‘Quirky and historic’ Cold War nuclear bunker in Cornwall up for auction
A “quirky and historic” nuclear bunker buried 14ft underground near St Agnes is up for auction at a guide price of £25,000.
Constructed in 1961, the former Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post was initially occupied by volunteers to keep watch for any potential nuclear threats during the Cold War.
It is insulated with reinforced concrete and features a toilet, monitoring room, and a 4.2m ladder to access the property.
Auction House Devon and Cornwall’s auctioneer, Adam Cook, said he has been inundated with potential buyers since he advertised the property with its private owner on January 12.
He said: “There does appear to be a lot of interest but I don’t want to get overexcited because it’s quirky and unusual, and that usually means for an auctioneer that you get lots of enquiries.
“I think for a lot of people, the option to be able to acquire something like that and own it outright is quite exciting.
“There may be punters who might go for it on a whim but there may be history enthusiasts who may want to restore it back to its former glory so that could be quite good fun."
The former monitoring post was closed in 1991.
It is up for sale within a triangle segment of land measuring 0.15 acres and is one of 1563 monitoring posts constructed across the country during the Cold War period.
Mr Cook believes the “affordable” property may have benefited already from the added exposure from the announcement the G7 Summit will take place in Cornwall in June 2021.
He said: “It is interesting that the G7 Summit is coming to Cornwall and that may have raised a bit of profile and I know there’s supposed to be a lot of money coming into the county because of that, but I think people would’ve been jolly interested anyway.
The property is set to be auctioned on Thursday 18 February via a livestream auction event online.
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