Anchor Exchange
An urban myth? Or Birmingham's
best kept secret? In
common with certain other major cities in Britain, such as Manchester, London
and Glasgow, there has been a long running rumour amongst Brummies that the
city has a secret underground nuclear bunker. Travellers on the top decks of
buses in particular are great at fuelling the myth; as their buses approach
the junction of Great Charles Street with Snow Hill and Livery Street they
are frequently seen pointing knowingly out of the window saying things like: “It’s
down there, 10 miles under Snow Hill Station, the councillors built it to
protect themselves, never mind us tax payers! Typical!” So,
is it true that Brum has a giant underground fall-out shelter where the
descendants of the council leader and his cabinet will live for generations
to come… long after the rest of us have been obliterated in World War 3? Or
is it just another absurd urban myth? Well, you may be surprised to learn
that actually there is a lot of truth in the tale but also, no doubt, rather
a lot of embellishment in the telling. Just
after the Second World War, which finished with the dropping of two atomic
bombs on Japanese cities, our own government decided that it was vital to
protect ‘essential communications’ by building a series of hardened
underground telephone exchanges. Communication has always been a top priority
in any ‘state of emergency’ situation – a more modern example of this was the
development of the internet by the American government which started off in
the 1960s and 70s as a means of keeping the lines of official communication
open in similar events. The
underground telephone exchanges of the early 1950s were designed to withstand
the force of atomic bombs similar to the one dropped on Hiroshima. The one
built under Birmingham city centre is 100 feet down, it was built under
Newhall Street and the main entrance to the exchange was by lift from
Telephone House. The secret code name for the exchange, "Anchor",
comes from Birmingham’s assay office which was close to Telephone House on
Newhall Street - the anchor is the hall mark symbol for Birmingham’s gold and
silver. The Anchor exchange was a very well kept secret and, even though
construction vehicles came and went through an entrance near Moor Street for
three years, very few people were even aware it was being built. By
the time the Anchor Trunk Non-director Exchange was ready to be officially
opened on the 9th November 1957, nuclear bomb technology had also progressed
dramatically and the underground exchange was no longer able to offer
protection from the much more powerful hydrogen bombs in the Soviet and
American arsenals. It was therefore acknowledged as being obsolete before it
was even finished, though continued to be an option until the late 1960s and
no doubt hosted literally hundreds of games of poker between security men
during this dangerous era. The
Anchor exchange is now below Birmingham’s water table, although it is said
that BT, the current owners of the bunker, still pump it out to protect
underground cables. Other than the odd bit of pumping though, poor old Anchor
is no longer cared for and is out of bounds even to BT staff because of
‘serious safety concerns’ – how ironic! So, unless your name is Scooby Doo and you
just happen to wander into the spooky 1950s underground telephone exchange by
complete accident with your four human ‘fellow ghost- investigators’, it is
most unlikely that any of us will ever see the insides of Anchor,
disappointing as it would make a fantastic tourist attraction. National Trust
take note! Other interesting facts about
the Anchor Exchange: Safe
for a ciggie? Whilst the very
heavily reinforced design of Anchor would have saved the lives of exchange
staff in the event of an atomic attack on Brummagem, there was however no way
out in the event of a serious fire. Strict no smoking rules were applied,
excepting the mess room, and the fire officer is reported to have said that
in the event of a serious fire the folks in the exchange would only have
about 30 seconds to live. Well that’s 29
seconds longer than the rest of us! Reproduction
not in the long-term plan! Anchor was only put
on standby once during its lifetime; this was during the Cuban missile crisis
in 1962. All ordinary engineers were replaced with selected managers and no
women were allowed. Which does seem strange as most photographs of telephone
exchanges in the early 1960s do tend to indicate a high number of female
staff in the workforce. Clearly the long-term survival of the species was not
a priority in Anchor’s master plan and neither was providing a friendly and
efficient operator service. But
where’s the proper bunker then? Far be it for this
guide to start any new urban myths, all we would say is … just keep an eye
open for construction vehicles going in and out of the back yard of the
Council House. You heard it here first.
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