Porton Down
Founded way back in 1916 as part of the war effort, the facilities at Porton Down has a century long history of being one of the most controversial and secretive military bases in the United Kingdom. Originally known as the War Department Experimental Station, soon changed to Royal Engineers Experimental Station, it was created as a direct result of Germany using chemical warfare in the First World War, the British would test chemical weapons here.
Although the official stance of successive UK governments have insisted that the chemical weapons programs have been shut down since the 1950s, many suspect that the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory are still engaged in widespread development and testing to this day. They have admitted to keeping small quantities on site but just as a precautionary measure.
