Southern Railway Control Bunker, Woking - January 2016

[The_Raw]

Not much history to be found on this place but we know it served as one of 4 railway control bunkers during WW2 which were crucial to keeping the Southern Railway network running during the blitz. Here's some info from Sub Brit where it gets a mention:

During World War 2, the Southern Railway took over the Deepdene Hotel near Dorking in Surrey for its wartime emergency headquarters. In the grounds they excavated an underground control centre taking advantage of a network of existing natural caves. The bunker housed both the Headquarters' telephone exchange and Traffic Control's underground control centre which had underground divisional controls at Woking (South West Division), Southampton (Western Division), Orpington (South Eastern Division) and Redhill (Central Division). Woking Southern Railway Traffic Underground Control Centre remained operational until the 1960s.

It's in a very poor state of disrepair due to natural decay and fire damage but there's still a few bits and pieces left behind. Visited with @Maniac, @extreme_ironing, and @Soylent green before heading to the pub for a liquid breakfast  

1. Difficult to read all the writing on the blast doors but they read something to the effect of 'wait for the first door to be closed before opening the second'​

 ​

2. In this room there would have been people sat on either side with telephones and typewriters in front of them​

 ​

3. I guess this room was a telephone exchange ​

 ​

4. I got mocked for taking this shot. What can I say, I like old light switches!​

 ​

5. Old telephones, there used to be loads of these apparently but they've all been taken​

 ​

6. Ventilation, loved the rusty colours in here​

 ​

7. Dials​

 ​

8. Electrics ​

 ​

9. Some kind of battery or something? I'm not sure, answers on a postcard please!​

 ​

10. Impressive blast doors​

 ​

Thanks for looking  ​

 

[Lenston]

Some nice bits left there mate.

 

[Wevsky]

Looks half decent that mate.fisheye comes in handy too :razz:

 

[-Raz-]

Very nice mate looks nice and rusty in there! last one is lush   

 

[Otchie]

Nice shots there matie, like pic 6 the colours are cool 

 

[hamtagger]

That's some tasty rusty colours going on in there

 

[Maniac]

Not a healthy place to be for any length of time this, my throat was awful after being in here and I spent the rest of the day coughing! 

Nice set of pics there @The_Raw but light switches, really?  

 

[WildBoyz]

Cracking set of shots there mate, really sharp. 

 

[The_Raw]

Thanks everyone, it's only little but it's an interesting bit of our wartime history 

 

[coolboyslim]

Really like them pics m8ty. Very intresting place thx for your report.

 

[Andy]

I'm not a big fan of fisheye, but the rest of the series is really great.

 

[Urbexbandoned]

Like this Damo, what does that writing say on the door? Very photogenic  

 

[AndyK!]

Quite cool that, mate. Nicely done.

 

[Merryprankster]

love those dials and that rusty blast doors a bit cool, nice set dude