Secret Nuclear Bunker Under Manchester
George Coney
Read about it at http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/
If anyone knows any more about this bunker please let me know.
I will be adding more information and pictures to the site in the near
future.
Regards,
George Coney
____________________________________________________________
George Coney
Cybertron Limited
Chorlton
MANCHESTER, UK
email: geo...@cybertrn.demon.co.uk
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Personal URL: http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/
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Stuart Baldwin
<geo...@cybertrn.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>There is a secret nuclear bunker under Manchester City Centre!
>Read about it at http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/
Interesting. I also have a copy of "War Plan UK", 1983 edition, and
also have a 1979 edition of "Beneath the City Streets" by Peter Laurie
that covers much of the same ground and indeed refersd to some of
Campbell's earlier research, but doesn't mention Guardian. I had
assumed that what you describe as a Norweb building was actually the
eastern entrance to the tunnel as it does appear to be a bit too large
and well ventilated to be just a substation. However, if the 'shed'
that you identify as the Salford end is all that's necessary there (I
haven't looked for it myself) then I suppose that it may be all that is
needed at the Ardwick end. The only information that I have to go on is
what is in War Plan UK.
By the way, if anyone hasn't worked out where the Ardwick buildings we
are talking about are - they are right next to the on-ramp of the
Mancunian Way (M57) westbound at the London Road junction.
I think your idea of turning it into a museum is interesting, but do you
know what condition it's in or whether it's currently in use by BT?
--
Stuart http://www.boxatrix.demon.co.uk
George Coney
new to be the entrance to the Guardian tunnels built in the 1950s. I have
been in touch with Duncan Campbell (author of War Plan UK) about this and he
has an idea about what the new building may be. I will be having another
look at it soon to try to confirm these suspicions. The site will be updated
when I get new info.
Hopefully I will also be adding some pictures taken inside Guardian (not
taken by me!).
I don't know what condition any of the tunnels, etc. are in.
As far as I know it all belongs to BT now but I doubt it is still in use.
---
George Coney
George Coney <geo...@cybertrn.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:931822527.784.0....@news.demon.co.uk...
> There is a secret nuclear bunker under Manchester City Centre!
> Read about it at http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/
>
Andy Taylor
house at the intersection of Shudehill and Cross Street, 7 previously
un-documented, sub-basement floors were discovered, with locked doors into
mysterious tunnels. Could this be part of the same network?
Regards
Andy Taylor
Robert Casey
Members of the Manchester Civic Society visited the tunnels not that long
ago. I spoke to the lady who organised it and she said that it had been
allowed because the MCS Chairwoman was friends with someone high up in BT.
She thought the tour was superb.
I was interested in organising a visit for my company but she said it was
highly unlikely that this would be allowed because they were now considered
'unsafe' for public access. She didn't know whether this was just a ploy or
if there really was a problem.
It really is a pity because there are so many fascinating places to visit in
the city and which are usually out of bounds. I recently managed to arrange
a trip up the Town Hall clock tower - we all stood under the main bell when
it struck 7 o'clock which was deafening - and the views were brilliant.
Robert
Robert Casey
Robert Casey wrote in message <7mirir$2kk$1...@barcode.tesco.net>...
>
>Members of the Manchester Civic Society visited the tunnels not that long
>ago. I spoke to the lady who organised it and she said that it had been
>allowed because the MCS Chairwoman was friends with someone high up in BT.
>She thought the tour was superb.
I recall that she also said that the tunnels, rooms and been left virtually
untouched since being built and that it was all rather eerie. They met at
the entrance in Chinatown and went down in the lift there.
Dan Scorpio
tunnels under Stockport? Anyone know anything about that?
Another friend (and may I say here that this is rumour) said his old man
used to be a miner at Bold Colliery and that there were certain mine tunnels
(towards Burtonwood) that were tabboo areas. The pit is now shut, but the
military (RAF/USAF) still have a huge stores complex at Burtonwood.
Robert Casey wrote in message <7misp0$k6g$1...@epos.tesco.net>...
