Neasden Bunker

[squirmelia]

The Paddock – Alternative Cabinet War Rooms

The walls were once thick with fur, heaped with steeping mould. Now, the mould is more subtle – it creeps out like sprigs of hair around the doors and then on the other side a kind of fungi appears, a tropical purple and yellow. From the ceiling, white spikes hang like icicles, but in other places, if you look up, the fluffy mould attempts to recapture the ceiling, lurking like a net.

The floors are puddled, muddy, and everywhere there is rust, there is decay. Smashed-up doors lie on their sides, with rusted handles, function gone. A corridor leads to room after room, underground, numbered but abandoned, missing whatever they originally contained, but on a ledge there is a lone brightly coloured tin of caustic soda mottled with deep rust.

(Neasden Bunker, Brook Road, Dollis Hill, NW2 was open to the public on Saturday 17th September as part of the Open House London weekend. An amazing place. Shame Churchill didn't like it. Photos.)

Comments

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I really wish I had your eye, you know. I can wander around London all afternoon and not see anything that I think is very interesting or worthy of being photographed, what's that all about? It never seems to be a problem for you...

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd find anything if I just wandered - I am very reliant on recommendations from people and the media. Although, experimental travel can be a good way of exploring.

(Oh, I saw your ex-housemate Matt at a conference in Nottingham last week!)

[currychips.livejournal.com]

Cool photos. You should post them on [Bad username or site: abandoned places @ livejournal.com] they'd love 'em

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was a fantastic place.

[aporia.livejournal.com]

eerie, indiana?

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

The bunker was kind of eerie. Marshall would have liked it.

[aporia.livejournal.com]

=D

[solitarywalker.livejournal.com]

Looks like my office minus a paint job.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Winston?

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed Paddock too. What time was your tour - I went down at 5pm. My own scribblings on it can be found in my journal, somewhere around the same date.

talking of weird views on London, I'm aboyut to have my third go at getting through Lights Out for the Territory by Iain Sinclair - you never know, I might manage it one day...

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

I went earlier in the day - 1.30, I think. I shall look for your description of the place, because it was indeed a fabulous place. billyabbott took some cool photos if you want to see some more: Paddock - The Neasden Bunker (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowfish/sets/971465/).