Plan of Fort Southwick barrack block showing the location of the three entrances to the UGHQ.

The white building on the right is a specially constructed room at the east of the gorge where the east staircase leads down to the underground complex. Show as E3 on the plan. Just inside the black steel gate is an airlock.

The eastern stairway was the one most used during World War Two. An eye witness account compares it to a market day street - people constantly on the move. This portion represents about two-thirds of its total length and is the only part of the UGHQ with lighting.

Photo by Nick Catford -  Subterranea Britannica 

On this (east) staircase are a series of  five matchstick men cartoons drawn sometime during 1944. At the bottom of the stairs - step 168 - the matchstick figure is strong and upright. As you progress up the stairs the figure gradually becomes more bent until at step 20 it's leaning over and sweating. Tucked in the gaps of the tunnel lining of the staircase you can often find a Cigarette packet where some poor soul has stopped for a rest and a smoke on the way up. Lifts were never fitted.

Bottom on the eastern stairway. The B5 on the floor is an navigation aid: west/east crosscut 'B', north/south lateral '5'. 

Photo: Jan West

Entrance to the center stairway located in the original Victorian magazine tunnel. (E2 on the plan)

Photo: Jan West

The white brick building on the right is situated at the western end of the gorge and contains the west stairway to the UGHQ.  (E1 on the plan)

Photo: Jan West

The west stairway entrance contained in the building shown in the previous photo. The steel upright pipe in the centre supplied water to the complex. Two thirds of the way down the stairs is a chamber which once contained the water tanks.

Photo: Jan West

Below ground. The centre stairway leads to the west gorge entrance and the stairway on the right to the magazine tunnel centre entrance. The tunnel on the left is a blast trap.

Photo: Jan West