Where does one of the world's most powerful newspapers, The Washington Post, look for top stories and hot leads? Easy. The same place as hundreds of thousands of south east London and north Kent residents The News Shopper, of course. It seems the American journal most famous for its Watergate exposs can't get enough of our plucky little paper.

CHISLEHURST has become famous across the Atlantic due to a renovated nuclear bunker the News Shopper told readers about in February.

The article about converting bunkers in Britain, of which the £2.75m Kemnal Road property was the main feature, appeared in The Washington Post on June 9.

The converted bomb shelter, built in 1951 to withstand a nuclear blast, features five bedrooms and an indoor swimming pool.

It captured the imagination of American reporter Andrea Gerlin who wrote: "Want a secure little hideaway in the London suburbs? Five bedrooms, indoor pool, five-foot-thick walls? Quiet, roomy, bomb-proof?"

One of the peculiarities of the property, which still possesses 8ft thick walls, is that around three years after it was built, it was rendered obsolete by the arrival of the hydrogen bomb which could blast through an entire city leaving nothing standing.

However, Tony Dalton of Frank Knight estate agents, who is negotiating its sale, says: "It would definitely withstand your usual terrorist bomb threat, and you certainly won't have any problem with noisy neighbours."

Although Mr Dalton has not managed to sell the home yet, he has had interest from across the country and overseas.

One would-be buyer offered £2.5m for the former bunker, but was turned down.

July 23, 2001 14:10