Box Hill Fort

Not strictly a fort, the Old Fort at Box Hill is one of 13 Mobilisation Centres (known as the London Defence Positions), which were built in the 1890s to protect London from invasion from Europe.

It was believed at the end of the 1880s that the Royal Navy had become weaker in comparison with the French and Russian alliance; and therefore for the first time it was necessary to try and defend London from an invasion mounted over land.



The Box Hill mobilisation centre blocked the route through the North Downs at the Mole Valley Gap.

The six acre site of the fort was originally purchased by the War Office in 1891, and construction began in 1896.

Box Hill fort was laid out as an infantry-defended redoubt, but also included magazines for the storage of artillery ammunition.

The Mobilisation Centre at Box Hill wasdesigned for the use of the infantry only and the stored ammunition was intended for the use of field artillery. The plan was, should an invasion be imminent, the defending infantry would assemble at the centre, and would with help dig trenches and defence lines between the centres. These would connect up to provide a defended belt around the south side approaches to London

.

The reform of defence policy by the Secretary of War Haldane in 1905 resulted, in all 13 centres being declared redundant, and Box Hill Fort was sold back to the Box Hill Estate in 1908. Haldane's thinking was that now Britain had the Dreadnought it would be defended by the Royal Navy, without the risk of an invasion over land striking north from the South Coast towards London.



The building now is inhabited by bats, which are a protected species.