Turnstile: Wilson’s secret cold war bunker in Wiltshire
A SOVIET attack would have seen Britain governed from a secret underground bunker codenamed Turnstile.
The complex was created in a remote part of the countryside in case Westminster was put at risk in the 1960s. Turnstile included a telecoms unit, storage depots and a communications centre, with access to it available to a range of military personnel as well as politicians. Built at the height of the nuclear arms race it was situated near Corsham in north-west Wiltshire, deemed far enough out of London to escape any attacks on the capital but easy enough for Harold Wilson and his Cabinet to reach in a crisis. Only a handful of top-ranking officials knew of its existence, while senior Government press officers were issued with strict "cover stories", describing it as a Post Office centre.