Liverpool Down Under

Near the Pier Head, towards Water Street, Liverpool

Much has been written about The Williamson Tunnels, now a major tourist attraction, but there are more hidden spaces tucked away beneath street level in Liverpool's city centre.

The haunting image above was taken by an engineering worker who was carrying out work for the council when he stopped to take the picture. It appears to show a hidden vault, which seems to go back for some distance, with stone arches which stand below street level. This hidden world can only be accessed via a small tunnel, which opens up to reveal the huge vaulted area filled with water. The 'lake' is located below ground level on the town side of the Pier Head, towards Water Street, with the picture showing what looks like clean water filling the space.                                                                        There is also a 'lake' below the old Cains brewery from where the brewery used to get its water. The rumours were that the lake was so big that Cains' workers had to use a boat, and that even coffins from the nearby cemetery had been washed down there. 

The early water companies had a stranglehold on trade, charging exorbitant rates, but actually could not meet all our needs, and so they dug some enormous wells that went down something like a thousand feet. One of the greatest finds in Liverpool City Centre was in the shop Jeffs on Bold Street. In 2001, Jeff Pierce, whilst in the process of renovation, was working in the basement with workmen to remove an old air raid shelter and was struggling with a hole that kept reappearing on the floor despite being filled in. Investigating further, by making it bigger and shining a torch down, he could see water some 40 feet below. The following morning inspectors for the Building Regulations came from the Liverpool Corporation and said they didn't like the look of it and it would be best filled in. Thankfully Jeff contacted Liverpool Museum and they confirmed that this well shaft would date back to the 17th century when most of the area were fields. At that time it was built purely for water drinking purposes as the water takes years to come through the sandstone and purifies itself. They used to be hidden so nobody knew where they were, as drinking water was such a premium in those days. Archaeologists stayed on the site for weeks to discover lots of artifacts; clay pipes, little bits of porcelain and, under two foot of soil, several channels cut into the ground leading to the well. These channels were almost certainly used by the rope makers to lower their ropes into the water so they could plait them together while drawing them out of the well. Back in the 17th Century and at the beginning of the 18th Century, the land was owned by the Bowler family, but it was called Rope Street, because of Rope Walks. Back in the 18th century, sailors used the street to measure out rope for the sailing ships, needed for the busy port industry, from the top of Bold Street to the bottom because that was the length needed for the tunnel ships and that's how they knew the length to cut it.                                                                     Jeff set about building the well and says, "when people look over, they expect to look about four feet down. When they see it's forty feet down, their breath goes and they think they're going to fall in." Today it stands as a wishing well, with the money that is thrown into it going to Alder Hey Rocking Horse Charity.

Jeffs on Bold Street

There are reports of several other tunnels in the city centre, including a tunnel in James Street dating back to the time of the medieval Liverpool Castle. During sewer excavation work a workman came to a point where he heard the sound of water dropping, not into the sewer but into some excavation below it. On trying this excavation with his probing iron, he found it to be very deep and nearly filled with mud. On opening the ground and clearing away the mud, a tunnel cut in the solid rock was discovered. It is about seven feet high and nine feet wide for about eighty yards westwards from Derby Square and there its dimensions are five feet by six feet.with its sides carefully dressed, but its roof is of ruder formation. It has a well-formed roadway at the bottom, with a channel sunk along its southern side to keep it dry. The road-way is 22 ft. below the surface of the street. At the junction of Back Goree with James Street the tunnel turns northwards. It is probable that this work connected the Old Castle ditch either with the Old Tower or with some defences on the shore, as the point where it is conjectured it joined the Castle ditch, provision for a gate had been made. It ran directly down the middle of what is now James Street.  and there is the strong possibility that there are more tunnels in the area connected to the old Castle. There was also an early 18th century wine vault on the site of the old National Provincial Bank on Water Street where there is reportedly the site of an old bricked up tunnel entrance.

Liverpool is a hotbed of rail history with most of our existing tunnels being centered on railways because, with it being hilly, when they took the railway through to Crown Street they had to dig tunnels.                                                                                                                                                    The Wapping Tunnel was built to link Edge Hill with what is now the Baltic Triangle. It's largely forgotten now, save for its three distinctive large brick ventilation shafts still in existence. Otherwise known as Edge Hill tunnel, this 1.26-mile-long channel is the first rail tunnel in the world that was bored underneath a metropolis, and the fact it was all dug by hand is a phenomenal achievement. It has been disused since 1972 and is the second oldest tunnel under streets in the world. The single-track tunnel measuring 291 yards long which ran to Crown Street Station was built by George Stephenson in 1829 and is the oldest rail tunnel in the world that runs under streets! It is also the second oldest rail tunnel in the world, dug at Edge Hill junction all the way to Crown Street to play host to the world's first passenger rail station. Unfortunately, this passenger station was abandoned in 1836 as it was too far from the city centre. Lime Street replaced Crown Street, and the station was converted for freight use.

