Nuclear Winter Getaway: WWII RAF Bunker to be Converted Into Luxury Holiday Home

The Ringstead Bay bunker was built in 1941 as part of the Chain Home radar network, the world's first early-warning system for air raids. In 1952 the station was upgraded as part of the Cold War ROTOR network designed to detect incoming Soviet bombers laden with nuclear weapons.

A bunker at a former Second World War RAF radar base in South-West England is to be converted into a luxury holiday retreat.

The Mail Online reported that windowless bunker at Ringstead Bay in Dorset is currently almost hidden by overgrown vegetation.

Dorset county council has grated London-based firm Lipton Plant Architects (LPA) planning permission to redevelop it as a holiday hideaway.

An artist's impression of a plan to redevelop a WWII bunker in Dorset, south-west England, as a holiday home

© Marvelous Design/Twitter

They plan to blow jagged holes in the windowless structure to create a "gazed opening", before converting the interior from bare concrete to something more comfortable.

"By re-inhabiting this bunker, we hope to celebrate the significant historic, yet redundant, structure as a historic ruin," the firm said in a press release. "By 'blasting' a new opening in the elevation, not only can the space be enjoyed as a holiday home, but views of the Jurassic Coast are revealed."

The site was built in 1941 as part of the Chain Home radar network, the world's first early-warning system for air raids that had helped the Royal Air Force defeat the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain the previous summer.

"This oppressive, windowless World War Two bunker was built to 'see' the enemy at long range by bouncing radio rays off the wings of German aircraft," LPA said.

In 1952 the station was upgraded as part of the Cold War ROTOR network designed to detect incoming Soviet bombers laden with nuclear weapons.

Another former ROTOR station in neighbouring Devon was sold to developers last year for £433,000.

The huge Hope Cove bunker near the pretty seaside village of Salcombe was later converted for use as a Regional Seat of Government in event of London's destruction in a nuclear war. It was built to withstand a five-kiloton atomic bomb and could accommodate 150 people.

The site was on a declassified government list of potential Soviet nuclear targets from the 1970s, released by the National Archives in 2014. Salcombe residents became fearful following the launch of Russia's military operation in Ukraine in February that they might be hit if hostile rhetoric between Moscow and London escalated to armed confrontation. However, Russia has repeatedly said that it would only resort to the use of nuclear weapons if its sovereignty and territorial integrity is threatened.