This is it . . . the hush-hush nerve-centre

Evening Mail Reporter (Evening Mail, Friday, October 11, 1968 - LATE CITY)

BIRMINGHAM'S nest-kept secret was officially revealed today - 100ft below the city centre streets.

It is the £6,000,000 "Anchor Exchange," built to maintain essential communications in the event of a "severe emergency."

For 15 years the entire project was the subject of a Government "D" notice, that prevented publication of details.

Today, Mr. G. J Alston, Birmingham's Telephone Manager, said: "Many people were curious and tried to guess what was happening when digging started in 1953 But there was wonderful cooperation from the press locally and it was never broadcast."

In fact, many G.P.O employees did not know until today, what "Anchor" is all about.

SECURITY

Strict security still applies. Not even Mr. Alston can visit the plant without a special pass and signing in and out."

Mention of Britain's under-ground communication centres was made this week by Mr. John Stonehouse, the Post-master-General, speaking in Manchester.

Similar underground exchanges exist in London, Manchester and Glasgow.

The one buried beneath Birmingham's Telephone House and adjoining streets is the biggest individual centre in the country.

The trunk unit; built in the 25ft-high tunnels can carry 4,700 circuits. Two of the tunnels are 400ft. long, one id 240ft., another 110ft, and there are several smaller sections.

OPERATIONAL

"Anchor," one of the country's nerve centres, built essentially for a major disaster is, despite its huge blast proof airtight doors, and its security measures, an operative centre handling about 250,000 trunk calls a day, most of them on STD.

It is the central testing point for many of the main trunk routes to places all over the country and the control point for B.B.C and I.T.V services in the Midlands.

Please click on the following pictures for a larger version,

Actual news article

Doorkeeper Mr. Fred Monk checks the passes of every body taking the lift down to Anchor Exchange.

At the bottom of the 100ft. lift shaft, a heavy airtight door guards the entrance.

The trunk test section of the underground Anchor Exchange, where all circuits are continuously tested.

One of the connecting tunnels leading from the lift shaft to the exchange.