projects - bempton


Underground

Accessed through the bungalow down a flight of stairs and further down a slanting gradient tunnel, was the main underground control centre. The centre was designed and built to withstand a near miss by a 20kT nuclear weapon, and thus features telltale signs such as the huge heavy blast doors, air purification and recycling systems, etc.

The bunker consists of three levels: a bottom level used as a base for machinery and for some underground generators, also a fake floor to combat flooding; a middle level, detailed below; and an upper level used for storage and trunking.

Underground Map
  1. Bungalow - typical Rotor base style bungalow, with stairwell access to the main tunnel corridor. No.1 on map B.
  2. Main Tunnel/Corridor
  3. Vestibule
  4. Ventilation shaft
  5. Vestibule
  6. Main Operations Room
  7. Second Operations Room - this room had a gantry above it. All along the top of rooms 8, 9, 10 and 11 was storage space which was accessible from this gantry.
  8. Gents & Ladies Toilets
  9. Recreation Area
  10. Kitchen, with wall/serving hatches to the rec area (9) and the dining area (11)
  11. Dining Area
  12. Vestibule
  13. Generator Room - the mountings still exist for the power generator
  14. Air Purification plant
  15. Vestibule
  16. Ventilation shaft correlates to no.12 on map B.
  17. Stairwell to surface outhouse - it is estimated that the cliff face is maybe 200m away from this surface point, and the farmer has confirmed that a passageway leads onto the cliff face itself. This correlates to no.13 on map B. Overground pictures are available here.
Note: Where the description has been given as 'Vestibule' this is because there were no discernable methods of identifying the means of the room, ie. no brackets, cabling, etc.

We did not find any obvious sleeping quarters; during normal shift rotation the sleeping quarters would have been in Bempton village, although what would happen during an attack is unknown.


The Blast Doors

Blast Doors There are two separate blast doors set at right angles to the corridors so as to minimise any blast impact (though the impact on the bungalow-side door would likely have been negligible). This image is the bungalow-side door - the other side is identical.


B1/C1: The Bungalow lobby

Overground pictures of this are available here.


C6: Main Operations Room

Actually, a more accurate title would be "First Operations Room", since we do not know if this was the main room. It is, however, the biggest single area and features a whole host of different functions. Because of the state of the floor in this room (ie. nonexistent) and a 20ft drop to the lowest level in many sections, we were unable to explore it any further than looking through the four doors along its length. This however is an approximate map based on what we saw:

soon...


C7: Second Operations Room

The second operations room looks much more like it was an office or quarters, with desk-height ventilation and a large overhead gantry leading to the storage space.


C14: Air Purification Plant

Air Turbine This is the main air turbine, which backs onto a primary air storage tank. The side of the air tank had been removed, and the ceramic purifiers were visible inside. It is interesting to note that we could not find any purifiers inside the complex itself and all air ducting inside led to the tank leading off this turbine: there was no protection between the turbine and the external vent (C17).


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Disclaimer: All the info given here is incomplete, there's always something missing. This is basically to cover our own backs, but for someone with a bit of sense it shouldn't be too hard to fill in the blanks. The authors of this page and the carriers do not take any responsibility whatsoever for any action you may carry out as a result of you reading or using this information. Any documentation provided is given for research purposes only.

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