Another Nuclear Bunker - Pear Tree House Gipsy Hill

Several Years ago Sock Monkey visited Kelvendon Hatch 'Secret' Nuclear Bunker. I did feel that the sign posts saying "This way to the Secret Nuclear Bunker' and the huge aerial mast directly above it were a bit of a give away though.

Sock Monkey likes to visit slightly unusual places so imagine my *joy* when I discovered that there is a nuclear bunker just up the road from Sock Monkey Mansions! Its called Pear Tree House and its just off Gipsy Hill, on Lunham Road at the junction of Hawke Road.

Round about the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis a new housing estate was planned for a large area in Crystal Palace. This was to become the Central Hill Estate where the bunker is located. Work started on Pear Tree House in 1963 and was completed in 1966.

When I visited Kelvendon Hatch I discovered that each London borough had to have their own Bat Cave (Civil Defence Centre) if central government was blown up or vaporised or something and I knew that there was one in Norwood because I saw a big red pin sticking in a map to show the rough spot.

On Saturday we went trip-trip-trip billygoats gruff up The Bloody Great Hill, walked along a very nice street thank you very much then all of a sudden found ourselves at the outskirts of a God- forsaken looking housing estate. That's the thing about London - one minute your surroundings are nice then turn the corner and you are in somewhere that looks like a outside location shot from Trainspotting.

We couldn't see any hungry pit bulls so we ventured closer for a better look. From the outside it just looks like a 4 storey block of flats with a very large basement. From the outside there is nothing particularly odd-looking about the building but, under the 8 flats which are clearly visible is actually housed an 18-room bunker. The main entrance is a heavy steel blast door which is clearly visible as it is at ground level. Apart from that there's nothing to see here folks so we moved on. It was interesting to find out about the bunker though. There are so many
secret underground things in London that we will never know about. I would still like to find out if the grassy knoll at the corner of Crown Lane and Beulah Hill in Norwood, where I thought there was government bunker, is the correct location.