Regional Seat of Government

Regional Seats of Government or RSGs were the best known aspect of Britain's civil defence preparations against nuclear war. In fact, however, naming conventions changed over the years as strategies in Whitehall changed.

In the aftermath of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and the Soviet Union's development of the atom bomb, it was clear that London could not survive a nuclear bombardment. Although considerable effort still went into secret construction of military citadels under London, the solution was to disperse the machinery of government into small pieces in the provinces, where there would be a greater chance of survival.

Experiments along these lines had taken place during the Second World War, when a system of regional commissioners existed and key departments were moved out of London to Bath, Harrogate and Cheltenham, among others. However, the idea of a regional commissioner dated back to the First World War and the 1926 General Strike.

The Civil Defence Corps was revived in 1948 by Act of Parliament, and the next year it was decided to construct a network of two-storey, hardened war rooms built on government sites and with concrete walls ranging from five to seven feet thick.

Construction started in 1953 and was completed by 1965. The sites chosen were

Region 1 (Northern)

Kenton Bar in Newcastle upon Tyne, a former RAF operations room dating from 1940

Region 2 (North East)

Lawnswood, Leeds

Region 3 (North Midlands)

Chalfont Drive, Nottingham

Region 4 (Eastern)

Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge

Region 5 (London)

Five sub-controls in the outer suburbs were established - see Civil defence centres in London

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