District Emergency Control Centre (DECC)

One of a series of control centres built by the London Midland and Scottish Railway between 1939 and 1940 along the strategic railway routes and which housed railway staff, this plain concrete building once served as the Crewe Railway Emergency Control Centre. The facility had telephone connections to signal boxes along the lines within its locality

It features walls that are 2 meters thick, made of inner and outer concrete layers with soil filling the space in between. The structure has no windows and is equipped with an airlock at each end, both fitted with steel gas-tight doors. At the back, there is a large rectangular room that runs along the length of the building. The front has a central corridor with three smaller rooms branching off. Inside, very few features remain, mainly some electrical equipment, doors, light fittings, and a toilet.

There were several similar buildings along the LMS network from London to Carlisle, but most have been torn down since the war. More recently, British Rail used the site for storage until it was sealed up in the late 1980s.

After British Rail was privatised in the 1990s, the building became part of the British Rail Board’s Residuary portfolio, which managed leftover properties. In 2013, this organisation was dissolved by the coalition government, and ownership transferred to Network Rail, which still maintains the structure today.