On one corner of Horse Guards Parade you will see a brutalist building completely at odds with its surroundings. Have you ever wondered what it is? Or perhaps you know what it is but would like to know a bit more? Either way, read on!
It is a bomb-proof, battle-ready bunker known as Admiralty Citadel.
The Second World War
Designed by W A Forsythe (1872-1951), Admiralty Citadel was built between 1940-1941 and is the most visible of a network of bomb-proof bunkers and tunnels constructed during the Second World War.
Once built, it acted as the command and operations centre for the Admiralty during the war. They had previously been housed in the old admiralty building next door but this was not secure enough against air attack.
On the night of the 16th April 1941 the old Admiralty Building took 3 direct hits. These damaged the board room and South front onto Horse Guards Parade.
It has 30ft foundations, a 20ft thick concrete roof and has tunnels linking it to Whitehall. Fitted with loop-holed gun emplacements, the Citadel could essentially turn into a siege-resistant fortress in the event of an enemy land invasion.
Secrecy was paramount and, at first, the press were forbidden to even acknowledge its existence. It also has a lawn roof to disguise it from the air. Someone, with security clearance, still has to regularly go up there with a lawnmower to mow the lawn!
Churchill, who spent so much of his time nearby in the tunnels of the cabinet war rooms, described it as ‘a vast monstrosity which weighs upon the Horse Guards Parade’.
Inside the bunker
What was it like inside during the war? Thankfully, we have a couple of great sources.
In September 1945 Rear Admiral R K Dickson D.S.O. Chief of Naval Information, Overseas Service, pictured below, spoke for a broadcast about the Citadel and gave us some brilliant insights into what it would have looked and felt like inside during the war. Up until the Cold War, the authorities were actually quite open about what happened here during the war.
Here are a couple of my choice highlights that give you a flavour of the frenetic atmosphere inside the Citadel:
‘If you went down there at this moment you’d find 80 girls working teleprinters to all the naval headquarters in Britain and the Continent’
‘That Citadel is just a maze of machinery and conveyor belts. In one week last year, in secret messages alone, the Admiralty handles over 1,300,000 groups of naval cipher.’
He said it is ‘air conditioned and lit by daylight lamps, there’s accommodation for the Board and for everyone who’d be needed for the worldwide control of our fleets under continuous air attack on London.’
Beryl Embert who worked there on the teleprinters from 1942-1946 said that it was a ‘hive of industry’. Her week would look like this: ‘Working on one of 3 watches. Our hours consisted of a week of days, 6 days a week 9am – 7pm plus 2 hours traveling, then 2 weeks of night 14 hours every other night, resulting in getting a Sunday off every 21 weeks. Bank holidays and Christmas etc were not existent’.
If you would like to read both full extracts click here.
The Citadel Today
After the war, the building was considered by many as an eyesore and its future was discussed in Parliament in 1955. MPs called it ‘hideous’ and ‘an offence to the architecture of London’.
It already had some ivy around the outside to make its appearance less harsh but other suggestions to improve its appearance included cladding it in Portland stone, statues of naval figures, or to turn it into the ‘Hanging Gardens of London’. All of these were discounted, mainly on the basis of cost.
Due to its nature, demolition would also have been a very difficult and expensive task. You can read the full transcript here should you be interested.
The ivy means that the building’s appearance shifts dramatically through the seasons.
In the end the Admiralty communications centre was set up here and the building became known as HMS St Vincent. It was, what is known as, a ‘stone frigate’: an on-shore naval base. In 1998 it became the MARCOMM COMCEN (St Vincent) and it is still used by the Ministry of Defence today.
It is still predominantly referred to as the Admiralty Citadel and is often pointed out during the Trooping of the Colour. It is Grade II listed and described by English Heritage as ‘ a cubist fortress’ and a ‘strong, utilitarian structure which reflects its real purpose’.
So next time you are at Horse Guards Parade look in the opposite direction to most other people and admire the citadel in all its stark glory.
I run guided walking tours of hidden London! Click the photo below to find out more.
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Intresting 😆😆😁 I know where I will be heading to in case of invasion or end of the world apocalypse. 🤣🤣😝😝😏😏😎
Thanks! Yes I think that would be a good move! 🙂
Really interesting i will be visiting the hidden gem at hampstead on Easter weekend. I have visited hampstead on many occasions but I have never seen the pagola it looks beautiful thanks .
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Thanks for this great website. Really interesting. BTW I think the Admiralty Citadel is covered with Virginia Creeper rather than Ivy as it turns to beautiful shades of red in the autumn.
As a young wren in early sixties I worked in the citadel. We got the tube from our beautiful quarters in Queensgate Terrace and sometimes got the tube to work, walking across St James Park to go in either from Horseguards entrance or Marble Arch. I was on duty during the Cuban missile crisis and have many memories of walking in that underground comcen. We had to go deep underground to run a switchboard. An amazing experience which has stayed wth me my whole life. In those days we would wander onto Trafalgar Square in the early hours to buy the first edition newspapers.. hours before ”the rush hour” started 🙂
That is fascinating thank you! What a lovely story. Jack
Brutalist buildings are certainly not one of my favourite architecture ref: Tricorn Portsmouth, but clad in ivy it must disguise its, IMO, “ugliness “
Well done Amanda. I worked in the Citadel ie Whitehall Wireless Comcen in 1966 to 1967 as the operator (I was an LRO) for the submarine morse broadcast GBR. I commuted from Barkingside form my fiancee’s home (now married to her) to Whitehall by Tube. Sadly the Naval Comcen is no long there it closed on the 31st March 1998, although the Citadel is still owned by the government but is called MARCOMM COMCEN (ST VINCENT). I do not have any idea what it does but probably more secret than when were there. John Youde
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I worked at Admiralty in the late fifties and was one of those who pestered the operators with signals to send! OK, I had a good excuse to do all that and it was more than interesting to be contacting all those “customers” by that means. My thanks to anyone who had me leaning on them to send “urgent” messages:-)
I had two ways of sending. My favourite was to look v. important by galloping with a scribbled, rolled up signal from the third floor in West Block through the corridors and the maze to the underground entrance to the teleprinters.
The other method was by the Lamson Paragon tubes. That was an equally puzzling maze of pipes, full of compressed air, with an outlet at the end of each of the main building floors. For me, it was a way of looking technically superior, because I took the rolled up signal to the outlet and on removing the lid would be greeted by the sound of rushing air. Next, remove the internal cannister from the tube, put the signal into the cannister, then that went into the tube and I shut the cap. The cannister went off on its long journey to the Citadel, clanging and banging its way along the pipes.
You can guess from all this that I was rather young, enjoying the adrenaline rushes and trying to impress my seniors.:-)
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Hello. I’m writing a story set in London, in particular in the City of London. (Yes, I’m talking about the historic City of London, not greater London.) There is a terrible battle, and a small group of people need to find a place to set up a redoubt that has a chance against modern weapons. The Admiralty Citadel would be perfect, but is in the wrong location for the action of the story. Are there any other buildings similar to the Citadel either in the City of London, or just north east of it? Many thanks for any information.
How about the Barbican estate or part of it? It was designed with fortress-like details and the word comes from the Latin Barbecana for a fortification.
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