Description

The monument consists of the Western Zone Regional War Room. This Cold War defensive and administrative bunker, of mass concrete construction, is now within the East Kilbride Technology Park. The bunker survives largely intact complete with its original layout of administrative and domestic rooms, together with the ventilation plant. The monument stands entirely above ground.

Fourteen War Rooms including East Kilbride were built in the early 1950s as part of a UK Defence Programme. The East Kilbride War Room is one of the best preserved in the UK. It was predicted in the early 1950s that the next war would be similar to World War 2, that it would last for months, if not years, and Britain would suffer aerial attacks. The majority of attacks would be from conventional bombs; however it was anticipated that some atomic weapons could be used. The civil defence effort would be directed from the War Room, with a direct link by telephone and telegraph to the Central War Room in London.

Scotland was split into an Eastern and Western zone, East Kilbride being the Western HQ, while the other War Room was at Kirknewton, outside Edinburgh. The role of the War Room was seen as very much short term. It was calculated that the maximum amount of time that would be spent by the staff there would be only 3 weeks, and after this the area affected by nuclear attack would be 'up and running'.

With the development of the H-Bomb during the late 1950s, the War Rooms became obsolete, as they were not designed to cope with the long-term effects of a bomb that would create such widespread damage. From 1960 Regional Seats of Government were formed, in an effort to cope in the event of an H-Bomb attack on Britain. The Scottish Western Zone was moved to Torrance House nearby in East Kilbride. The War Room in East Kilbride was then taken over as the Glasgow Group Control with jurisdiction over North Lanarkshire, parts of Renfrewshire and Dumbartonshire. Following the disbanding of the Civil Defence Corps in 1968 the building was put into care and maintenance until 1974, when it was reactivated as the Strathclyde County Control, remaining operational until 1996. The War Room has been vacant since 1996.

The War Room was originally enclosed by a 10m wide earth bund planted with conifers, which was to serve as blast protection. This has been entirely removed and is to be replaced by the owner with a modern bund and tree planting. The bunker is a single storey, rectangular-plan blockhouse, with a continuous concrete wall. There is an entrance bay to each side of recessed advanced central section, with a timber door with glazed viewing panel to each entrance. It has a flat concrete roof, with three concrete ventilation towers arranged above the advanced, stepped central section. The bunker measures 25.5m SW-NE by 23.4m SE-NW. The outer walls and roof slab are approximately 1.5m thick. The facades are generally featureless with the exception of the radiation monitoring apparatus mounted on the SE side.

The interior has two internal red metal blast doors to each side of an advanced section leading to a continuous corridor around all four sides of the building, with small rooms running off to right and left. There is a central large Operation Room with windows to four internal rooms; some of the windows were boarded and used as message passing windows. The ventilation and power plant rooms survive intact with original fittings, including the standby generator dated 1954, with associated control cabinet and a large bank of standby lead acid batteries. Other fittings include clocks in most rooms and ventilation ducts throughout.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described, together with a 3m wide area around the outside that includes the perimeter track. All paths, boundary fences and earth bunds are to be excluded from the scheduling. This area measures 32.2m SW-NE by 31.5m SE-NW, as marked in red on the accompanying map extract.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as the well preserved remains of part of a national system of Civil Defence, designed to deal with the aftermath of a specific threat at one point in time, that of a Soviet A-bomb attack on west central Scotland. It was one of the first civil defence structures built in response to the onset of the Cold War. The national importance is reinforced by the fact that the structure was rendered obsolete, almost before the concrete was dry, by the speed of the development of weapons of mass destruction in the mid 20th century. The building is a monument to the politics of the world in which it was created.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

The monument is recorded by RCAHMS as NS65SW160. A threatened building survey has been completed by the RCAHMS.

References:

Cocroft W and Thomas R, edited by Barnwell P 2003, COLD WAR: BUILDING FOR NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION 1946-1989, Swindon.

Campbell D 1982 WAR PLAN UK , 115-136 & 261- 269.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland