LOCATION Beneath the streets of Whitehall, London, England
NEAREST POPULATION HUB London
SECRECY OVERVIEW Existence unacknowledged: a network of tunnels built in the Second World War.
During the Second World War, London was peppered by bombing raids, and tourist attractions such as the Cabinet War Rooms show how the city rapidly developed a subterranean alter ego. Yet the existence of a tunnel network running between Parliament and Trafalgar Square and accessible to those who work in Whitehall, the heart of British government, remains an unconfirmed rumor.
In late 1939, with the Second World War in its infancy, the Post Office undertook a scheme known by the reference number 2845. It involved constructing a tunnel system at a depth of about 30 meters (100 ft) to protect cabling and secure the government’s telephonic and telegraphic systems. It is thought that the system may have grown to between 1.6 and 3.2 kilometers (1 and 2 miles) in length, with access via a series of lifts and stairways. Staff are believed to have had access via the Whitehall exchange in Craig’s Court, with another entrance in the old Trafalgar Square Underground Station.
The first significant section of tunnel was in operation by 1941, linking the War Office, the Air Ministry and the Admiralty. A later extension would lead to the Cabinet War Rooms. It is not a huge leap of the imagination to suggest that, with overground London so vulnerable, these tunnels and their associated service passages could have been adapted to cope with the transfer of large numbers of government workers in the case of an emergency such as a gas attack. Indeed, it has been widely reported that in 1955 the network, known as Q-Whitehall (the name may possibly derive from a GPO site engineering code of QWHI), was used to test how a gas attack within the tunnels might affect the buildings above.
While the Post Office scheme was discussed in some detail in a 1946 GPO publication called The Post Office Electrical Engineers Journal, the government quickly clamped down on such talk in the new Cold War climate: most of the country still remembered the Second World War slogan “careless talk costs lives.” However, it is known that in the 1950s the GPO tunnels received extensive upgrade work (and possibly expansion) though the files relating to this lie in the National Archives awaiting declassification, which will not occur until 2026 at the earliest. Understandably given the evidence, some believe that Q-Whitehall remains very much in use today as a quick and convenient means for government officials and their civil servants to access government buildings.
1 HEART OF GOVERNMENT A view from the air of London’s Whitehall, home to many of the key institutions of British government. An obvious target for enemy bombers in the Second World War, it was essential to develop plans so that government could function even in the event of direct hits.
2 ADMIRALTY HOUSE, formerly the command center of the Royal Navy
3 HORSE GUARDS, former Army headquarters
4 DOWNING STREET, home of the British Prime Minister
5 FORMER WAR OFFICE BUILDING on Horse Guards Avenue, still used by the Ministry of Defence
6 MINISTRY OF DEFENCE MAIN BUILDING, built between 1938 and 1959