Lucy Devine
A British dad has sold his nuclear bunker for twice its estimated value after an 'increased interest' in underground shelters.
Jon Graves put his Cold War bunker up for auction this week, where it sold for thousands of pounds over the guide price.
After purchasing the shelter back in 2021, Jon has spent the past three years restoring it. Now, after making plans to move to Dubai, he's decided to part ways with the bunker.
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Jon believes recent conflict around the world has increased interest in, and demand for, underground bunkers, after he managed to sell it for £29,000, almost double its £15,000 guide price.
He said: “It’s definitely topical with the way American politics is at the moment, and with Russia and Ukraine fighting.
“It wouldn’t survive a direct hit, that’s for sure, but from a novel perspective, it’s definitely interesting.”
Jon has revealed that the bunker is not listed, so it could be redesigned by future buyers.
“It’s certainly big enough to record music in it," he added.
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"If you live locally, you could just probably go and chill out in it. It’s a big enough space that you could go down.”
Jon bought the bunker three years ago after jumping at the chance to refurbish the shelter, which is located in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
“I’d always wanted to own one, but every time I saw one come up, they were all down south, miles away from home," he said.
“We’d never been in it. We took a punt, really, that it was going to be ok. The top of it was in a reasonable condition - all be it with the cap on top.
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“And when we first opened it, it was bone dry inside, which was great. Then of course we could get on with decorating and renovating it.
“We tried to keep it in the same format, the same layout that was there originally, and I think we did that reasonably well.
“We ripped off all the old polystyrene tiles and cleaned it up, got rid of all the dead mice that were stuck in it, and just kind of decorated it.
“We furnished it and put back in what was already there. So we didn’t put brand new modern beds in, we put old metal beds back in.
“It was always about trying to tastefully restore it to a condition that you could stay and sleep in without the noise from outside.”
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It seems interest in underground shelters has increased recently, with Mathew Wright, from the firm Burrowed, which makes ‘fully fitted prefabricated underground bunkers’, explaining: “In the last six months we’ve had a couple of thousand inquiries. And there's probably been double the amount usual of inquires since Monday.”
Meanwhile, Andrew Parker, auctioneer and partner at SDL Property Auctions, added: “This is the fourth nuclear bunker we have sold at auction, and not surprisingly they have all attracted huge amounts of interest.
“There are not that many relics still around that epitomise the threat and paranoia of the Cold War era in the way a nuclear bunker can.
"And this one had also been beautifully restored, which makes it even more unusual."