one is much larger and nicer.
underground!
Make sure to have a light, or you will be likely eaten by a grue.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
The slashdot community should band together and buy the city, and make a techno-utopia. Then we wouldn't need to bother with stupid people.
I would dub it Alpha Complex and install the glorious regime of the Computer. Hail friend Computer! Let the paranoia begin :-)
Remember: Happiness is mandatory.
I've seen multiple underground facilities like this sell before. Many Titan missile bases and such are sold via ebay. I even saw one that came close to the square footage [not the cost, i think it went for 2-4 million (and cost many many many times that to make so i consider that a deal)] of the one in the article
it's nothing really all that uncommon in the states.
Say wha?
Yet another shining example of a news story that quite possibly REQUIRES oodles of photographs, and yet shows absolutely none. double-u tee eff.
http://www.huntmidwest.com/Subtropolis/Index.shtml
and sour grapes aside, look at my submit list.
"Some crazy underground real estate Sat Oct 22, '05 08:59 PM Rejected "
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
"WASTED"? are you kidding?
Make them into practice studios for new rock bands, or a school for all kinds rock music. That way, no matter how bad and loud the bands are, they won't disturb the neighbors. Great Britain could potentially become the world-wide leader in rock music, turning out all kinds of great bands.
Yamantau is quite close to central asia. Central Asia is considered the strategic core of the planet by a lot of strategists, politicians, reporters etc. The reason it is so important is because of the abundance of resources in the region. According to energy analyst Michael T. Klare "... the region, which stretches from the Ural Mountains to China's western border, has now become a major strategic prize, because of the vast reserves of oil and natural gas thought to lie under and around the Caspian Sea." I'd imagine Yamantau will be some form of future command centre for a major war in the area probably for a last dash for resources between the US (from Afghanistan), China, Iran and Russia themselves. And that's just the nation states fighting, it doesn't take into consideration the major ethnic conflicts that are in the region.
In the early 90's th U.S. declassified the bunker under the Greenbrier resort in WV - http://www.atomictourist.com/green.htm - and while not as big as the U.K. city, it's open for tours...
Ramen
First, pictures? Please? Someone?
Second, think for a few moments: Great Britain, while a major world power, is hardly going to have been the only nation to think of this sort of thing. Moreover, I'd be a bit surprised if they built the biggest or even the nicest of the underground Cold-War cities. I'm not saying that the US did: Most likely some OPEC Sheik created something to make the brain stagger in the middle of some unknown desert.
Point is, how many of these things exist? How fancy do they get?
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
For those who saw the rather dated (now) but still compelling British mini-series "Edge of Darkness", does this sound a bit familiar? Anyone know whether the location is the same - at the very least, certain scenes in Edge of Darkness seemed inspired by the existence of this bunker, right down to some of the details.
Does $5M strike anyone else as cheap? I mean, 60 miles of roads - that's only 15.80 per foot of road, even if the road is only 8' wide, less than 2 pounds per square foot for any constructed item is cheap, and amazingly so for an underground bunker. The place might be a maintenance nightmare, otherwise, it's the cheapest bat-cave per square foot I've ever heard of.
Funny, because it was designed specifically to protect from "magic missile."
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You've been watching too much hentai. Sheesh!
But if it was true then maybe we could finally make a live action film adaptation of our favourite tentacle rape hentai?
Maybe I've been watching too much hentai. (And ironically the authentication word that I have to type in is "nailed".)
Playboy needs to expand to Europe.
Imagine how great the "boobie bunker" would be!
There's so much potential.
Retro, war pr0n!
"I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy at the bottom of some of our deeper mineshafts. The radioactivity would never penetrate a mine some thousands of feet deep. And in a matter of weeks, sufficient improvements in dwelling space could easily be provided."
"How long would you have to stay down there?"
"I would think that uh possibly one hundred years."
"You mean, people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?"
"It would not be difficult mein Fuhrer! Nuclear reactors could, heh... I'm sorry. Mr. President. Nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely. Greenhouses could maintain plantlife. Animals could be bred and slaughtered. A quick survey would have to be made of all the available mine sites in the country. But I would guess... that ah, dwelling space for several hundred thousands of our people could easily be provided."
"Well I... I would hate to have to decide who stays up and who goes down."
"Well, that would not be necessary Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross section of necessary skills. Of course it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would bemuch time, and little to do. But ah with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present gross national product within say, twenty years."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/
"I'm wearing boots of escaping!"
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Gather up all the world's politicians and religious leaders and shove them down in that place and seal it over. Optionally, you could plumb all the world's sewage into there as well, though you would be hard pressed to distinguish the former from the latter.
From the article:
More outlandish ideas put forward include... a 1950s theme park....
This isn't really that outlandish, except I think the theme should be the Cold War. Opening it to the public nearly "as is" may be the best use for it. It would give people a chance to see the lengths that Western governments went to during the Cold War. Having been born near the end of the Cold War, I never experienced much of it's side effects (e.g., bomb drills where students were taught to crouch under their desks). This is an important part of history, and I'd like to see it preserved. Those who are ignorant to history...
There's another one you can visit in Essex - http://www.secretnuclearbunker.co.uk/. It's near Kelvedon Hatch, follow the signs for the "secret nuclear bunker" :)
Worth going to just for the commentary, which is very dry and very funny.
I'd buy it and cover the main entrance with a plain red doghouse.
if it were still secret it would have made a great place to plot the conquest of thew world from.
does it come with a big red self destruct button?
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
If you see the numbers "4 8 15 16 23 42" written on the entrance hatch, probably best not to buy it.
... there is a 'Soviet' invasion, the lights go to 'emergency dim/flicker' and everyone cranks out the paintball guns.
they hold the TLDs :-(
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
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We should get some of these underground mineshaft cities in the USA. Mister President, we must not have a mineshaft gap!
-Ben
I'd prefer a theme park based on the PARANOIA RPG...
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Neon Genesis Evangelion anyone? Was the first thing that came to my mind.
Heck,
I think it would be awesome, for an entire society to live down there of g33k's. I would make it the worlds largest place for LAN parties. Half of UK's g33k's are invited to the world's largest LAN party 24 hours a day for 3 day's Friday to Sunday
Now there is something
Ryan
P.S. After coming out for three day's non stop of LAN games you discover the worlds gone like in 28 day's later
You have to love this place: no worries about heating in the winter or ac in the summer, just ventilation issues. It comes with a built in transportation system, and the views are to die for. I WANT ONE!!
"Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller. I'm not smart enough to have said it myself.