100 Places You Will Never Visit (14 page)

In late 1939, with the Second World War in its infancy, the Post Office undertook a scheme known by the reference number 2845. It involved constructing a tunnel system at a depth of about 30 meters (100 ft) to protect cabling and secure the government’s telephonic and telegraphic systems. It is thought that the system may have grown to between 1.6 and 3.2 kilometers (1 and 2 miles) in length, with access via a series of lifts and stairways. Staff are believed to have had access via the Whitehall exchange in Craig’s Court, with another entrance in the old Trafalgar Square Underground Station.

The first significant section of tunnel was in operation by 1941, linking the War Office, the Air Ministry and the Admiralty. A later extension would lead to the Cabinet War Rooms. It is not a huge leap of the imagination to suggest that, with overground London so vulnerable, these tunnels and their associated service passages could have been adapted to cope with the transfer of large numbers of government workers in the case of an emergency such as a gas attack. Indeed, it has been widely reported that in 1955 the network, known as Q-Whitehall (the name may possibly derive from a GPO site engineering code of QWHI), was used to test how a gas attack within the tunnels might affect the buildings above.

While the Post Office scheme was discussed in some detail in a 1946 GPO publication called The Post Office Electrical Engineers Journal, the government quickly clamped down on such talk in the new Cold War climate: most of the country still remembered the Second World War slogan “careless talk costs lives.” However, it is known that in the 1950s the GPO tunnels received extensive upgrade work (and possibly expansion) though the files relating to this lie in the National Archives awaiting declassification, which will not occur until 2026 at the earliest. Understandably given the evidence, some believe that Q-Whitehall remains very much in use today as a quick and convenient means for government officials and their civil servants to access government buildings.

1 HEART OF GOVERNMENT A view from the air of London’s Whitehall, home to many of the key institutions of British government. An obvious target for enemy bombers in the Second World War, it was essential to develop plans so that government could function even in the event of direct hits.

2 ADMIRALTY HOUSE, formerly the command center of the Royal Navy

3 HORSE GUARDS, former Army headquarters

4 DOWNING STREET, home of the British Prime Minister

5 FORMER WAR OFFICE BUILDING on Horse Guards Avenue, still used by the Ministry of Defence

6 MINISTRY OF DEFENCE MAIN BUILDING, built between 1938 and 1959

46 Bank of England vaults

LOCATION Beneath Threadneedle Street in London, England

NEAREST POPULATION HUB London

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: the safest place to store gold bullion in Europe.

The central bank of the United Kingdom, the Bank of England was founded in 1694. Since 1734, it has been based at Threadneedle Street in the heart of the City of London, and from 1797 it has had the nickname of the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. Beneath its floors are cavernous vaults that store not only the gold reserves of the UK but also the wealth of countless other countries.

Gold is a curious material. While it is undeniably attractive to look at and remarkably stable as an element, it can be dug out of the dirt in its pure form, and is far from the rarest or most useful of metals.

Yet since the earliest days of mankind it has commanded adoration, symbolizing love, beauty and wealth. Perhaps most importantly, it has become the foundation of most of the world’s economic systems. We might have chosen coal or coffee beans or salmon or anything else you care to think of, but it is gold against which the value of virtually every currency is measured.

In 1844, Britain officially adopted the “gold standard,” by which the value of sterling was directly linked to a fixed weight of gold. Even after Britain abandoned the standard in 1931, gold remained the safest bet in town, and as economic crisis gripped the world in the late 2000s, it became an even more attractive investment proposition. As of 2011, the UK government held gold reserves of around 312 tons (1 million troy ounces) in the Bank of England, which roughly equates to 23,000 bars of 24-carat gold. Billions of pounds worth of gold belonging to other countries is held here too, often deposited by governments who don’t have access to a suitably large and secure vault in their own nation.

When the Bank moved home in 1734, its new premises were the first purpose-built bank buildings in the world. Sir John Soane added greatly to the edifice in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with additions including a windowless wall.

