Real estate agents are notorious for putting a positive spin on the properties they are trying to sell.
A ‘cosy apartment with abundant natural light’ is likely to be a tiny studio flat with a single window, while ‘full of potential’ is often used to describe a dilapidated mess.
However, one estate agent in Norfolk has gone above and beyond with his creative approach to marketing a 1950s nuclear bunker in the middle of a field.
Auctioneer Trevor Blythe, of the Brown & Co estate agency, admitted that the bunker is no longer practical since the threat of nuclear war has seemingly subsided.
When pressed for a potential use case, he suggested: ‘Maybe a wine cellar. I can’t think of any other use for it except to come down and enjoy it for what it is – a hole in the ground.’
The bunker was built during the 1950s, when tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to seriously escalate.
Farmers in Norfolk were concerned that they would be caught in the crossfire, so they built a nuclear bunker.
It features an observation post, and the interior is designed to house up to three people for a three-week period in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.
The bunker has no running water or electricity, although owner Fred Sharman said that ‘there is what I call a bucket and chuck-it toilet’.
When the BBC asked Sharman who might consider buying the bunker, he said: ‘I think it’s going to be someone a bit quirky. I don’t think it’s the everyday person’s sort of thing, but it’s whatever floats your boat, and maybe that person’s out there.
‘I saw one advertised and I thought: I’ve got one of those, and thought I’d see what I could do with it. If someone sees it and it’s something that they want, and it’s in their money margin, then I’ve got nothing to lose. It’s just a lump of concrete to me.’
One person’s lump of concrete could become another person’s treasured wine cellar. The auction begins at 11am on Tuesday 12 November and runs for 24 hours.
Blythe said there are approximately 1,500 similar bunkers across the UK, and some of them have sold for ‘good money’. He hopes it may appeal to a quirky wine collector or someone who wants to ‘own a piece of British post-war history’.
If any interested wine enthusiasts need inspiration, Château Siran in Bordeaux has a nuclear bomb-proof wine cellar, which currently houses every Siran vintage from 1912.
