Interesting article from the local paper
Neill
"Does secret bunker lie under housing land?
A SECRET government underground bunker may be buried under land
earmarked for housing.
The hidden chambers are believed to lie in Hinchley Wood to the rear
of the site of old government offices on the A309 at Claygate Lane,
where 145 homes are planned.
It is possible the bunker still has an oak panelled office and its
original furniture inside.
Developer Taylor Wimpey, which owns the land, has applied for
permission to build houses and flats on the site with a pre-school and
parking. Its initial application said there was ‘no justification for
further archaeological work on this site’.
But after residents learned of the presence of potential bunkers, the
company has agreed a study of the site.
Joe Cunnane of agents Cunnane Town Planning LLP said the study would
discover exactly what was there. But he refused to comment on the
potential impact any discovery could have on the site.
It is believed the bunker could be made up of two interconnected
chambers.
If it is found to have national importance, it could be the most
significant historical find in Hinchley Wood since the semaphore tower
onTelegraph Hill and the rail station around which the village was
built.
However the history of the site is uncertain and no one knows what is
under the ground by the slope leading to Surbiton Golf Course.
Heathside resident Peter Almond came across the bunkers as he walked
dogs.
He said: “I attended the Taylor Wimpey presentation to the Hinchley
Wood Residents’ Association a few days earlier and was intrigued that
here was a site that was effectively closed to local residents for
almost the last 70 years.
“The day before it was due to be handed over from Land Securities (for
the Government) to Taylor Wimpey I asked if I could have a quick look
around and it was the security guard who asked if I knew about the
bunkers.
“He pointed to some steps which did suggest they might have gone much
further down. They run alongside a heavy concrete wall, which looked
inconsistent with the brick single-storey office buildings nearby.
There is a sloped area of flat grass on top which could have been the
top of the bunker.
“The abandoned Medicines Control Agency (MCA) building is next to it
and single storey offices go further along. What looked like another
large section of a bunker is right next to them.”
Mr Almond says he has obtained an e-mail exchange between two former
government employees at the site, indicating there was considerable
interest in the bunkers before the site was vacated last January.
One employee asked of her colleague: “Can you tell us where the
entrance to them is? We are all keen to know what the inside is like,
before it all gets flattened.”
The colleague replied: “The entrance spur was demolished some years
ago. The bunker is under block 3 towards the top end away from the
canteen. There is a secondary exit/ entrance but I couldn’t find it.
“The bunker was a fully-furnished communications office and built
around an oak structure. As far as I know the furniture is still in
situ.”
It is understood the site was acquired by the government in the early
1940s and developed as interconnected, single-storey office buildings.
It is believed the Ordnance Survey was based there and Ministry of
Defence map makers at the site worked there day and night in the early
1990s preparing thousands of maps of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq for
troops getting ready the first Gulf War.
Howard Mallinson, author of A History of Hinchley Wood, believes
various government departments used the site but public records do not
clearly distinguish between the Lynwood Road site in Hinchley Wood,
used primarily by the Inland Revenue, and the A309 Kingston bypass
site.
It was more recently used by the Department of Social Welfare and
Pensions and by the Government Fraud Intelligence Service, among
others. According to the desk-top archaeology study, there is no
indication when or why the bunkers were built.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it had no record of bunkers
there. Neither did English Heritage’s military buildings section,
Surrey County Council’s archaeologist, Elmbridge Borough Council, or
the previous owners."
My guess is old raid raid shelter, or possibly some sort of command
bunker for the site. A similar structure like the latter existed at
the government buildings along Leatherhead Road in Chessington.
Neill