The York Cold War Bunker is a two-storey semi-subterranean Cold War bunker in the Holgate area of York, England, built in 1961 to monitor nuclear explosions and fallout in Yorkshire in the event of nuclear war.
One of about 30 around the UK and Northern Ireland, the building was used throughout its operational existence as the regional headquarters and control centre for the Royal Observer Corps's No. 20 Group YORK between 1961 and 1991. It is an English Heritage Scheduled Monument and was opened in 2006 by English Heritage as a tourist attraction.
During its Cold War operational period the building could have supported 60 local volunteer members of the Royal Observer Corps inclusive of a ten man United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation scientific warning team. They would have collated details of nuclear bombs exploded within the UK and tracked radioactive fallout across the Yorkshire region, warning the public of its approach. This example of an ROC control building is the only one that is preserved in its operational condition. The others stand derelict or have either been demolished or sold. A few have been converted to other uses like No. 16 Group Shrewsbury that is now a vetinerary clinic, another is a recording studio, two are satellite and communications control centres and one is a solicitor's file storage facility.
The fully restored building contains air filtration and generating plant, kitchen and canteen, dormitories, radio and landline communication equipment and specialist 1980s computers and a fully equipped operations room with vertical illuminated perspex maps.
The attraction opens every Sunday and Bank Holidays from 10am - 4pm and is only accessible by one hour long tours, departing at regular intervals and includes a 10 minute (PG rated) informational video about nuclear war, the Royal Observer Corps and the York Bunker. Access on weekdays is by arrangement for school and other interested group visits.
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“In all sincerity, we offer to the loved ones of all innocent victims over the past 25 years, abject and true remorse. No words of ours will compensate for the intolerable suffering they have undergone during the conflict.”
—Combined Loyalist Military Command. New York Times, p. A12 (October 14, l994)
“Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even if it’s just a cold one.
Roger Thornhill: If you fellows can’t lick the Vandamms of this world without asking girls like her to bed down with them, and fly away with them, and probably never come back, perhaps you ought to start learning how to lose a few cold wars.
Professor: I’m afraid we’re already doing that.”
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