BUNKER BEDS
Amazing 56-bedroom underground nuclear bunker on sale for £435,000
AN INCREDIBLE underground nuclear bunker in Devon, fitted out with 56 bedrooms and old soundproofed radio studios, is on the market.
The property, which is up for grabs for £435,000, is reportedly getting a lot of interest from a range of people; from those wanting to use it to store wine and cheese, to those looking at it as a potential community area.
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Auctioneers looking after Hope Cove Bunker, near Salcombe, other potential buyers are looking at the site as a potential hotel.
The bunker was originally built in 1941 as a radar station during the Second World War.
It was later redeveloped in the 1950s as a regional government base, and was kept on standby until the 1990s, ready to accommodate 250 government workers in the case of a nuclear attack during the Cold War, or later, a Soviet attack.
It still holds maps in the old operating room, which would have been used to coordinate any response to an attack, as well as the old soundproofed radio stations where broadcasts would have been made to the public.
Christopher Howell, caretaker of the bunker, said it was ready to be used in the event of an atomic explosion.
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"It was designed to be sealed up, a recycled air system was running - and had anything radioactive come this way, that would have offered them some protection,” he said.
"The idea was had the bomb gone off they would all congregate here, they would shut down inside, they have enough oil in tanks to run generators for 35 days.”
The bunker is back on the market after failing to reach its reserve price at a previous auction earlier this month.
Tom Lowe, from Clive Emson Auctioneers, said a variety of people had expressed their interest.
"We've had people look at it as cheese storage, wine storage, a community area where they rent out different rooms to art exhibitions, dance classes, computer storage - a few people who've had the hotel ideas as well."
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Lowe added that there had been whispers that the bunker came with a resident ghost.
"Lots of old RAF people have come back to have a visit,” he said.
"A couple have told me about the wartime pilot who used to come up the steps here, usually at night, footsteps coming up the stairs, his flying boots knocking... have a shake of the gate... and then go back down."
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