SRHQ 4.2 Regional Government Bunker, April 2015

[urbexdevil]

Been holding off posting this for a while but thought I would share it now...

Known about this place since I was a kid and was always intrigued in seeing the inside, you could even say this is what sparked my interest in urban exploration. So after many years of wonder, many hours of research, a lot of head scratching along with the odd bump to the head we found our entrance inside the bunker!

I am not going into details of our entry as we would rather not see this place trashed, however once we were inside the bunker was in fantastic condition… all-be-it empty of any contents other than generators. We were also surprised to see the power still on in the majority of the bunker.

After an hour or so wondering the coridoors heading back and forth through the bunker, curiosity got the better of us and we ventured up the staircase at one end of the coridoor which emerged to ground level inside Sovereign House. After the odd few moments of exploring we jumped at the sound of a loud beep, fearing this may well be our warning to leave we made our way back to the exit, just as alarms began to sound.

Most of you probally already know the history of this place and I suspect a lot of you looking this up will be local to Hertford, but here’s some history on the the bunker shamelessly pinched off the interwebs.

“Only three SRHQ bunkers are of recent construction- Basingstoke, (SRHQ62), Herford (SRHQ42) and Southport (SRHQ10).
Each has the same rough design, a All two-storey concrete basement below government office blocks built in the late 1960s.

Walls are 20-30 inches thick (50-75cm) and each has its own borehole for water.

Some one hundred and fifty thousand gallons of water are also stored in permanent tanks, and a generator room can power all the SRHQ’s equipment for a month, with a ten thousand gallon fuel reserve.

Two sets of filters are fitted to the air-conditioning plant, one for peacetime exercise use, and the second for war.

If the level of fallout dust becomes too high, air conditioning can be switched to internal circulation for a period.

The bunkers were designed to have a radiation ‘protection factor’ of about 400, and to resist blast pressure of 1.5psi. In contrast, the average house is unlikely, after attack, to offer a protective factor better than 5-10.â€

Also as the majority of the place had already been void of it’s contents I decided to shoot on video instead.

 

[jones-y-gog]

Fascinating places these bunkers and glad you got in to see it after all the years!

 

[hamtagger]

Not seen this before so cheers for posting mate

 

[Lenston]

This is pretty sweet, wouldn't mind a mooch in there myself, nice one

 

[urbexdevil]

Fascinating places these bunkers and glad you got in to see it after all the years!

Yeah, I have a bit of an obsession with bunkers now haha we went straight from there to Kelvedon Hatch (Open to the public I know), been to Daws Hill bunker and Lyndon Green station since haha.

Was that over the moon on this one though I believe there's an urbex selfie on my phone somewhere haha!

 

[The_Raw]

Huge yes to this and so good to see it popping up again as the word on the street was that it is sealed!. A timely reminder to never listen to the word on the street in this hobby. Cheers for posting it up mate

 

[Maniac]

That's interesting to see as I had head that this place was partially flooded with the power off now, seems this might not be the case.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Hydro]

Looks good mate Nice find!!

 

[Wevsky]

Yeah, I have a bit of an obsession with bunkers now haha we went straight from there to Kelvedon Hatch (Open to the public I know), been to Daws Hill bunker and Lyndon Green station since haha.

Was that over the moon on this one though I believe there's an urbex selfie on my phone somewhere haha!

Nice report from this place mate,did you get into Daws hill,i know not long after a bunch of us did it some years back it was sealed,The_Raw had a crack but again was sealed?

 

[skeleton key]

Nice work and good to see the place again as a cool location if in the area.

Yep it was flooded back in 2013 and power shorting out all over the place when Red popped down there

Also heard was having asbestos removed and hatches had been welded but we had the magic key lol.

Glad you got done and thanks for sharing

 

[urbexdevil]

Nice work and good to see the place again as a cool location if in the area.Yep it was flooded back in 2013 and power shorting out all over the place when Red popped down there

Cheers haha

Have to admit that it was your videos that convinced me to give it a go! Came across the report and thought bugger it let's see what happens and boom! Inside

Defo not flooded now but there's signs of water damage everywhere. Not sure about asbestos though...

Edit: Not sure who changed my avatar but love it! Haha

 

[skeleton key]

Top Dollar as others saying was closed and you done good =D

Shout Trog in that neck of the woods

 

[ReDsQuaD]

Hello urbex devil! Nice report thanks for sharing. I must say i was very shocked to see this report under a recent date. The last time i set foot in the place was last year summer 2013 to find the bunker had been sealed up tight! Every entrance has been welded shut making it impossible to gain access to the bunker ever again.

In regards to the alarms - yes a new security systems had been installed on top of the landing on the 1st floor. Yes, if you try access sov house from the bunker entrance, alarms will sound but its just a scare alarm and it will eventually turn off.

Nice to see all the water gone. Still surprised the electric is still on...

As for the asbestos, it was removed around december 2012. I remember going in there one night to a huge surprise finding weird asbestos tents everywhere in the bunker. The place looked like an aftermath of a nuclear fallout! - Sorry i don't have any pictures of this.

 

[urbexdevil]

Hello urbex devil! Nice report thanks for sharing. I must say i was very shocked to see this report under a recent date. The last time i set foot in the place was last year summer 2013 to find the bunker had been sealed up tight! Every entrance has been welded shut making it impossible to gain access to the bunker ever again.
In regards to the alarms - yes a new security systems had been installed on top of the landing on the 1st floor. Yes, if you try access sov house from the bunker entrance, alarms will sound but its just a scare alarm and it will eventually turn off.

Nice to see all the water gone. Still surprised the electric is still on...

As for the asbestos, it was removed around december 2012. I remember going in there one night to a huge surprise finding weird asbestos tents everywhere in the bunker. The place looked like an aftermath of a nuclear fallout! - Sorry i don't have any pictures of this.

No asbestos down there This is going to wind you up slightly now but I returned to this place yesterday to find the bits I missed in the original report

Update time! Got some proper pictures this time as well, not many but still...

Still a few more on the phone to come as well