Bunker turned into a house
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villa is La Défense, Badhuisweg 139a. Photo: Roel Wijnants

Living on a bunker

There is a former munitions depot beneath the villa at 139a Badhuisweg, which dates from 2007. The name of the villa is La Défense (‘The Defence’).

The munitions depot is part of the bunker complex on Badhuisweg. The command centre of the bastion of Scheveningen was located in this complex.

The munitions depot has walls of 3 metres thick and a ceiling of 3.5 metres thick. Inside, the bunker is divided into oblong spaces and a few smaller spaces, which are also separated from one another by thick concrete walls. This allowed safe storage of different types of munitions.

On the outside of the bunker, windows and doors were painted on the concrete to make the bunker look like the surrounding villas as much as possible. After the war, the bunker was taken over by the Dutch Ministry of Defence. During the Cold War years, it was used as a telephone and telex exchange, and for the storage of munitions.

Three other FL 246-type munitions depots were built in The Hague, all of which still exist. One explanation for this is that the thick walls of the bunkers made it too costly to demolish them.

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