It’s an eerie time capsule with a musty tang in the air. When I visit in early November, I initially don’t see another soul (unless you count the waxworks – a toothsome Maggie Thatcher sits behind real radio controls). With help-yourself audio guides and an honesty box ticketing system, it is easy to feel like the last woman alive in Parrish’s bunker. What has happened to all of these subterranean safe havens? In an age of renewed nuclear threat, what is the bunker status quo? How many have been maintained and how many have fallen into disrepair? More pressingly, what chance do you and I stand of getting in? Once upon a time, not all that long ago, operational nuclear bunkers were dotted up and down Britain, from sprawling complexes like Parrish’s to underground “monitoring posts”, which were less than five metres long and were used by the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) during the cold war. Who will he bring in for free?ĭiagram of the Kelvedon Hatch bunker.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, 15 people have inquired about hiring a space in the bunker in the event of nuclear war, but Parrish wants to charge £500,000 a head (a bargain, he says, if you spend 10 to 20 years down there avoiding nuclear fallout). “We have our own water, we have our own electricity, we have our own toilets, because one day I may need it,” says Parrish, 75, wearing a burgundy jumper with the words “secret nuclear bunker” embroidered in yellow on the left breast.

Today, it is also potentially a lifeline. After it was decommissioned in 1992, the Parrishes bought back the bunker – for more than 20 years, it has been a tourist attraction and a sleepover location for Boy Scouts. Situated below an inconspicuous bungalow in Brentwood, Essex, the Kelvedon Hatch bunker was built on Parrish’s grandfather’s land in the 1950s and maintained as secret regional government headquarters throughout the cold war. Michael Parrish has a “wedding guest list” of people he will allow into his three-level, 125ft (38 metre)-deep concrete bunker in the event of a nuclear attack.

Early fallout shelter signs