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Author | Peter Laurie |
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Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Subject | Civil Defence |
Genre | Non-Fiction |
Publisher | Allen Lane |
Publication date | 1970 |
Media type | Book |
Pages | 247 |
ISBN | 0-7139-0114-4 |
OCLC | 222366 |
363.350941 | |
LC Class | UA929.G7 L34 |
Beneath the City Streets: A Private Inquiry into the Nuclear Preoccupations of Government is a 1970 book by British author Peter Laurie. It details the existence and necessity of underground bunkers, food depots, and government safe havens throughout underground London and the UK from 1914 to 1970. [1]
The book consists of linked articles on aspects of nuclear war and UK civil defence:
Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation and recovery. Programs of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s and were implemented in some countries during the 1930s as the threat of war and aerial bombardment grew. Civil-defense structures became widespread after authorities recognised the threats posed by nuclear weapons.
The War Game is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary film that depicts a nuclear war and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, it caused dismay within the BBC and also within government, and was subsequently withdrawn before the provisional screening date of 6 October 1965. The corporation said that "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting. It will, however, be shown to invited audiences..."
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the terminus of the West Anglia Main Line to Cambridge, the Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich, commuter trains serving east London and destinations in the East of England, and the Stansted Express service to Stansted Airport.
Subterranean London refers to a number of subterranean structures that lie beneath London. The city has been occupied by humans for two millennia. Over time, the capital has acquired a vast number of these structures and spaces, often as a result of war and conflict.
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The London Wall was a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in c. AD 200, and is now the name of a modern street in the City of London. It has origins as an initial mound wall and ditch from c. AD 100 and an initial fort, now called Cripplegate fort after the city gate (Cripplegate) that was positioned within its northern wall later on, built in 120-150 where it was then expanded upon by Roman builders into a city-wide defence. Over time, as Roman influence waned through the departure of the Roman army in c. 410, their withdrawal led to its disrepair, as political power on the island of Great Britain dispersed through the Heptarchy period of Anglo-Saxon England. From the conquest of William the Conqueror, successive medieval restorations and repairs to its use have been undertaken. This wall largely defined the boundaries of the City of London until the later Middle Ages, when population rises and the development of towns around the city blurred the perimeter.
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Kensington (Olympia) is a combined rail and tube station in Kensington, on the edge of Central London. Services are provided by London Overground, who manage the station, along with Southern and London Underground. It is in Travelcard Zone 2. On the Underground it is the terminus of a short District line branch from Earl's Court, originally built as part of the Middle Circle. On the main-line railway it is on the West London Line from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction, by which trains bypass inner London. The station's name is drawn from its location in Kensington and the adjacent Olympia exhibition centre.
The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear weapon in the United Kingdom from the late 1960s into the 1990s.
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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.
General Sir William Gerald Hugh Beach, was a British Army officer who, in retirement, researched and advised on defence policy, arms control and disarmament, with an interest in promoting concerns about ethical issues of peace and war.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It opposes military action that may result in the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and the building of nuclear power stations in the UK.
Laurence Hislam was an English peace activist. Hislam's anti-war feelings and activism developed from about 1938, first in the Peace Pledge Union working with Basque child refugees from the Spanish Civil War. His first notable individual activism was in 1939, when he released "rubber ball bombs" from a suitcase, causing chaos in Downing Street, for which he served one month hard labour. As an anarchist conscientious objector in WWII he served periods of imprisonment, wrote for War Commentary and distributed anti-war literature. In 1945 he joined The London Forum discussion group and later worked for the Freedom Defence Committee in London. In 1951 Hislam moved to Gloucestershire, where he continued with anti-war protests and activism including having his head shaved in 1964 and 1965 for a vigil to commemorate the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, many local CND demonstrations and a pilgrimage to Rome hoping to influence Pope John XXIII to condemn nuclear weapons. He was a founder member of the Committee of 100 and took part in many CND protests. He was killed in a car crash in 1966.
Royal Air Force Shipton was a First World War era airfield located north of the village of Shipton-by-Beningbrough, in North Yorkshire, England. During the First World War, it was used by No. 76 Squadron RAF whose remit was to provide Home Defence (HD).