However, Soane’s buildings were controversially pulled down between the First and Second World Wars, and Sir Herbert Baker designed new premises that rose several stories higher above ground and descended three stories below ground for good measure. The modern building has a defensive curtain wall, no windows on the ground floor and no other connecting buildings.

SAFE AS THE BANK OF ENGLAND An aerial view of the Sir Herbert Baker-designed Bank of England complex. The Bank sits on a plot of land surrounded by Threadneedle Street, Princes Street, Bartholomew Lane and Lothbury. The building with pillars visible at top right is the Royal Exchange.

The vaults themselves are vast, with a floor area large enough to accommodate the pitch of Wembley Stadium four times over with room to spare. Since much of London, including the site of the Bank, lies on clay, the vaults cannot possibly bear the weight of gold bars stacked floor to ceiling, so there is always some unused capacity within them. In fact, gold is rarely stored in columns higher than four bars in a bid to avoid damaging the stocks. The walls are designed to withstand bomb blasts, and for this reason the vaults took on the role of air raid shelter for bank employees during the Second World War.

Nonetheless, Bank legend has it that security was not always as tight as it should have been. It is rumored that in 1836, the board of directors were called to a midnight assignation in the vaults, where they were greeted by an honest sewerman who discreetly told them that he had discovered a way into the hallowed caverns. For his public-spiritedness, he was given a princely reward of £800 by the grateful bankers.

Access these days is via huge doors that are opened by keys 90 centimeters (3 ft) in length (not the sort of thing to slip into a pocket unnoticed). As the key is inserted into the lock, the person attempting entry must give a password via a microphone next to the doors.

The identity of staff who work in the vaults is a closely guarded secret in order to lessen the chance of an employee’s family being kidnapped and the employee being blackmailed into granting access. (Incidentally, one worker is specifically charged with giving the gold stocks a good dusting every now and then.) The Bank has become so synonymous with security that whenever an Englishman wishes to emphasis the safeness of something, he will tell you that it is “as safe as the Bank of England.”

While all that gold is securely tucked away in the Bank’s vaults, visitors to the Bank’s museum are given the opportunity to handle a gold bar for themselves. Anyone wishing to get their hands on more of the vaults’ contents is unlikely to succeed, and should perhaps make do instead with a copy of John Guillermin’s 1960 heist movie, The Day They Robbed the Bank of England.

47 PINDAR Bunker

LOCATION Whitehall, London, UK

NEAREST POPULATION HUB London

SECRECY OVERVIEW Existence unacknowledged: secret underground bunker and alternative control post for the British government.

Pindar is a “protected crisis management facility,” designed to provide a place of safety for the British government in the event of an emergency. Although it is officially unacknowledged and details are scarce, a few scraps of information emerged from a 1994 parliamentary exchange between Jeremy Hanley, then Secretary of State for Defence, and Harry Cohen, then Member of Parliament for Leyton.

Construction on PINDAR, which sits beneath the main Ministry of Defence building in Whitehall, began in 1987, following eight years of planning. The new bunker is believed to incorporate elements of a previous shelter that was used during the Second World War. It is designed for use in the event of a major military strike or civil unrest, and became operational in 1992, having cost in excess of £126 million. It is on a permanent state of standby, and has a full-time staff which may be augmented as required at times of crisis.

Among its rumored design features are blast-proof doors, extensive accommodation and catering quarters, and a broadcasting studio. There is also believed to be a situation room, complete with the latest communications equipment and fully protected against potentially crippling electromagnetic pulses. Reassuringly, there are also “sufficient toilet facilities provided for the full complement of the site… usable as long as power within the site is maintained for pumping waste.”

Each year, at least one major exercise and several minor tests are scheduled to run at the site, mimicking real-life crisis situations. In the event of a building collapse above the bunker, there are several escape routes, although the bunker is not officially connected to any transport system. The facility is named in honor of the ancient Greek poet Pindar of Thebes, who died around 443 BC. When Alexander the Great sacked Thebes in the third century BC, the great warrior declared that the house of the celebrated poet should be the one building that was spared.

