Would you store your wine in the dragon’s mound?

LCB guards more than just wine at Drakelow Tunnels. The site – whose name means ‘dragon’s mound’ in Old English – is home to millennia of history, from an Iron Age fort to a Cold War contingency plan.

It is no secret in the wine world that underground tunnels make for excellent storage facilities. Shielded from light and vibrations, and kept at a consistent temperature, they provide the perfect conditions for long-term storage. Just ask the Champenois, who have built hundreds of miles of tunnels in which to keep their fine wines.

No wonder, then, that London City Bond (LCB) took the chance to convert Drakelow Tunnels into a bonded warehouse. Built into a Worcestershire hillside, the network of tunnels runs for 3.5 miles, totalling 285,000 square feet of usable space. LCB can accommodate 800,000 cases in the complex. Meanwhile, its well-connected location means it can send bottles all over the country via LCB’s national delivery service.

However, even before LCB took charge of the site in 2021, the Drakelow Tunnels had a long and complex history. In breathing new life into the site, LCB has not only developed a market-leading storage facility, but also helped preserve a site of considerable history.

Millennia in one site

The area of Drakelow – originally known to the Anglo Saxons as ‘Dracan hlawen’ or ‘dragon’s mound’ – is rich in history. On Kinver Edge, part of the hillside into which Drakelow Tunnels is built, you can still see earthworks that formed part of an Iron Age hillfort. Nearby, you can also visit rock houses hewn into the sandstone by local residents, which were occupied between the 18th and 20th centuries.

Yet Drakelow Tunnels has its own remarkable history. The complex was first blasted out of the ground as a government project during World War II. With above ground factories vulnerable to bombing raids, the wartime coalition began a programme of excavating or converting underground sites for munitions storage or strategically important manufacture.

Having lost its Coventry headquarters in a bombing raid in 1940, Rover needed new sites to produce aircraft engines. Part of the solution was Drakelow Tunnels. By 1943, it had reached full production with a daily workforce of 600 manufacturing Hercules engines. These entered service in aircraft such as Lancaster and Halifax bombers.

After the war, there was considerably less need for secretive and secure manufacture. However, the development of nuclear weapons, particularly the H-bomb in the 1950s, meant contingency plans were necessary in case of a nuclear war.

Drakelow Tunnels thus became a seat of regional government, ready to take charge should London be knocked out by an enemy strike. In that case, the regional commissioner would take responsibility for the government of the West Midlands and operate from Drakelow Tunnels.

At its height, the site had 325 staff stationed in case of catastrophe. It continued to serve through various iterations of the scheme, until the end of the Cold War made it redundant.

A third chapter at Drakelow

It took nearly three decades for Drakelow Tunnels to enter its third stage, as LCB’s first underground storage facility. Local opposition prevented redevelopment of the site, as stakeholders waited for a partner that could protect the unique area while also investing in the local economy.

Hence LCB took over Drakelow Tunnels, with the first bottles arriving in 2022. It had a dual mission: to respect its heritage and to create a high-quality bonded warehouse for its clients.

All the works were undertaken with due consideration of the nearby heritage and natural landscape. For the infrastructure above ground, for instance, any new development is screened by greenery. Moreover, a former electrical sub-station on the site is being converted into a bat roost, boosting local biodiversity.

LCB is also allocating space for a museum, to explore the wartime and Cold War history of the tunnels. This supports the work of grassroots heritage enthusiasts, who preserved and maintained many historical assets on the site while it was in disuse.

Of course, preservation is not the only concern at Drakelow Tunnels. LCB has invested a seven-figure sum to ensure that the conditions are perfect for drinks storage. Even in less than three years of operation, it has acquired an impressive roster of clients, including Flint Wines, Cru World Wines, Crop & Vine, Honest Grapes, Rare Wines and Nickolls & Perks, as well as the Ritz Hotel.

Beyond the necessary fitting of racking systems and lighting, LCB has invested in a bespoke humidity control systems. These make sure that every bottle stays in the best possible condition.

Clients can request full condition reports from the facility for the ultimate peace of mind. As part of this, Drakelow Tunnels has a state-of-the-art photography studio, offering services including 360-degree photographs of individual bottles.

For the clients, the security and care of their bottles must be the overarching concern. Yet one would hope there is space to appreciate the unique facility and its contribution to local and UK history. In finding a new use for it, LCB has breathed new life into Drakelow Tunnels, where past, present and future development now sit comfortably side by side.

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