The War Rooms: A Past Unseen, A Future Revealed

The War Rooms: A Past Unseen, A Future Revealed opens at Nottingham Trent University on 4 November, running through to 13 November. It's part of the Design & Digital Arts (D&DA) Exhibitions programme, and it takes its subject from a piece of the city most of us have only heard about in passing: the Nottingham War Rooms in Beechdale.

For those who don't know the story, the War Rooms are a Grade II-listed nuclear bunker built between 1952 and 1953 as part of Britain's Cold War civil defence network. Over the years it was expanded into one of only eleven Regional Seats of Government in the UK, intended to serve as the East Midlands' command centre in the event of nuclear conflict. It's stood largely unseen by the public for decades, and this exhibition is one of the few chances to actually see inside.

The show pairs two different ways of looking at the place. Martine Hamilton Knight has taken large-scale photographs of the underground complex, and Dan Billings has built an immersive 3D digital recreation of it. You can see that across multiple screens or put on a VR headset and walk through the rooms yourself. Together they capture the bunker as it was before its current redevelopment, so it's a record of the place in a state you can't visit in person.

That redevelopment is already underway. Developer Langcroft is leading the adaptive reuse works, with CPMG Architects reimagining the brutalist building as a heritage-led destination for community, workspace and conference use. If you're not heading into the gallery, you can still catch a glimpse of the project from the street: images from the exhibition are projected onto the Shakespeare Street-facing windows of the D&DA building every evening.

Entry is free, with ticketed public entry available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You'll find it at the Nottingham Trent University Design & Digital Arts (D&DA) building, 40 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, running from 4 to 13 November.