Dover Castle Tunnels

Stow and Beale are carrying out a feasibility study for English Heritage at the Dover 'Secret Wartime Tunnels', a system of tunnels, now over 1km long, originally cut into the chalk cliffs in 1793, brick lined in 1810, and extended during the second world war to form a combined HQ for admiralty, army and air-force, complete with an underground field-hospital. The tunnels were used for planning and directing 'Operation Dynamo' - the evacuation of the British Expiditionary Force from Dunkirk in 1941 - and later for the invasion of Europe in 1944. Such was secrecy, those working in the tunnels did not know of their extent, access was allowed on a need-to-be-there room-by-room basis. During the Cold War, the tunnels were upgraded and re-used as a Regional Centre of Government, before being 'de-secretized' and handed to English Heritage in 1995. They are now a major visitor attraction at Dover Castle, and are to be represented as part of a regeneration programme aimed to make seaside towns thrive through improvements to heritage and tourism.

Sector: Conservation
Location: Dover, UK
Proj/Arch: Marcus Beale
Job/Arch: Marcus Beale
Status: Live
Year: 2009