This is where Keir Starmer will go if World War Three comes to London

In 335 BC, Alexander the Great burned the Greek city of Thebes to the ground, spreading destruction and devastation to send a firm message to the cityfolk who tried to revolt against him.

One of the only buildings he left standing in the middle of the ruins was the home of a poet he admired, whose name was Pindar.

If nuclear war was to break out today, and central London was flattened by several megatons of explosive force, the Prime Minister and top military figures would likely be sheltering in one of the few places left unaffected.

It is also called Pindar.

That evocative name demonstrates with chilling clarity the purpose of the Whitehall bunker, located deeper than the tunnels of the London Underground: it is meant to be the last place remaining when all around it is smoking rubble.

Today, with Russia bearing down on the eastern border of Nato and Iran threatening to develop its nuclear technology without international oversight, concerns about World War Three are growing louder.

Construction of Pindar began as the Cold War – perhaps the last time those fears were so prominent – was drawing to a close, with the aim of ensuring the government could continue in the event of armageddon.

Much about Pindar is a closely guarded secret, but a few details were provided by then-armed forces minister Jeremy Hanley in the House of Commons two years after the facility opened in 1992.

He said: ‘The purpose of the Pindar joint operations centre is to provide the government with a protected crisis management facility.’

The complex is ‘manned by a permanent staff, which is augmented as necessary in times of crisis’, he added, and includes allocated space for ‘ministers, senior military and civilian personnel, plus service and civilian operational and support staff’.

Situated deep below the Ministry of Defence HQ, just north of the Houses of Parliament on the River Thames, Pindar contains enough beds, toilets and food to keep its inhabitants alive for as long as may be necessary.

It’s thought the facility can be accessed directly from Downing Street and other government buildings via a system of tunnels.

This is where Sir Keir Starmer would likely make his escape if he was at home in Number 10 when the unthinkable was to take place.

Other than the staff who maintain the facility and run regular exercises, very few people have had the opportunity to see inside Pindar. One of them is David Moore, who was given access to take pictures for an art project between 2006 and 2007.

His images show a green sign reading ‘To Bomb Shelter Area’ at the top of a nondescript flight of stairs; a ‘decontamination suite’ with a container of fuller’s earth; a broadcast studio with a green screen; and a lectern where the PM might address what remains of the nation.

Perhaps most alarmingly, given the events of the last two weeks, the pictures also include a large map of Iran – digitally altered before publication, to remove any information the military would rather keep hidden.

David told Metro he made between 25 and 30 visits to the ‘industrial’ and ‘slightly surreal’ place over the course of six months.

He said: ‘Everyone sort of imagines this space. You know, we all know that spaces like this exist.’

The photographer, now a principal lecturer at the University of Westminster, remembered the basement smelling of oil where generators were used to ‘keep the place running independently is necessary’.

There were also attempts to ‘prettify’ the bunker, he recalled, such as impressionist posters on the wall.

Even if London was to face a Thebes-level event which laid waste to the Ministry of Defence building above it, the inhabitants of Pindar would be able to emerge at some point to survey the landscape.

In 1994, Minister Hanley reassured MPs: ‘A variety of routes exist which would enable the occupants to escape from the facility in the event that the building above it had collapsed.’

But of course, even a state-of-the-art bunker equipped with enough supplies to last ‘as long as is considered operationally necessary’ couldn’t possibly fit in everyone needed to keep the country running.

So there are several other bunkers dotted around the country, largely at military bases in places such as Buckinghamshire and north-east London, to ensure the chain of command stays intact as far as possible.

If it did end up breaking, officials may need to crack out the famous letters of last resort, which Starmer wrote shortly after getting the keys to Number 10.

The four letters outline how the people in charge of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons should react if all communication is lost.

They show that if London falls and even the house of Pindar no longer remains, there should always be another person with their finger on the button.

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