{"id":11840,"date":"2016-09-13T19:43:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T18:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetimechamber.co.uk\/beta\/?p=11840"},"modified":"2016-09-14T12:13:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T11:13:42","slug":"in-praise-of-heritage-open-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetimechamber.co.uk\/beta\/blog\/in-praise-of-heritage-open-days","title":{"rendered":"In praise of Heritage Open Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once a weekend every year, during September, the country throws open its doors and welcomes passersby into the Countries heritage hidden in plain sight<\/a>. The following weekend, London<\/a> does the same thing. It’s like exploring, but a little more civilised and a little\u00a0less climbing. We try to go every year if we are around as it allows us to see a number of places we would\u00a0not normally get to see.<\/p>\n

Last\u00a0weekend we made a trip to somewhere we have always meant to visit –\u00a0but haven’t quite found the time – the Railway HV Control Room at Woking. Sitting astride the Portsmouth Junction at Woking on the South West Trains mainline is a nondescript concrete monolith that must surely be ignored by thousands of commuters\u00a0a day. Even if they weren’t buried in their copies of the Metro, it is doubtful they would even pay the building much\u00a0attention. Little do they know at the gem they are missing out on! Hidden inside is a beautiful art-deco control room built in 1936 during the electrification of the Surrey section, and expanded\u00a0again with the Reading extension a few years later. \u00a0The control room was decommissioned\u00a0in 1997 when a new facility was built in Eastleigh. The building is still in use by Network Rail, they didn’t say what exactly for, but a few enterprising employees\u00a0managed to get it listed as a Heritage Asset with Network Rail (the York museum apparently wasn’t interested as it isn’t old enough). Thankfully, a rare example of thirties infrastructure is preserved.<\/p>\n

\"Woking<\/a>
Woking Railway HV Control Room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another one\u00a0of the other places we would never have gotten to see without the Heritage Open Days was the Foxenden Quarry Deep Shelter in Guildford<\/a>. If you ever happen to find yourself parking in the Quarry Road carpark in Guildford, you are parking next to a piece of World War II history. Finding a way in would be next to impossible,\u00a0a huge set of steel doors block your way, which themselves are backed by another set of gates. Anyway, leading into the old Quarry workings are a series of tunnels excavated to provide Guildford with Air Raid protection built to house thousands of people. Sadly, Guildford Council have had to shut the tunnels to tours because of Health and Safety…<\/p>\n

\"Foxenden<\/a>
Foxenden Quarry Deep Shelter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you haven’t been, they are a great day out and you get to see some interesting places. Last weekend was the UK wide open days; this weekend (17\/09\/2016) is the London Open House. \u00a0In case you are at a lose of how to spend your weekend, we would highly recommend going. Previously, we have seen the old Rotherhithe Mortuary, the London Guildhall and more.<\/p>\n