Martin Palmer
<zen...@globalnet.co.uk> gave forth, thus:
>Friend of mine told me (years ago) that he had actually explored some
>tunnels under Stockport? Anyone know anything about that?
Yes - there's a bloomin' big entrance at the back of the Co-op right
in the middle of Stockport, widely advertised, quite a tourist
attraction. They were used as air-raid shelters during WW2, and now
you can have guided tours for a couple of quid. My youngest went there
on a school trip a couple of years ago.
Martin Palmer
----------------------
Life - just one damn thing after another
----------------------
www.palmerco.u-net.com
----------------------
remove your_hat to reply via email
Ste Pickford
'Maggie's Caves' for some reason. The entrance was one of those air-raid
shelter entrances past Hollywood Park if you walked out of Stockport centre
towards Edgely / Cheadle.
We used to go and play hide and seek down there as kids, but they were
absolutely MASSIVE. We would enter the caves (which were WW2 air raid
shelters as there were loads of rusty bunk beds) and walk for about 1/2 a
mile (guided by one of only about 3 kids who knew the whole layout) until we
got to a small section at the end about 100 * 100 meters that only had one
entrance. We would mark this entrance so nobody wandered out by accident,
then play hide and seek for hours in our small section, or at least until
our torch batteries started to run out.
I never properly explored the whole of the caves, but they were enormous.
There was a rumour at the time (early eighties) that they joined up with the
caves behind the Co-op, but I can't verify that.
Malc92
<Robert...@tesco.net> wrote:
>Members of the Manchester Civic Society visited the tunnels not that long
>ago. I spoke to the lady who organised it and she said that it had been
>allowed because the MCS Chairwoman was friends with someone high up in BT.
>She thought the tour was superb.
She didn't get to see the laboratories where they breed the
human/alien hybrids then? Or the secret hangar where they've nearly
got that crashed saucer fully functional again? :)
Dave Atkinson
Canada, especially Montreal and Toronto. To escape the cold winters and
hot summers most of the city centre shops are built underground, or at
ground level, and linked by underground walkways. This has the added
benefit of continuing to allow traffic through the city, but reducing
traffic/pedestrian "interaction" :-)
If necessary replace "nospam.please" when replying
--
Dave Atkinson E-Mail : webm...@kynson.org.uk
WWW : http://www.kynson.org.uk
icq : 43284545
Reeves is offside again : a Carlisle United eFanzine
Tom M
pyramid just before the Bow Garrett pub...i have always wondered where they
went as i drive past them every day.
I also remember a "new telephone exchange" being installed below piccadilly
gardens in the 60's..there was a lot of romours as i think they closed picc.
gardens while a lot of excavation took place. ( OK ..i remember a lot of
diggin anyway!!)
I heard from a BT guy that there was a large shaft somewhere around
chinatown in mcr. where all the machinery was lowered into for the
"guardian??" excavtions. They reassmenbled the machinery once it was
lowered...and the story goes that it is still down there!!!
And finally, I heard there was an underground rail link running from
Agecroft Colliery right into the city centre of mcr.
And i also heard that daewoos are a very reliable car!!
Spooky, eh???
TOMM
--
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Ste Pickford <s...@zedtwo.com> wrote in message
news:378f...@news.xtml.co.uk...
George Coney
Street building shown on the web site.
http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/
Tom M <tommR...@globalnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7mo4m5$5b3$1...@gxsn.com...
RampRat
Novotel is now.
Or at least there was until recently
Ade Broom <ad...@SPAM.NO.bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:37943b95...@news.ukgateway.net...
> Hi there
> Came across this MEN article in May. It's got (half-toned) pictures as
> well if you want them emailing.
>
>
> \|/ Ade
> ICQ 1795...@pager.mirabilis.com
> Email ad...@bigfoot.com
> Web http://come.to/adeb
> Voice +1 530 326-9673
> Fax +1 530 831-5562 or +44(0)870 0888571
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> Underground Manchester
>
> Last week when the world thought Russia had re-targeted nuclear
> missiles at Britain because of our Serbian air strikes, the bad old
> days of the Cold war came flooding back. Back In those days, there
> were rumours of a bombproof town beneath the pavements of Manchester.