In 2006 and 2007, artist David Moore was given access to a secure military underground location for a photographic project called “The Last Things.” While he never formally identified the location, it is commonly accepted that he was documenting PINDAR, and his images were subsequently made available for public consumption. As Moore’s website notes, one Ministry of Defence official wryly commented: “I don’t understand how you’ve got this far.”

48 Tower of London Jewel House

LOCATION Tower Hill, London, England

NEAREST POPULATION HUB London

SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: the modern high-tech home of the English Crown Jewels.

The English Crown Jewels are estimated to be worth somewhere close to £13 billion, putting them high on the list of targets for master criminals. They have been kept under heavy guard at the Tower of London for centuries, and in 1994 were moved to a new home within the castle boundaries, a state of the art jewel house designed to keep them protected while being viewed by thousands of tourists each day.

From the King’s Crown, adorned with over 3,000 jewels, to the Royal Scepter that includes the Cullinan diamond (a 530.20-carat stone cut from the largest diamond ever mined), the Crown Jewels are an unrivaled collection. They have been stored at the Tower of London since 1303, having previously resided at Westminster Abbey until they were subject to an attempted theft.

The nearest anyone has come to successfully snatching them from the Tower was a notorious 1671 heist led by Colonel Blood. At that time the jewels were held in the Martin Tower, protected by a custodian, Talbot Edwards, who would allow visitors to inspect them for a small consideration. Blood and a female accomplice duly befriended Edwards and his wife over a period of weeks.

By early May 1671, Blood had persuaded the Master of the Jewel House to let him see the collection with a small troop of friends. He then led an ambush, the gang beating Edwards and seizing whatever valuables they could. Although they were apprehended before they could get away, Blood somehow secured himself a royal pardon—some say as the reward for his astonishing bravado.

The chances of such a ruse proving successful today are more remote than ever. The Jewels were moved to the Tower’s neo-Gothic Waterloo Barracks in 1967, but by the early 1990s it was clear that the basement room in which they were kept was unable to cope with the crowds of tourists. A new jewel house was thus built within the Barracks, with capacity for 2,500 people each hour.

Opened in 1994, the building includes a raft of safety and security measures that cost more than £3 million. Today the jewels lie on cushions of French velvet protected by 5-cm (2-in) thick reinforced glass. They are kept under 24-hour surveillance from a nearby control room while Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) and members of the Tower Guard stand ready to step in should the need arise. So you are welcome to look, but don’t even think about touching.

49 Rosslyn Chapel vaults

LOCATION Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Edinburgh

SECRECY OVERVIEW Site of historic mystery: vaults beneath a medieval church that have become a focus for conspiracy theories.

The elaborate chapel of Rosslyn near Edinburgh has long been linked to rumored activities of the Knights Templar and Freemasons, but the speculation went into overdrive after it featured prominently in Dan Brown’s 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code. Many stories linked to the chapel have been convincingly debunked, but conspiracy theorists continue to be drawn to an underground chamber sealed for centuries.

Rosslyn Chapel is the common name for the Collegiate Chapel of St. Matthew the Apostle. It sits amid the beautiful and spectacular setting of Roslin Glen in the Esk Valley. The name derives from the Gaelic words for “rock” and “foaming water” (and is not, as some have supposed, etymologically linked to the “Rose Line” made popular by certain bestselling fiction writers).

Rosslyn was founded as a Roman Catholic chapel in 1446, by the Norman-descended William St. Clair, First Earl of Caithness. However, building work was not completed until the 1480s. It was the third chapel in the immediate area, the first being in the nearby Rosslyn Castle and the second having long since been destroyed. After the Scottish reformation in the latter part of the 16th century, the church closed to the public until the 1860s, although in 1650 it was apparently used for stabling horses by Cromwellian troops during the Civil War. In 1861, an extensive restoration began, and Rosslyn came under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Episcopal Church.