Brislington Regional War Room - Flowers Hill (Region 7)
2018
Brislington War Room, sometimes known as Bristol War Room, was constructed during the early 1950’s and completed in 1953, designed to protect the functions of regional government from an atomic bomb and to co-ordinate civil defence. It’s a rare survival of a purpose-built war room, built to the two-storey semi-sunken design, the only other remaining unaltered example of which is Reading War Room.
This was the war room for Home Defence Region 7, which covered Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Bristol along with the other war rooms was replaced in the early 1960s by Regional Seats of Government which were better equipped to cope with the hydrogen bomb (the detonation of the Soviet H-bomb in August 1953 was the catalyst for this change in strategy). Some of the war rooms like Reading and Cambridge were integrated into the new Regional Seats of Government buildings; however, the example at Bristol was rented by the Home Office to Avon County Council, who used it as their County Borough Control until 1981. It was at this time the Home Office increased the rent and the County Council refused to pay. Since that time it has been partially de-stored (that is, has had removable equipment taken away), racking has been inserted into a number of the rooms on the upper floor and it has been used for document and fire extinguisher storage.
More recently, the document storage has been removed and the bunker remains dormant. Although it was sold in 2015 at auction, with a guide price of £130,000. It is understood the new owner - a company called Locat Holding - is planning to use the bunker as an events space.
Brislington War Room, sometimes known as Bristol War Room, was constructed during the early 1950’s and completed in 1953, designed to protect the functions of regional government from an atomic bomb and to co-ordinate civil defence. It’s a rare survival of a purpose-built war room, built to the two-storey semi-sunken design, the only other remaining unaltered example of which is Reading War Room.
This was the war room for Home Defence Region 7, which covered Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Bristol along with the other war rooms was replaced in the early 1960s by Regional Seats of Government which were better equipped to cope with the hydrogen bomb (the detonation of the Soviet H-bomb in August 1953 was the catalyst for this change in strategy). Some of the war rooms like Reading and Cambridge were integrated into the new Regional Seats of Government buildings; however, the example at Bristol was rented by the Home Office to Avon County Council, who used it as their County Borough Control until 1981. It was at this time the Home Office increased the rent and the County Council refused to pay. Since that time it has been partially de-stored (that is, has had removable equipment taken away), racking has been inserted into a number of the rooms on the upper floor and it has been used for document and fire extinguisher storage.
More recently, the document storage has been removed and the bunker remains dormant. Although it was sold in 2015 at auction, with a guide price of £130,000. It is understood the new owner - a company called Locat Holding - is planning to use the bunker as an events space.
