Looking up the stairs from the boiler room floor.īack on the surface.
In the background is the door and windows of the control room (where I came in). Lots of valves and cool dials for monitoring important things. The high pressure gas boilers are used to heat two council estates nearby. The stairs are to the right.Ĭoncrete stairs lead two floors down to the subterranean boiler room.Ĭables and amp meters for controlling the cooling fans. The mystery of the Camberwell Submarine will be solved!
There's an entrance at either end - I came in through the door at the northern end.īy chance, a maintenance worker was on site, and he kindly invited me in to take a look around. The Camberwell Submarine in all its nuclear sub-esque glory.
Some people thought it was a ventilation shaft for the tube (even though the nearest line is a mile and a half away), while others suspected it could be some forgotten defence relic from the Cold War era. Known locally as the 'Camberwell Submarine' on account of its nautical lines, the structure has baffled people for years. Stuck in a small island on a little strip of dual carriageway in Akerman Road, SW9 is this curious building.