Churchill’s Battle of Britain bunker was hidden by an ornamental backyard
- The bunker in Uxbridge, west London, was hidden during the Second Word War
Winston Churchill’s Battle of Britain Bunker was hidden from the Nazis by a decorative garden, it has emerged.
The secret bunker in Uxbridge, west London, was concealed during the Second Word War to look like sections of a garden design from the air above, in order to avoid enemy detection.
A new study of historic aerial photographs appears to show that the underground control room – which coordinated Britain’s defences and response to attacks from the Luftwaffe – was camouflaged to look like part of the garden of nearby mansion Hillingdon House.
Before that, there were no known wartime photos of how the bunker looked above ground, The Telegraph first reported.
86 years after it was built, conservation work has allowed archaeological investigations and other studies to reveal how the RAF strove to protect the military command centre.
The secret bunker was made to look like part of the landscape design in the garden of a nearby mansion
The bunker in Uxbridge, west London, was well concealed during the Second World War
The site in Uxbridge was disguised during the war to look like part of a designed landscape from the air
The site in Uxbridge was disguised during the war to look like part of a designed landscape from the air
The underground control room coordinated Britain’s defences and response to attacks from the Luftwaffe
New evidence shows the bunker – built 60ft below ground – had a number of defences, including deep earth and concrete levels piled up to protect against hits from the air.
Meanwhile, barbed wire entanglements were installed to deter enemy attack at ground level.
The archaeological work was instructed and monitored by Historic England’s Greater London Archaeology Advisory Service.
It was carried out by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) on behalf of Hillingdon Council.
Archaeologist at Historic England, Sandy Kidd, said: ‘The discovery of the multiple and layered defensives employed to keep this secret nerve centre safe tells us something of the fear of the bunker being compromised, which could have spelt disaster for the country… We’re still able to add to our knowledge of this extraordinary place.’
MOLA project manager, Jim McKeon, said: ‘MOLA is delighted to have contributed to building a greater understanding of this nationally significant monument.’
