Reading War Room ('The Citadel'), University Of Reading

Reading War Room is a reinforced concrete bunker completed in 1953 to serve as the command centre for Home Defence Region 6, one of ten such regions established across England to protect regional government and coordinate defence operations in the event of atomic attack.

Structure and Plan

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete in a rectangular form across two storeys, with the lower storey located below ground level. The plan is broadly symmetrical, featuring two opposing entrances in the north-west and south-east elevations, alongside two staircases. The north-west and north-east corners of the upper floor contain dog-leg entrances, corner ablutions, and dog-leg staircases descending to the lower floor. At the heart of the layout sits a map room surrounded by control cabins, with a continuous corridor providing access to external offices and accommodation spaces around the perimeter. A plant room occupies the northern section of the upper floor.

Exterior

The exterior presents a robust but largely featureless appearance, though some visual interest derives from the various vents, chimneys, and overhanging roof. Walls are of reinforced concrete finished with pebble-dash render above plain concrete footings. The external walls measure 1.45 metres thick. Horizontal lines visible in the concrete surface indicate the casting process and demonstrate, through this rough finish, that aesthetic appearance was not a priority in the design. The building has no windows and only two entrances. The main entrance to the north-west features a metal door and frame forming the outermost of a series of doors sealing this entrance. A secondary entrance exists in the south-east elevation. Both doorways are deeply recessed within the thickness of the walls. The flat roof overhangs the walls and supports numerous protruding vents and chimneys concentrated in the northern half of the building. Some of these features are original, whilst others are secondary additions, presumably dating from the early 1960s when the building was converted to serve as a communications centre for the Warren Row Regional Seat of Government. The later additions are readily identifiable because the original features are symmetrical when viewed from the north: a central block flanked by two L-shaped chimneys.

Interior

The interior is functional and lacking in decoration, yet retains numerous original features. The north-western entrance is protected by three doors: an external metal door, a secondary door with a small viewing window, and a third substantial metal door secured by four locks. Inside this final door hangs a wooden wall-fixed sign entitled "Local Warning State". A pair of concrete staircases with solid concrete central balustrades and metal handrails descend to the lower floor. Many internal partition walls are also of reinforced concrete. Internal doors are wooden with architraves, and door furniture is largely original Bakelite, used for handles, finger plates, and lock plates. Original wall lights and ceiling ducting for the air conditioning system survive throughout. Internal walls are painted pale yellow, whilst internal doors are finished in light blue.

Plant equipment is arranged along the north side of the bunker between the ablutions and includes a room containing two ventilation systems—one with original ducting (bearing a plaque identifying Hope's Heating & Engineering Ltd of 17 Berners Street, London) and one with replacement ducting. Water tanks are positioned above each staircase and in an additional tank room on each floor.

The configuration of the central map room and its satellite control rooms remains clearly legible, particularly at lower floor level where four satellite cabins survive: three to the north-east and one to the south-east. Each dividing wall incorporates a large internal hatch which could be sealed off from the map room using the surviving solid shutters. The map room features chamfered piers and ceiling beams, along with three large map boards on the south-west wall. A false floor has been inserted into the former open central well of the map room at upper level. Although not fixed to the building, a large map board in the southern room of the lower floor depicts Home Defence Area 6, its sub-regions, and neighbouring defence areas, and appears to date from the 1950s.

Historical Context

By 1951, the construction of buildings to protect government functions against atomic bombs had been agreed. One war room was to be built in each of the ten Home Defence Regions into which England was divided. The London Region, as an exception, was provided with four war rooms, making a total of thirteen across England. All except one (in Newcastle-upon-Tyne) were purpose-built structures.

The defence regions had their origins in the Second World War, when plans were made for the eventuality that central government was disrupted or destroyed. Each had a regional commissioner who would govern and organise his region and its defence until normality could be restored. The new war rooms were located in the same cities as their wartime predecessors but were usually built on government estates so they could sit alongside the offices of other ministries. War room designs were in progress by October 1951, and the last to be completed was Birmingham in 1956.

Each war room had a reinforced concrete structure with extremely thick external walls (1.45 metres) and roof (1.5 metres), along with further reinforced concrete internal partition walls, its own generators, air filtration system, and water supply. The function of the war rooms was to gather information in the event of an attack and to coordinate rescue and welfare facilities in support of the regional government.

Three different designs were employed: single-storey surface buildings, two-storey surface buildings, and two-storey semi-sunken buildings (as at Reading). In plan, however, they followed a broadly similar pattern. Essentially, as well as the plant rooms and water storage facilities, each had a central map room with control rooms, offices, and communications rooms surrounding it, along with ablutions, dormitories, and a canteen. The buildings provided protection for the staff within (approximately fifty people, including the commissioner, police and military liaison officers, telephonists, telex operators and secretaries, hospital and fire service liaison staff, and a science officer), as well as facilitating the collection and analysis of data and the dissemination of decisions for the organisation of the particular defence region. The importance of the map room is evident from its central position at the heart of the building; in the two-storey design, it occupied the full height of the building with overlooking control cabins on both the lower and upper floors.

Reading War Room was completed in 1953 and located on the wartime government estate at Whiteknights, where some pre-fabricated buildings from this earlier use still survive in the vicinity. It served as the war room for Home Defence Region 6, which broadly covered Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.

Reading and other regional war rooms were replaced in the early 1960s by Regional Seats of Government, which were better equipped to cope with the hydrogen bomb. The detonation of the Soviet hydrogen bomb in August 1963 acted as the catalyst for this change in strategy. Reading War Room thus became the communications centre for the Warren Row Regional Seat of Government near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. More recently it has been used by the University of Reading for document storage and by Plant Sciences.

The building is a remarkably intact early 1950s war room which has experienced very little alteration since construction. Its monumental and robust form expresses the threat posed by the atomic bomb, whilst its plan illustrates the needs and functions of regional government in that decade. It is one of only thirteen war rooms built nationally in the early 1950s—four of which have been demolished—and one of only four surviving examples in England built to the two-storey semi-sunken design.