Cold War

In 1983, part of Nothe Fort’s underground level was secretly converted into a Local Authority Emergency Control Centre, more commonly known as a nuclear bunker, intended to keep essential operations running after a nuclear strike. Reinforced accommodation, control rooms and communications spaces were created for a small team who would have overseen disaster relief and the rebuilding of local infrastructure in the event of a nuclear strike. The project was known to very few people at the time, and its existence remained largely hidden from the community.

While the bunker was fitted out to support a functioning emergency headquarters, its role was always shadowed by the grim reality that, after a full nuclear strike, there might have been little left to govern. Civil defence preparations of the era were as much about demonstrating national resolve as they were about practical survival. In the event that any pockets of population or infrastructure endured, teams based at sites like Nothe Fort would have been responsible for co-ordinating whatever relief and reconstruction were possible. Yet their very existence also served a strategic purpose: a visible commitment to continuity of government, intended to signal to potential adversaries that the nation was prepared for, and serious about, the nuclear deterrent it maintained.

Today, these covert Cold War spaces can be explored through the fort’s Cold War tours and talks, which open up areas rarely seen by the public and reveal the atmosphere of the decade shaped by fears of nuclear confrontation. Led by specialist guides, these events give visitors a unique chance to step into the once‑secret bunker, see its preserved communications room, and hear the stories behind the secretive nuclear‑era planning that lay behind closed doors.