Cold War telephone exchange under London
Kingsway telephone exchange
was a
Cold War
-era hardened
telephone exchange
underneath
High Holborn
in
London
. Initially built as a
deep-level air-raid shelter
in the early 1940s, it was instead used as a government communications centre. In 1949 the
General Post Office
(GPO) took over the building, and in 1956 it became the UK termination point for
TAT-1
, the first
transatlantic telephone cable
. Closure of the facility began in the 1980s. It was built together with underground exchanges in Birmingham and Manchester, and was originally covered by a
D notice
[1]
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Land Registry
map, in three parts, showing the exchange in pink (1959)
The Kingsway telephone exchange was built as a
deep-level shelter
underneath
Chancery Lane tube station
in the early 1940s, consisting of two east?west aligned tunnels, one on each side of the
Central Line
.
[3]
Although intended for use as an
air raid shelter
, like many of the deep level shelters, it was not used for its intended purpose and was instead used as a government communications centre. Material from the
Public Record Office
was stored there from 1945 to 1949.
[3]
The site was given to the General Post Office in 1949.
[4]
: 131
At the time, the Post Office was also responsible for telephones as well as postal system. The two-tunnel shelter was extended by the addition of four shorter tunnels, at right angles to the original pair. This extension was completed by 1954, and the exchange opened on 30 October 1954.
[4]
: 146
In 1956 it became the UK termination point for
TAT-1
, the first
transatlantic telephone cable
.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Kingsway Trunk Switching Centre (as it became known) was a trunk switching centre and repeater station with Post Office engineering staff totalling over 200 at its peak. After the exchange was wound down the site was used for the
Radio Interference Investigation Group
, whose function was to prevent television viewers and radio listeners in north and central London from suffering interference to their service from external sources such as thermostats, fluorescent tubes and injection moulding equipment. The country's first
radio paging
terminal was also installed on this site in the 1970s. In the 1980s it housed Kingsway Computer Centre, a backup for ICARUS (international circuit allocation record update system)
[4]
: 146
The site had a staff restaurant,
[3]
tea bar, games room and licensed bar. Its bar claimed to be the deepest in the United Kingdom, at about 200 feet (60 metres) below street level. The site contained an
artesian well
and rations to maintain several hundred people for many months, to try to ensure a safe environment in case of nuclear attack.
By the early 1980s the site was subject to a phased closure after large quantities of
blue asbestos
were found on the site. By 1995 only the
main distribution frame
was still in service. This reportedly has been removed. Also in the 1990s two of the east most tunnels became a bunker of sorts, possibly a temporary home for
PINDAR
. This was abandoned by 1996.
[4]
: 146
In October 2008,
British Telecom
announced that the tunnels were for sale.
[5]
[6]
In November 2023, BT Group agreed to sell the tunnels to The London Tunnels, a UK-based group backed by a private equity fund, which planned to restore and preserve them and open them to the public for the first time. Subject to planning approval, working with architect
WilkinsonEyre
, The London Tunnels' vision is to create an interactive cultural experience, with an operational capacity of two million visitors per year. The plans envisage investing around £140m on restoring, preserving and fitting-out the site, then £80m on immersive technology and screens. The venue would open to the public in 2027.
[7]
Entrances
[
edit
]
Kingsway Telephone Exchange has two entrances. One is next to a shopfront at 32
High Holborn
, the other is a
goods lift
on Furnival Street. A third access point, a combination of ventilation towers and a passenger lift at Tooks Court, was demolished in 2001.
[4]
: 146
Fiction
[
edit
]
The Exchange features in the third of
James Herbert
's
The Rats
trilogy
Domain
, as a place where survivors of a nuclear attack on London take shelter.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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51°31′05″N
0°06′38″W
/
51.5180°N 0.1105°W
/
51.5180; -0.1105