During the £140m renovation of Lime Street Station in 2018 two hidden underground tunnels had to be filled in. One led from the demolished old post office building in the middle of the platforms up to the Copperas Hill Sorting Office, and had conveyor belts to carry the mail. Another ran under all the platforms to allow drivers to get quickly from one platform to another. Another find made by workmen was a miniature house located deep in the tunnels running between Lime Street Station on the way from Edge Hill. It was built more than 100 years ago by track workers to take their breaks, representing a hidden part of the city's history. While the house sits close to one of Liverpool's busiest commuter lines, it can only be accessed when trains aren't running. Looking at the dark structure, it can be hard to imagine anyone spending any length of time inside the haunting little house but according to Network Rail the hut was built as a 'mess hut' but had been disused for at least 50 years, with parts of the floor crumbling away - but you can still make out some signs of the hut's former use.

In the basement of the old Liverpool Cotton Exchange there are the old 'cotton dressing rooms', where bales of cotton were once stored for the traders above. The huge sliding red doors are still in place, and rooms are occasionally still used by cotton traders. The lift no longer goes down to the sub-basement but the old lift cage, with a sign saying 'Samples', is still intact. So you need to walk down into the still-intact subterranean warren of tiny coal bunkers, each just a few feet wide. Each firm based in the exchange had its own tiny storeroom for the coal used in its fireplaces, and the names are still there on many doors. This is replicated in many forgotten businesses across the city where there are warrens of cubicles or cellars below ground used as work places or for storage. 

This gives rise to many 'ghostly' stories, of dank airless dungeons and chilling corridors as told by two people who went into the cellar of a Bold Street shop in about 2010. This is their story, "Walking quickly across rotten wooden floorboards, our feet nearly going through them, we reached the stone floor of the other side. The cellar was as big as the shop above, and so you can imagine how big it was.The stone floor was cobbled. It was for all intents and purposes what you would expect to find on an old street. Looking at the walls of the cellar we noticed decades worth of graffiti – names and dates written hastily in the dark. There too were warnings. An old door, left ajar on the side of the cellar we now found ourselves on beckoned us further in. Around it grew moss, and cobwebs were strewn about it's proportions. Next to the door, a message became visible in the torch light: 'BEWARE ALL THOSE WHO ENTER HERE!' A later writing next to it exclaimed the words 'they’re not lying!'. We heard noises coming from within the room… a wind was blowing but from which direction we were not sure. Again we heard the noise… a low buzzing sound mixed with a sort of clattering. I wanted to go through the door. I looked at my colleague and asked her to come with me. She said she was terrified to go inside. "I'll just wait here in case the door closes on you", she said. I stepped over the threshold. A dark narrow corridor lay in front of me, which turned off to the right. The ceiling was low, with cast iron pipes following the path of the turn. Dust was thick in the air, I kept catching glimpses of it as it swirled about my torchlight. As I waked to the end of the passage and stepped into the next room, I met a chamber which went diagonally into another darkened room. In this first chamber, on the left hand side, were 3 partitioned working stations. Each had a surface at waist height for its respective labourer. They hadn't seen a soul for many a year. Old objects were lain out – glass light fittings, bits of twisted metal, fallen masonry. A fine power of white coated everything. I shouted to my colleague to see if she was ok. I then walked into the next chamber. This was bigger than the last, with bricks fallen from the ceiling on to the cobbled floor. An old sign was there, but no wording could be made out such was the deterioration of its material. It was then that I noticed that the light in my torch was starting to fade. My camera too was loosing battery power – but we had fully charged these things before we had came to the tunnels. My partner’s equipment too was beginning to drain. She began to get nervous. I walked over to the other side of this large room. Now there was a corridor forward. I knew I was already far out into the street, although where I did not know. Perhaps all the way over the other side, under the opposite row of 200 year old shop fronts. A fallen timber lay on the floor to the left, and caved in ceiling debris hung in mid air. At the end of this corridor lay a left turn. I entered another small room – more of a twist really. A bricked up window or hole in the wall was marked by different coloured bricks than the rest of the surrounding structure. Why would there be a window down here, deep under the ground? Another passage lay up ahead. At the end was another turn, this time to the right. I hesitated… something didn’t feel right. I felt unsure of what lay down the passage. My light started to dim and flicker – suddenly my partner screamed at me to come back! But how far down would that passage go? I imagined it to run a long long way down. I bolted from the passage back in the direction from whence I came, speeding through the dark and dismal voids. My partner was in sight, and desperately wanting to leave. The pipes above our heads were vibrating and rattling. She was shaking. As quick as we could we traversed the floorboards of the old cellar, my foot going clean through one almost losing me my balance. Running up the wooden stairs now on the other side we took a look back. "What was down that turn?" I thought. Would I be back another day? Maybe…

As stated at the start, the most well known underground discovery is the Williamson Tunnels which are now a venue for Ghost Hunts as it has been reported that Joseph Williamson, the wealthy land owner who commissioned the tunnels still roams them, as guests have smelt strong aftershave as well as others reporting dark shadows. A report of a ghost sighting by a visitor has also occurred in the top tunnel and it is believed many would have suffered terribly working on the excavation of the tunnels, including many children from as young as 12 years old. This site is a fascinating place to walk around and has an eerie feel to it.