Kingsway telephone exchange
Kingsway telephone exchange was a
History
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.
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
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
In October 2008,
Entrances
Kingsway Telephone Exchange has two entrances. One is next to a shopfront at 32
Fiction
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
- Anchor Exchange - Birmingham
- Guardian Exchange - Manchester
- London deep-level shelters
References
- ^ "Underground Exchanges". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 770. House of Commons. 21 October 1968. col. 222–3W.
- ^ "POST OFFICE WORKS BILL". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 213. House of Lords. 20 January 1959. col. 563–566.
- ^ a b c Mir, Aly (19 March 2018). "Discovering Holborn's underground lairs". The Telegraph.
- ^ ISBN 9781905286324.
- ^ "London tunnel network put on sale". BBC News. 15 October 2008.
- ^ Werdigier, Julia (27 November 2008). "Mile of London Tunnels for Sale, History Included". New York Times.
- ^ "London's Hidden WWII Tunnels Unveiled". Future Constructor and Architect. 13 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.