The first two cots in the entrance area were for hospital overflow patients—or maybe for a guard, if needed. Take a look through the window of the locked door—the room beyond has three bunk beds, lockers, and cabinets. What it doesn’t have is an inside handle to get out.

This room would have been used as a confinement cell for anyone within the Bunker with serious medical conditions, or those exhibiting dangerous behaviour to themselves or other people.

Life in the Bunker during a nuclear attack would have been extremely stressful. Personnel stationed here would have been deeply affected. Remember, families weren’t allowed in the Bunker.

Even in peacetime, working in the Bunker could be demanding. Both civilian and military personnel had to manage the challenges of living deep underground. Janet Puddicombe, a teletype operator in the Bunker, explains how even the colours in the Bunker were designed to combat psychological stress.

“It was, supposedly, psychologically damaging to us living in here. And that’s why you’ll see in some of the columns there, there were grey and white stripes, and all the different colours? They had a special psychologist come in and pick colours, that happened just before I got here. And more pleasant for not having windows.”