# WW2 plotting room rediscovered under iconic British landmark

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/ww2-plotting-room-rediscovered-under-iconic-british-landmark/
- Published: 2026-11-13T00:01:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-13T09:41:05+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Express (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2265504/ww2-plotting-room-white-cliffs-dover
- Topics: UK, World

## Key points

- Wartime plotting room beneath Dover’s cliffs opens to visitors.
- It helped coordinate guns defending the Strait of Dover.
- The site was rediscovered in 2017 and carefully conserved.

## Summary

The National Trust is opening the Fan Bay Plotting Room beneath the White Cliffs of Dover to visitors for the first time. Built in 1940, the underground operations centre helped direct artillery defending the Strait of Dover after France fell, making it part of Britain’s coastal defences during a period of intense threat.

The room contained advanced equipment, including a fire direction table used to calculate firing data and coordinate guns. Abandoned after the war and buried under soil in the 1970s, it was rediscovered in 2017 and conserved with its peeling paint, graffiti, pipes and ducts still visible. Tours begin on Friday and must be booked in advance; volunteers are also researching the stories of those who worked there.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.