LondonSecretLife: Q-Whitehall

London's Secret Life: Q-Whitehall

It is not surprising to hear of London’s Secret Underground city, with over 2,000 years of history having been burnt down many times (first recorded in AD61 when Queen Boadicea burnt the Roman Sympathetic Settlement down), rebuilt, redeveloped, restructured for defenses and then bombed again in WWII.

It is known that there is a secret entrance to 10 Downing Street, from a cabinet office at 70 Whitehall. This runs along the indoor Cockpit passage built by King Henry VIII to get to his indoor tennis courts in his grand, but split, Palace of Whitehall, without being disturbed by the public. This secret tunnel, like many others in the area are still being used today within Whitehall, maintaining that necessary power of secrecy and knowledge the government seeks over the media.

Victorian London’s engineers purpose built tunnels for the utilities we still need to maintain today, like water, gas and electricity to cause minimum disruption to life above. Unused tram, tube and railway lines leave tunnels between stations, the Post Office Tunnels were created independent of the underground (with smaller tunnels and trains) but the Royal Mail declared it closed in 2003 and rumours of these unused tunnels spark conspiracy quite naturally.

There are many myths circulating about London’s Underground Citadel, secret tunnels and passageways. some of which I am unsure, (such as the Buckingham Palace secret Tube Line) and others I know for fact to be true. Q-Whitehall has some truths and what may have been designed for escape purposes is now used for easy access to government buildings every day by members of Westminster as well as civil servants and their staff. What remains is locked in the National Archives under the Official Secrecy Act.

sourced from multi map.

Q-Whitehall

An unofficial term, probably originating due to the idea of Q in the James Bond novels, meetings and negotiating in secret, is the name of a hybrid deep level communications network and facilities. During WWII communications in London were weak and air raids with the risk of invasion were real, and so Military Westminster under Churchill went underground.

A network of tunnels in between Trafalgar Square, (access via the Tube Station), down Whitehall to King Charles Street were extended to provide protected access to the Cabinet War Rooms, the Treasury, Marsham Street Rotundas and other ‘bomb target’ government buildings, possibly Buckingham Palace. It would also follow suit to have extended to provide access to the atomic proof bunker, PINDAR, built underneath Whitehall as a crisis management and communications centre.

This underground city was confirmed when The Cabinet War Rooms were opened to the public, having been kept secret, in 1984 (although we still only really see a small proportion), and the documents about buildings such as 39 Furnival Street were released.

The area was further developed in the 1950’s with fear of the Cold War, however, the file for the substantial upgrade work is locked away in the National Archives as Top Secret until April 2026. There is even talk of further extension within the last couple of years, and due to the ‘defensive’ purposes will remain secret for 75 years.

Only recently were answers behind the mysterious building of 39 Furnival Street released to the public, a redbrick built building, large black unmarked doors with an industrial air shaft outside in a row of offices and legal companies in High Holburn. For decades the house had been kept hidden under the Official Secrets Act, having put its original purpose as an air raid shelter aside when using it as a back up Government Base during WWII became the plan.

A shaft well over 100ft long is behind its front doors and it is the entrance to The Kingsway Tunnels, the Kingsway Exchange but what intrigues the conspiracist is that after the war it was taken over by ‘Inter Services Research Bureau’ a front for an MI6 research and development work (security down the road has always been tight).

Trams in London were abandoned for buses in 1952, the street tracks were removed, the subways remained. It has two main tunnels with 4 off shooting ones with names like South Street, Second Avenue, and Tea Bar Alley. Parts of this tram tunnels were used to ease congestion between The Strand and Waterloo Bridge and renamed The Strand Bypass, the bar/restaurant Buddha Bar currently occupies a section of the southern tunnel.Furnival Road, and the grand Prudential Building nearby were linked entrances to the secret tunnels of London, inaccessible to everyday public. Click Here for Map of Tunnels.

Another back up government base was on the lower level of the North Rotunda on Marsham Street, Westminster as it was a bomb centre citadel with 12 concrete roofs to withstand the impact of explosions. Access from one of the three rotundas into the WWII deep level shelter for 8,000 people was instead kept secret from the public, connected to Q-Whitehall and used by the government. The tunnels offer deep level protection to vital communication equipment.

The three rotundas are still hidden at the buildings base, the Department of Environment and likely to be connected to the other government buildings in the underworld labyrinth of tunnels in the area. The Ordnance Survey map actually has a row of houses along that street coloured in, only aiding the conspiracist in wondering what lies beneath them as they walk the streets of central London.

These tunnels are a genuine part of Westminster Government, connecting the buildings with its own society (over 400 rooms and I am told from a good source) access to the local drinking spot. It is also quite likely that there is an entrance at Whitehall tube station (or another local one) providing members indoor access. The once ‘escape routes’ once necessary in war have become embedded within Westminster government and are used daily for ease of access. The décor and layout can only be well suited to the MP’s taste, the expenses scandal last year said it all.

I do not have any claims over the old Royal Mail underground railway being used for Royal getaways, and by the sound of things at Q-Whitehall there is a city below ground that seems far more secure than any public station or airport.