A Cold War-era nuclear bunker in Cardiff has been given Graded II listed status.
The Llandaff Sub-Control Centre is a single-storey, windowless building and was one of two sub-control centres in the city, as well as a Civil Defence Control Centre on Allensbank Road.
In recognition of this, Cadw has awarded the unusual building with Grade II listed status —acknowledging the site as "a sobering reminder of how close Wales came to nuclear annihilation in the twentieth century."
The building is on the outer edge of the gardens of Insole Court, a Victorian mansion which was an emergency service centre during the Cardiff Blitz.
In the years after the war, tensions mounted between the former allies and in 1948 the Civil Defence Corps was revived across the UK — leading Cardiff County Borough Council to make plans for a possible Third World War.
Nuclear weapons had been invented and used by the USA, and in 1949, the Soviet Union produced its first atom bomb, followed by Britain in 1952.
With these developments, tensions continued to rise and during 1953, Cardiff’s city surveyor, EC Roberts, built a Civil Defence Control Centre on Allensbank Road — next to what was once a crucial location for the city’s water supply. He also built two Sub-Control Centres in the east and west of the city, at