Belfast's Cold War nuclear bunker to safeguard Northern Ireland's defence heritage

A former nuclear bunker in south Belfast is being repurposed as a secure archive to protect Northern Ireland's historical records.

The Northern Ireland Regional War Room, hidden in a quiet Malone Road neighbourhood, was built in 1952 to coordinate civil defence during the Cold War.

Designed to house 45 key personnel, including emergency service leaders, it was never operational and was later used for training.

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Now, the bunker's reinforced concrete walls, which are 1.5 metres thick, and stable interior environment will house the Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland.

This includes databases, maps and photographs covering archaeological sites, historic buildings and other examples of defence heritage.

Naoimh Quinn, from the Historic Environment Division, said the facility is ideal for its new purpose.

"The building is reinforced concrete with 1.5m thick external walls and no windows which really makes it ideal as an archive store," she said.

"We hope to store our historic environment record which will consist of paper and photographic material."

The bunker is part of a broader effort to document and preserve defence heritage.

Emma McBride, a senior archaeologist, explained that more than 4,500 defence sites have been mapped across Northern Ireland.

"They are mapped and available on our Historic Environment map viewer where the public can go to areas within their localities and see what sites they have, and then they can also access additional site descriptions and photographs," she said.

The bunker is now a B1-listed building and a key piece of Northern Ireland's 45,000 heritage sites.