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Greenham’s Cold War Decontamination Suite opening to the public for Heritage Open Days

By Trish Lee
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trish.lee@newburynews.co.uk
Published: 12:00, 11 September 2025
 | Updated: 08:54, 16 September 2025

The Decontamination Suite at Greenham is opening up to the public for the countrywide Heritage Open Days on Saturday, September 20 and Sunday 21. All tickets were snapped up within 24 hours of release but there is a waiting list available for the guided tours which are about 30 minutes long and will run from 11am to 3pm.

Greenham Common Decontamination area - within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Gas mask and protective clothing. GL
Greenham Common Decontamination area - within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Gas mask and protective clothing. GL
The Decontamination area - A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Exterior view of the decontamination centre. GL
The Decontamination area - A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Exterior view of the decontamination centre. GL

The suite is part of Building 274 and is one of the last remaining Cold War-era structures left at the former USAF air base at RAF Greenham Common and an important part of local, national and global history.

Grade II-listed Building 274 was the Command centre for the 501st Tactical Missile Wing from 1981 – 1991. Parts of the building have walls of blast proof steel-reinforced concrete and solid blast proof doors.

Guides will be on hand to explain the building’s purpose during this turbulent period in history.

Visitors will enter the thick steel entrance doors and pass through a series of rooms where the base commander and his staff would have been processed to remove chemical and biological substances. . They would follow the arrows on the floor – red for potentially contaminated, blue for clean.

Greenham Common Decontamination area - The large machine room. GL
Greenham Common Decontamination area - The large machine room. GL
The Decontamination area - A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. The central control desk, where communication with all areas could be achieved, and chemical levels monitored, and doors locked and unlocked. GL
The Decontamination area - A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. The central control desk, where communication with all areas could be achieved, and chemical levels monitored, and doors locked and unlocked. GL

The building has been left empty and sealed for more than 30 years and has only been opened on a handful of occasions.

The plant room, which would have supplied oxygen to the building, and the original control panel are still in place.

Greenham Control Tower was given permission by Greenham Trust to open the building as part of this year’s Heritage Open Days, which is a scheme organised by the National Trust to open buildings that are not normally accessible to the public.

The Decontamination area - A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Two large blast doors near the entrance. GL
The Decontamination area - A rare opportunity to gain access to the Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Two large blast doors near the entrance. GL
Greenham Common Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Large air tight blast door near the entrance. GL
Greenham Common Decontamination Area within Building 274, which was 501st Tactical Missile Wing’s headquarters and command post on Greenham Air Base during the Cold War. Large air tight blast door near the entrance. GL

Photographs by Rob Carpenter.

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