The man behind the ‘Secret Nuclear Bunker’ hidden away in a remote corner of Essex says he thinks about invites inside like he would do at a wedding: ‘start with your family then work down’
A bloke reckons he has the safest job in Britain – it’s truly bomb-proof.
Mike Parrish, 77, owns Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker in Essex, a former government stronghold built on the cusp of the Cold War and designed to withstand a 125 kiloton bomb dropped up to half a mile away.
Fast forward 73 years from when it first opened under a veil of national secrecy, and the bunker is a popular day out for history nerds and lovers of ‘dark tourism’. But for Mike, his family and a select group of pals, it’s the closest they have to getting out of WW3 alive.
Speaking to The Daily Star Sunday, he said: “When it comes to deciding on who gets an invite to the bunker, I approach it like planning a wedding. You start with your family, and then you work down. You can’t tell anybody, of course, because if they’re not on the list, they’re going to get cross.”
During its days as a working military base, the Parrish family would have been left to die just 125 metres above where the Prime Minister sat leading their war cabinet.
After chatting to some of the bunker’s visitors, Mike has found that should a nuclear warhead be launched on Britain, many people would opt for a quick death – although he’s keen to stress that that’s not guaranteed.
He, said: “Not everybody’s immediate reaction is ‘I’m going to get underneath the kitchen table and survive’, there are an equal number who say ‘It’s just not worth the bother’.
“I think if I hadn’t got this bunker, I would be tempted to take that view.
“Look at Chernobyl, we’re still feeling the effects of it 30 years later.”
After it was decommissioned in 1992, Mike, whose family have farmed the land above for five generations, painstakingly sourced authentic equipment and furnishings to turn the three storey subterranean labyrinth into a museum.
It showed how Downing Street officials and a small army of civil servants relocated to the remote military hub would have been tasked with rebuilding the country following a nuclear strike.
However, keeping things just as they were in the 1960s means life will be very uncomfortable for Mike and his guests, especially if they need to spend decades underground.
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