Kingsway telephone exchange

Kingsway telephone exchange was a Cold War-era hardened telephone exchange underneath Chancery Lane tube station in High Holborn in London. Initially built as a deep-level air-raid shelter in the early 1940s, it was instead used as a government communications centre. In 1949 the General Post Office (GPO) took over the building, and in 1956 it became the UK termination point for TAT-1, the first transatlantic telephone cable. Closure of the facility began in the 1980s. It was built together with underground exchanges in Birmingham and Manchester, and was originally covered by a D-Notice.[1][2]

History

The Kingsway telephone exchange was built as a deep-level shelter underneath Chancery Lane tube station in the early 1940s, consisting of two east–west aligned tunnels, one on each side of the Central Line.[3] Although intended for use as an air raid shelter, like many of the deep level shelters, it was not used for its intended purpose and was instead used as a government communications centre. Material from the Public Record Office was stored there from 1945 to 1949.[3]

The site was given to the General Post Office in 1949. At the time, the Post Office was also responsible for telephones as well as postal system. The two-tunnel shelter was extended by the addition of four shorter tunnels, at right angles to the original pair. This extension was completed by 1954, and the exchange opened on 30 October 1954. In 1956 it became the UK termination point for TAT-1, the first transatlantic telephone cable.[4]

Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, Kingsway Trunk Switching Centre (as it became known) was a trunk switching centre and repeater station with Post Office engineering staff totalling over 200 at its peak.

Entrances

Kingsway Telephone Exchange has two entrances. One is next to a shopfront at 32 High Holborn, the other is a goods lift on Furnival Street. A third access point, a combination of ventilation towers and a passenger lift at Tooks Court, was demolished in 2001.

Fiction

The Exchange features in the third of James Herbert's The Rats trilogy Domain, as a place where survivors of a nuclear attack on London take shelter.[12]

Once home to MI6's Special Operations Executive, the tunnels are referenced by Ian Fleming (who worked as an SOE liaison officer) in his first James Bond book Casino Royale as the location of M's Q Branch laboratories.[10]

External links

References

Underground Exchanges 21 October 1968^
POST OFFICE WORKS BILL 20 January 1959^
Aly Mir. Discovering Holborn's underground lairs The Telegraph, 19 March 2018