The End, Joshua Oppenheimer’s new film starring Tilda Swinton, is set entirely in a bunker after an environmental catastrophe. It is no ordinary bunker: it is a salt mine turned underground ultra-luxe fortress that features an art gallery, library and indoor pool. The film might seem wild (the actors also break into song), but in some aspects, it rings true.
Bunkers and “prepper” culture has long been established in the US, with several companies building vast developments in former missile silos hundreds of feet underground. Virginia-based Strategically Armored & Fortified Environments recently announced plans for a 625-person underground complex with units available up to $20mn each, featuring a climbing wall, medical and wellness suite, and a swimming complex with interactive walls that give the illusion of being in a rooftop infinity pool. Others boast of everything from hydroponic farms to nightclubs and bowling alleys. New Zealand is also a hotspot for billionaires purchasing remote properties to ride out Armageddon.
In the UK, bunkers are still a niche acquisition, but demand has been building — and the interpretations are ever more upscale. For some homeowners, there is “a tick list of what they now want in their property: sauna, gym, swimming pool. Security is there too: panic rooms, safe rooms — and now nuclear shelters,” says Paul Weldon, founder of The Panic Room Company.
Weldon knows how to secure a property: he can fit security doors, install bulletproof windows, design and construct panic rooms with independent power supplies and ballistics-tested safe rooms. But it was in 2017 that he received a new request: could he build a nuclear bunker?
“It was a natural progression,” says Weldon. The request came from an international client who was refurbishing their London home. “They couldn’t find anyone to do it,” he says. “We looked at the specification and said: ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ That was the first one.” Since then, Weldon has become “a sort of specialist” in nuclear bunkers. They are designed to offer protection against both blast and radiation, and provide not just shelter but high-end comfort for four to six weeks.
“There’s been an uptick in interest,” agrees Michael Duncan, who runs Gallery, a company that refurbishes homes. Gallery’s first bunker request came in 2020: a Russian client with multiple properties wanted one for their Wimbledon home. Duncan contacted The Panic Room Company, which supplied a shelter with “full nuclear capabilities and nuclear filters”, an exercise bike to generate power, satellite phone and control centre for the entire property’s utilities. Gallery has since installed bunkers in four more properties.
Thornhill Security, which advertises “state-of-the-art nuclear bunkers”, has also reported a rise in interest, but said that “most are just inquiries”. Burrowed, a company that builds “hobbit-style accommodation”, has been contacted about using their structures as shelters since 2022. As a result, they have recently started offering “cost-effective” prefabricated and DIY underground bunkers. They are yet to receive an order.
Weldon had five inquiries in one month and is currently working on three nuclear shelters at once, which is unprecedented. Commercial inquiries have also risen, with a new, high-profile project for an undisclosed client in its early stages. “It’s not just the billionaires,” says Weldon. “It’s the middle class.”
Weldon has also noticed a wider geographical reach, with projects in Warwickshire, South Wales, North Yorkshire and Scotland as well as London. Some inquiries are for super-prime, multimillion-pound homes, but generally, they are for large, detached properties with land, valued at between £2.5mn and £7mn. Duncan recently received an inquiry for a “modest” £1.5mn property, which did not go ahead. Not all inquiries materialise, with buyers sometimes deterred by the price. At The Panic Room Company, costs start at around £130,000 for a “scaled-back” overground shelter, rising upwards to around £3mn, although it can go “off the scale”, says Weldon.
“You’ve got essentials and add-ons,” he explains. “The essentials are clear air; so an NBC [nuclear, biological and chemical] filtration system, fresh water, power — battery backup, maybe solar panels — and generator battery backup. The add-ons are when the room has a dual purpose: storage, wine cellar, cinema room, gym. It’s more common than not.”
In 2023 Wired reported that Mark Zuckerberg spent more than $270mn on a 1,400-acre compound in Hawaii, with a 5,000 sq ft underground shelter and its own energy and food supply. At Oppidum, a Swiss-based supplier that sells sprawling, architect-designed bunkers, prices for the “L’Heritage” range start at $60mn. These span 12,000 sq ft, with five bedrooms, indoor gardens, cinemas, swimming pools, saunas, art galleries and gyms.
