I've always wanted to visit this site ever since reading about it on subbrit and seeing a handful of photos from when it was still in use, to my knowledge it's the only surviving local government fallout shelter near me and being right under the council offices I never thought I'd get to have a look round it. But then as luck would have it I read a comment on a youtube vid sayinng the building above was empty and being redeveloped. Not wanting to waste what could be my only chance I grabbed my go pro and headed over to horsham!
Driving passed I could see that the redevelopment was well under way, scaff and hording on the road side. I parked up and went for a cameraless recce, it took all of 30 seconds to work out my route in and another 30 to make sure no one else was there. I've never seen a demo site with such a shoddy attempt at hoarding, if anything it was too easy getting in, but I'm not gonna winge!
Gaining access to the offices looked as easy as getting passed the hoarding but I could see that the place had been stripped right out, and anyway that wasn't what I was here for.....
I headed down a flight of steps into a small underground carpark and saw a small door way with what I straight away recognised as a blast door, so far so good!
Through the blast door there was a small cupboard of a room containing old BT and electrical junction boxes and then through just a normal wooden door was the main operations room. The carpet tiles were soaking and from the smell of the place it had been like it for a fair old while. Loads of the funky suspended ceiling had come down creating piles of squidgy goop.
None of the computers or desks remained just a few 'portable dose rate meters' strewn about the floor, their cardboard boxes soaking up the water and a solid state tv projector bolted to the wall
Off of the main operations room there is a toilet, both mens and women's with what looks like an open inspection hatch for a sump pump or somet, it was filled with rusty water and I couldn't see the bottom
Next to that was a small kitchen with laminated instructions for the coffee machine pinned to the wall, which pointed out that improper use and cleaning would void the warranty, because when you're on the brink of nuclear annihilation the last thing you want to do is void the coffee machine warranty!
There were a couple of empty store rooms, I think one may have been sleeping quaters for when the site was operational.
The communications room still has desks in it with 'sound proof' partitions between them. One of the stations still has its radio in place...
Through another internal door and you are in the bowels of the operation, a room with all the air filtration machinery and electrical switchboard gear. Another emergency exit, this one with an absolutely mahoosive blast door, easily double in all dimensions compared to the one I came I through
Another two thinner blast doors lead to the stairs going up to the offices, I went up to the next floor, the place is literally a building site so I didn't bother going any further.
The plant room is hiding a beautiful lister generator, keys in her, just begging me to give her the crank! With 35 hours on the clock, she's not even run in yet and I bet she's never been run at anywhere near full load!
As always, apologies for the gammy phone photos and if you want to go visit this one you better be quick, it may not be there by the end of next week!
I've just finished editing my go pro footage, you can watch it here:
Driving passed I could see that the redevelopment was well under way, scaff and hording on the road side. I parked up and went for a cameraless recce, it took all of 30 seconds to work out my route in and another 30 to make sure no one else was there. I've never seen a demo site with such a shoddy attempt at hoarding, if anything it was too easy getting in, but I'm not gonna winge!
Gaining access to the offices looked as easy as getting passed the hoarding but I could see that the place had been stripped right out, and anyway that wasn't what I was here for.....
I headed down a flight of steps into a small underground carpark and saw a small door way with what I straight away recognised as a blast door, so far so good!
Through the blast door there was a small cupboard of a room containing old BT and electrical junction boxes and then through just a normal wooden door was the main operations room. The carpet tiles were soaking and from the smell of the place it had been like it for a fair old while. Loads of the funky suspended ceiling had come down creating piles of squidgy goop.
None of the computers or desks remained just a few 'portable dose rate meters' strewn about the floor, their cardboard boxes soaking up the water and a solid state tv projector bolted to the wall
Off of the main operations room there is a toilet, both mens and women's with what looks like an open inspection hatch for a sump pump or somet, it was filled with rusty water and I couldn't see the bottom
Next to that was a small kitchen with laminated instructions for the coffee machine pinned to the wall, which pointed out that improper use and cleaning would void the warranty, because when you're on the brink of nuclear annihilation the last thing you want to do is void the coffee machine warranty!
There were a couple of empty store rooms, I think one may have been sleeping quaters for when the site was operational.
The communications room still has desks in it with 'sound proof' partitions between them. One of the stations still has its radio in place...
Through another internal door and you are in the bowels of the operation, a room with all the air filtration machinery and electrical switchboard gear. Another emergency exit, this one with an absolutely mahoosive blast door, easily double in all dimensions compared to the one I came I through
Another two thinner blast doors lead to the stairs going up to the offices, I went up to the next floor, the place is literally a building site so I didn't bother going any further.
The plant room is hiding a beautiful lister generator, keys in her, just begging me to give her the crank! With 35 hours on the clock, she's not even run in yet and I bet she's never been run at anywhere near full load!
As always, apologies for the gammy phone photos and if you want to go visit this one you better be quick, it may not be there by the end of next week!
I've just finished editing my go pro footage, you can watch it here:
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