When I was on the university campus the other day, visiting the new World Reimagined globes that had been installed, I made a slight detour to visit one of the ugliest buildings around— the Region 6 War Room.
I didn’t know that this even existed until I stumbled across this video which highlighted it and I thought that I would take a look.
Tucked Away
The reason that many won’t be familiar with this particular building is that it is tucked away on the very outskirts of the campus by Earley Gate. It is on a bend in the road and next to a building site. I would imagine that the University would like to get rid of it and use the space for something more useful but they can’t as it was Grade II listed in 2009.
Completed in 1953, the building was built as a war room for Home Defence Region 6 (one of ten such regions in England) to protect regional government and co-ordinate defence in the event of an atomic attack. That the building is festooned with what are clearly air vents and pipes sort of negates the secure nature of it, although apparently there were air filtration systems in place.
By the time it had been completed nuclear bombs had moved on and this building wouldn’t have withstood the impact although it might have improved the look of the place!
As you can see from the video above, the building was once used as a storage facility by the university but no longer seems to have any purpose. I know that it would cost to bring it back into use, but I would love to see it brought back to life, maybe as a community space, rather than being left to rot. It would also make an excellent place to visit for Heritage Open Days.
