Birmingham's Hidden Spaces: Anchor Exchange BT Tunnels Shrouded In Secrecy

[6Foot2]

Link: Birmingham's Hidden Spaces: Anchor Exchange BT tunnels shrouded in secrecy - Birmingham Post

 

Approximately 35 metres beneath the streets of Birmingham lays the remnants of a 1950s hardened telephone exchange, designed to house emergency regional government and sustain Britain’s telecommunications network following a nuclear attack.Code-named Anchor after Birmingham’s jewellery hallmark, it remains as a largely unknown and forgotten part of the city’s Cold War heritage.

 

Shrouded in mystery, for public safety, the subterranean nuclear bunker stretches out beneath the city, with tunnels extending from the Jewellery Quarter to Southside and far beyond. There are a number of entrances to the tunnels across the city, but these are still kept secret and are securely sealed for the foreseeable future...

 

From the image gallery:

 

http://i2.birminghampost.co.uk/incoming/article6454221.ece/ALTERNATES/s2197/JS30364958-6454221.jpg

 

http://i3.birminghampost.co.uk/incoming/article6454215.ece/ALTERNATES/s2197/JS30396672-6454215.png

Edited January 29, 2014 by 6Foot2
Tweak the formatting.

[CHR1S]

So someone finally got into Anchor! (recently anyway)

[ZeroHour]

Cool!!

[LosOjos]

Would be very interesting to get down there... camp out in a blue jumpsuit with a makeshift Pip-Boy and wait for a BT engineer's confusion

 

EDIT: also, I wonder if that photo of the BT Tower is just a photo of the BT Tower or a hint that the entrance is somewhere on Lionel Street... (yeah, I know, probably within the grounds of the BT Tower!)

Edited January 29, 2014 by LosOjos

[CHR1S]

Just found out I lived all my life right next to the Bm/C (Selly Oak) satellite substation... never even knew!

 

Apparently my dad has been down there as a bt engineer/manager... will enquire

[ICTDirect_Dave]

RSG: Sites: Birmingham: Anchor Exchange

 

 

Good old sub brit has a pretty in depth article about it

 

There's one in Manchester and one in London too apparently.

[Little-Miss]

I want to go down there!! I was on about this the other day.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I want to go down there!! I was on about this the other day.

 

We need an eduouting

[Little-Miss]

Well I've already decided everyone needs to move to Birmingham. I'd be a lot happier then.

[LosOjos]

I'm near by, if anyone can arrange access to this place I'm in!

[TheBinMan]

I worked in Anchor for 2 weeks while doing my apprenticeship with BT in the early 80s. We were only allowed in the 3 main tunnels which housed the telephone exchange . Apparently there were other tunnels below the exchange but they weren't accessible.

I remember hundreds of giant cables all over the place and was shown the main tunnel were most of them came into Brum. The tunnel stretched from Hockley to the old cinema on Bristol street (now mac d's).

 

The entrance was via one of the BT buildings on Newhall St., on the same side as the old science museum.

Never really thought too much about it at the time as I was straight out of school into a BT apprenticeship. I'd love to go back there and really explore it.

Anyway - that's my claim to fame!

[Gibbo]

Here's the Manchester Guardian one:

 

Cold-War History in Manchester

 

and the last unofficial access before it was really locked down:

 

Raid on tunnel network sparked big terror alert - Manchester Evening News

 

There is just loads of hidden underground stuff in Manchester. I was lucky to see some of it in the glory days of urbex before it became mainstream, but I wonder how much is undocumented.

[lutheaus]

Hello @TheBinMan may I ask you a few questions about you knowledge of anchor exchange? Edited March 2, 2016 by elsiegee40

[lutheaus]

Hello everyone if anybody else happens to have any knowledge of Anchor Exchange I would really appreciate it if you contact me.

I am trying to write a piece about this site and any help would be brilliant, thanks guys.