OTD 1968: Birmingham’s ‘atomic bomb proof’ telephone exchange

With the current situation of nuclear threats from barmy old Putin in Russia, a timely On this Day as back in 1966 ATV Midlands News visited the ‘atomic-bomb-proof’ telephone exchange constructed below the main exchange on Newhall Street in Birmingham.

The exchange wasn’t new, it had been around for many years, however, was taken off the secret list and revealed to the press for the first time in October of ’66.

ATV News cameras capture views of inside the underground facility that was built in the 1950s to withstand atomic attack including the telephone exchange equipment, generators, cabling and the workers in their canteen.