Kenton Bar Bunker

The location for No.13 Group Fighter Command was chosen by its first commander, AVM Saul on 27 September 1939. He chose Newcastle for No.13 groups location as it was situated in the middle of his area of responsibility which stretched from North Humber to Scotland and from the west to east coast. The Kenton Bar area in which the bunker is situated is approximately 2 mile North West of Newcastle City centre. (1/4 mile from A1) It took until 03 December 1939 to complete the underground complex, until then an above ground installation was used on the same site.
Built on farmland the bunker is approximately 15ft below the surface. As you can see from this 1940's photograph amongst the numerous military buildings visible, a NAAFI, air raid shelter, grocery store, decontamination centre and YWCA have been built to cater for the RAF and civilian workers. Housing for the personnel was built just outside the main base, which can be seen on page 12.
The commander lived in the imposing Kenton Hall during the life of the station. The bunker was kitted out and finally declared operational on 13 March 1940 with AVM Saul as its commander.
Following the Battle of Britain, it was recognised that the central command structure was in danger of being overloaded with information from the various radar stations and observation posts. To overcome this potential problem, each Group Headquarters were provided with a Filter Room. The Filter Room for Kenton Bar was built on a separate site, in Blakelaw Quarry