> An urban myth or grim Reality? We sent ADAM MOSS to find out
>
> THERE used to be schoolyard rumours that an entire city existed
> beneath the streets of Manchester Schoolboy fantasy? Most people
> thought so. That was 20 years ago - when the Cold War's deadly chill
> was felt throughout the West. The enemy was Russia and the nuclear
> threat was real. Still, an underground city -surely that would be too
> much to conceal? But the schoolyard rumour leaked out of the
> playground and onto the streets. An urban myth was created.
>
> It is only in recent years, with the easing of tensions between East
> and West, that the truth has slowly started to emerge, revealing some
> fascinating facts about Manchester's preparations for a nuclear
> attack. There is a town, of sorts, directly beneath the heart of our
> city. It doesn't have its own cathedral or shops, but it was built for
> people with their own sub-culture, secrets and special powers. These
> people weren't, as the playground believed, comic book superheroes.
> They were, in fact, British Telecom engineers. There IS a bunker and a
> web of tunnels 112ft below Manchester, constructed during the Cold War
> to house the technical elite who would keep communications intact in
> the event of a nuclear attack on Manchester. Its location was a secret
> and its two entrances were anonymous doorways in Chinatown and at the
> back of the Piccadilly Hotel.
>
> It was called Guardian and was built in 1954 when the tensions between
> the Eastern bloc and the west were at their most acute. Apart from
> being on standby for a nuclear attack Guardian was also a fully
> operational fault repair centre for the city's domestic and business
> telephone systems. British Telecom staff worked down there, carrying
> out normal business but, were never allowed to reveal the secret of
> their workplace. "We all had to sign the Official Secrets Act," says
> BT spokeswoman Pat O'Keefe. "It's still there now, underneath York
> Street, with tunnels connecting to Ardwick and Salford. It is defunct
> these days and no-one goes down there at the moment because there is
> some problem with the safety of it. .But it is, to all intents and
> purposes, a small town. It has a full set of offices and connecting
> corridors, sleeping quarters, food supplies, kitchens, a telephone
> exchange and toilet accommodation.
>
> "The tunnels were designed to carry cables to existing telephone
> systems but people could travel down them too. It was capable of
> withstanding an atom bomb blast but not a hydrogen bomb." G Guardian
> had its own 574ft deep water well and 35-ton concrete doors. It had a
> canteen and an aquarium full of tropical fish. There was a mess room
> too with its own piano and pool table. But staff denied all knowledge
> of its nuclear capability. When questioned by an MEN reporter about
> its real purpose as recently as 1983, one BT engineer said: 'What
> nuclear shelter? Maybe someone knows more than we do but, as far as we
> are concerned this is just an Underground telephone exchange."
>
> Norman Davey, Manchester City Council's principal emergency planning
> officer, reveals that the location and purpose of Guardian was top
> secret until just the last few years. He says: "This was a
> communications bunker and was a closely guarded secret until tie early
> 1990s'. But there was another nuclear bunker for Manchester. That is
> sited underground at the rear of the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle.
> "It is a two storey concrete bunker with three-feet thick walls and
> was equipped especially for us e by the police, army, fire and other
> emergency services in the event of a nuclear attack. "It also had is
> own Telecommunications system. The whole thing is still there now but
> I think it is used to store hospital records these days." ·
> AN exhibition by Doria Hemming based on the British nuclear deterrent,
> called Give Battle In Vain, is being held at the Cube gallery,
> Portland Street until May 28
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> "George Coney" <geo...@cybertrn.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >There is a secret nuclear bunker under Manchester City Centre!
> >Read about it at http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/guardian/
> >
> >If anyone knows any more about this bunker please let me know.
> >
> >I will be adding more information and pictures to the site in the near
> >future.
> >
> >Regards,
> >George Coney
> >
>
> \|/ Ade
> ICQ 1795...@pager.mirabilis.com
> Email ad...@bigfoot.com
> Web http://come.to/adeb
> Voice +1 530 326-9673
> Fax +1 530 831-5562 or +44(0)870 0888571