 | ||
Address 55 George St, Manchester M1, UK Similar Charwelton BT Tower, Stokenchurch BT Tower, Tinshill BT Tower, Heaton Park BT Tower, Anchor telephone exchange | ||
Guardian Exchange was an underground telephone exchange built in Manchester in 1954. It was built together with the Anchor Exchange in Birmingham and the Kingsway exchange in London – all believed to provide hardened communications in the event of nuclear war. Today the underground site is used for telephone cabling. Constructed at a depth of 35 metres (115 ft), the tunnels are about 2 metres (80 in) in diameter. The exchange cost around £4 million (approximately £126 million in 2015 prices), part of which was funded by the United Kingdom's NATO partners.
Contents
Use as a nuclear bunker
The Guardian Bunker has been called the "Best kept secret in Manchester" and its existence was only publicly acknowledged in 1968, 14 years after initial construction.
Use as a telephone exchange
The tunnels are known to be used for British Telecom cables. The exchange rose to prominence in March 2004 when a fire in one of the tunnels caused 130,000 telephone lines in Manchester to be cut off. Ambulance and fire service calls around the North West region were also severely affected.