25 May 2024 , 07:59
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As the threat of nuclear global conflict reared its head during the height of the Cold War, people across the world prepared for the worst.
Millions feared suddenly spotting nuclear warheads flying overhead as the US and Soviet Union squared up. Instead, many looked down and dug bunkers capable of sustaining them should the worst happen. For many it would have been the first - and last - line of defence as radiation rained down from above.
In Edinburgh a bunker was built 100 feet below the ground in the 1950s. Standing more than three stories tall, the structure was configured later to house 400 politicians and civil servants- as well as the Royal Family if they were in town. Other secret bunkers lay throughout the UK - but other countries were also preparing for the event of war.
The underground homes boasts many of the treats found above ground (Google)In China, deep below the streets of Beijing, around 10,000 bunkers were built from 1969 by 300,000 people amid fears of war between the Chinese and Soviets. Far from just being designed to house people, the sprawling underground city went on for 85km and boasted restaurants, theatres and more.
Thankfully, they were never needed for their intended purpose as World War Three was averted - but it does not mean they stood empty. Instead, hundreds of thousands call it home. In a city where rental prices are sky high, they live below ground and are known as the Rat Tribe. One resident told Al-Jazeera in 2020 how he lived in a 300-square-foot apartment with nine other people. He said: “I am doing well because I’m scared of being poor. Many of my colleagues live above ground, but I think it’s too comfortable. This place forces me to work harder.”
I was hypnotised and woke up singing in a language I can't speak, I'm so confused
However, underground life is not particularly glamorous (Getty Images)Similar structures exist around the world. In the UK, buried deep beneath the British countryside is a maze of tunnels dug out as a new Government headquarters in case of nuclear apocalypse. The bunker - codenamed Burlington - was built in the late 1950s and the labyrinthine subterranean network of rooms near Corsham, Wiltshire, has been kept untouched since.
Built to house around 4,000 Government officials, the Royals and scientists, Burlington would have been where then-Prime Minister would have taken cover in impending apocalypse and continued to run the country - or what would have been left of it.
One of the places people call home (Getty Images)The 35-acre base was built into a disused quarry and is complete with a kitchen, canteen, accommodation, laundries and even a makeshift hospital, with enough there to sustain life for up to three months. Eerie pictures show its abandoned tunnels, buggies for navigating them and even a telephone switchboard to communicate with the world above.
Burlington also had an subterranean lake as a main water supply, and 12 fuel tanks to run generators for three months, keeping the bunker a relatively cosy 20C. Impressively, the bunker also had its own railway station connecting it to the main rail line between Bristol and London for those trying to quickly escape the capital.