Cold War Bunker

Would the team in the 13 rooms of this underground civil defence command post have been able to help the community outside?

Built-in 1954, Gravesend's Cold War bunker was designed to be an underground command post from which Gravesend's rescue and emergency services were to be coordinated in the event of a nuclear attack. Its 13 rooms contained power and ventilation plant, communications areas for the command staff and dormitories.

Refurbished and re-equipped to look as it was in the 1950s, the bunker gives the visitor the chance to experience its atmosphere and glimpse into Cold War England. Exhibits include a domestic fallout room, communications room and a replica radiation monitoring post.

Visitors also have the opportunity to view a government film advising the population on how to protect against a nuclear attack.

The bunker is now the proud new home to a WE177 air-dropped nuclear bomb, once part of Britain's nuclear arsenal against the threat posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.