In Mayfair, Beauchamp Estates is selling a £50mn mansion with a bomb shelter that’s “more like a suite in Claridge’s than a gloomy bunker”, says sales director Paul Finch. Made of reinforced concrete, the shelter has independent power and oxygen supplies, reinforced doors and a biometric security system, “like a safe in Fort Knox”. On a day-to-day basis, though, it functions as a “glorified man cave”, with a bedroom suite, leisure facilities and office amenities. It cost the Middle Eastern vendor, who visits London once or twice a year, “millions” to install.
“A few years ago, no client would have asked about a home with a bomb shelter or nuclear bunker, but now the subject comes up with around two or three clients out of every 10,” says Finch.
There is interest in the older kind, too: SDL Property Auctions is currently marketing a decommissioned reservoir with planning permission for a “Grand Design-type” property, alongside a cold war-era nuclear bunker that they say could be a turned into a “man cave”. It’s “certainly not something we come across very often,” says auctioneer Andrew Parker.
Bunkers are increasingly viewed as a means of enticing wealthy buyers. James Shaw, director of buying agency Prime Purchase, had one client who asked whether spending £200,000 installing a bunker might help to boost the value of his Oxfordshire property, valued at £10mn. He had been inspired by a conversation with a military connection after war broke out in Ukraine. “I said to him: only do it if he fears for his life, rather than to make money,” says Shaw. “You’d be better off putting in a padel court.”
The UK government currently identifies the risk of nuclear conflict as “remote”, but states that “the threats the UK faces are increasing in scale, diversity and complexity”. In May 2024, Rishi Sunak said that war in Ukraine “has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear escalation at any point since the Cuban missile crisis”. In January this year, the Doomsday Clock moved to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. Some have taken that to heart.
But in such an event, “any sturdy building provides protection”, says Michael Dillon, an atmospheric scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, who has created a model on how to survive a nuclear attack. “Basements and central rooms are best.” Elaborate shelters are unnecessary. “It doesn’t matter what the material is, the same mass of concrete, steel, earth or wood works equally well.” After 12-24 hours, radiation levels should be “low enough that most people can safely leave their building”.
But some are after more than simple survival. “Recently, I’ve had conversations where clients joked about having a bolt-hole in the Outer Hebrides, just in case everything goes pear-shaped. There’s often a grain of truth in every jest. Maybe people have real concerns, but don’t want to be labelled as a doomsday prepper,” says Jamie Freeman, director of buying agency Haringtons. “Off-grid homes do more than offer a haven in the event of a nuclear fallout. They provide independence from fragile infrastructure, security, sustainability and peace of mind.”
Certainly, this was Nick Gould’s aim in building his 3,000 sq ft, military-grade nuclear shelter in 2014. He calls it “protected accommodation” (“‘bunker’ conjures up silly images of people in camouflage, hiding away in holes and living off beans”) and says that it is designed to “protect from the effects of a hostile attack on the United Kingdom, either for peacetime or wartime emergencies”. It offers defence against a range of possible crises, he stresses, not just nuclear war.
The shelter, dug under Gould’s country house in the south-west of England, took 18 months to build and cost “hundreds of thousands of pounds”. Doors, each weighing a tonne, are designed to withstand huge blasts and pressure. The ventilation system offers proof against “all known chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats”, while the shelter has standby power provided by generators and battery storage systems. In a crisis, 55-year-old Gould, his wife and two cats could live there for 14 days, independent of main services. Gould’s basement also serves as a home cinema, wine cellar and games room.
“It’s over the top,” admits Gould. “It is built to a military standard, which is not necessary for basic protection.” Why build to such a high standard then? “Probably paranoia, if I’m honest . . . It’s a desire not to be vulnerable,” he says.
Nuclear bombs have the capacity to crush buildings, burn cities and wipe out civilisations. In the event of a full-scale nuclear war, the planet would descend into a “nuclear winter”, with black smoke blocking out the sun’s light and heat. Few people, if any, would live. What is the appeal, then, of survival? “It’s hope, isn’t it?” says Gould. “It’s about wanting to survive that, and protecting the people you love. Ultimately, whatever the disaster is, there will be survivors in some shape or form.”
Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
Read the full article here