Secret tunnels under Manchester
Discussion
Olf said:
Parrot of Doom said:
Ricardo, they're in front of Manchester Cathedral. If you stand on either of the 2 bridges in front of the Cathedral and look back, you'll see the arches. It would be great if you could row down there 
I know the draught is deep enough, they've had narrowboats that far up, although it gets too shallow once you're past Trinity Way bridge.
Kayak. The ultimate exploration tool. I know the draught is deep enough, they've had narrowboats that far up, although it gets too shallow once you're past Trinity Way bridge.Parrot of Doom said:
Ricardo, they're in front of Manchester Cathedral. If you stand on either of the 2 bridges in front of the Cathedral and look back, you'll see the arches. It would be great if you could row down there I know the draught is deep enough, they've had narrowboats that far up, although it gets too shallow once you're past Trinity Way bridge.
Yeah, I know exactly where you are with those photos. Drive past them all the time. I know the draught is deep enough, they've had narrowboats that far up, although it gets too shallow once you're past Trinity Way bridge.I do always get confused with the different rivers and canals. When i rowed we went up the Manchester ship canal and onto the River Irwell (?) if I'm not mistaken. This took me up that way but past the casino and Lowry hotel rather than the Cathedral I think. Plenty of facinating sights under all the bridges I though. I had nothing better to do when rowing than admire them!
Rich
PoD, thanks for the reply earlier in the htread, only just got back and it has moved on a bit !
Speaking of the lunatic asylems and workhouses, Withington hospital was one back in the day.
Maybe a look aound the cathederal area is on the cards followed by coffee at Starbucks or something? not so much as to think of hitting the tunnels but to just have a closer look around than normal, I love stuff like this and I bet there is lots of stuff to see.
BTW Dad used to work at the S&I museum on Liverpool road and he told me about some interesting stuff on the lower levels ;-)
Speaking of the lunatic asylems and workhouses, Withington hospital was one back in the day.
Maybe a look aound the cathederal area is on the cards followed by coffee at Starbucks or something? not so much as to think of hitting the tunnels but to just have a closer look around than normal, I love stuff like this and I bet there is lots of stuff to see.
BTW Dad used to work at the S&I museum on Liverpool road and he told me about some interesting stuff on the lower levels ;-)
Parrot of Doom said:
The Lowry Hotel is on the west side of the river - if you keep going about another 1/4 mile, you'll see the Cathedral
To get on the narrow canal network from the Irwell there are 2 small junctions on your right, about 1/2 a mile past Man Utd's ground.
We always turned at the Lowry hotel, gets a bit narrow after that for an eight! Those narrower canals are seen beautifully from the tramline as well. They run parallel all the way along into Castlefield and Deangate locks. I am always intrigued when out on the Deansgate Locks where the underground canals go.To get on the narrow canal network from the Irwell there are 2 small junctions on your right, about 1/2 a mile past Man Utd's ground.
Rich
Well you can always look on Google Earth, but basically they head off towards Canal Street, one goes to the Rochdale Canal, the other goes to the Ashton Canal.
There will be another one joining the Irwell again in a few years, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal, currently being restored. Head over to Sainsburys on Regent Road, heading to Manchester, turn left after the retail park, and go under the bridge, over the roundabout, and you can see the locks being dug out.
There will be another one joining the Irwell again in a few years, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal, currently being restored. Head over to Sainsburys on Regent Road, heading to Manchester, turn left after the retail park, and go under the bridge, over the roundabout, and you can see the locks being dug out.
Just a quick comparison to try and establish whether these are the same opening
If you look at these two photos and count the brick courses to the top of the arch, its 9courses both sides of the wall, and 3 full brick courses in from the edge of the arch. Not conclusive, granted but more than possible. The resolution of the external photo isn't great enough to count the courses for the arch with the two grill vents.
I think that hole is this:
Not so sure PoD - here's the same photo with the brightness cranked right up. There's no sign of the bricked-up arch in the exterior shot. In fact I can't see any arches with a single small square opening in the exterior pics so far.
If you look at the exterior shot of this hole the setup doesn't follow the pattern of the rest of the arches, however if you look two blocks below the sill of the small arch you can see the remains of one of the sill stones of the original larger arch (it would appear that the large arches had three sill stones each). What I would suggest has happened here is that the archway was built originally with a large arch, hence the internal shot shows a large arch, then subsequently altered for whatever reason to give the small arch and the vent hole. The arch stones appear to be a different style and finish too, the larger arch seems to have a prominent keystone and a fairly smooth finish, while the small arch doesn't appear to have a key stone or and a more raw finish, although the photo could be lying a bit! When all these arches were bricked up the small arch was bricked up then the whole of the large span was bricked up (hence no visible arch internally).
Regards
Iain
If you look at these two photos and count the brick courses to the top of the arch, its 9courses both sides of the wall, and 3 full brick courses in from the edge of the arch. Not conclusive, granted but more than possible. The resolution of the external photo isn't great enough to count the courses for the arch with the two grill vents.
minimoog said:
Parrot of Doom said:
I think that hole is this:
Regards
Iain
Olf said:
I didn't think it was that hole either. I think it more likely that it's the one on the extreme left of this shot:
I think the interior shot shows the original brickwork (faced in stone on the exterior), rather than an open arch subsequently bricked up. I reckon the only external opening this vault ever had was the small square vent shown.
I've been playing with the other photos on 28DL and will post 'em up soon...
I've just walked down to have a look at the place. Couldn't see that doorway shown on the other exterior pics, maybe its now blocked up.
The small openings don't look big enough to get through.
I reckon there may be access from the underground portion of the car park under the old Ramada hotel.
The small openings don't look big enough to get through.
I reckon there may be access from the underground portion of the car park under the old Ramada hotel.
I'm posting without having read the whole thread, I will go back and read it but its going to take ages....so, I just want to say that I've been down twice underneath the Deansgate area. First time was the best, I was working at Bauer Millett (as a wknd salesman for my sins whilst at uni) and at the time they occupied the Peter st. showroom and what was Motorcade on the Deansgate/Liverpool st. junction (now Hilton). The landlord for Peter st. was Bruntwood or something, and they were responsible in part for the regeneration of The Great Northern Warehouse by the side of GMEX. The woman responsible locally would pop in a lot, and whilst I was down at the Motorcade showroom she came in and offered if I wanted to go down "under Deansgate" for a bit of a mooch round, she was going round with some inspectors or something and thought myself & a colleague would be interested. We obviously said yes and followed her. The access hatch was in the entrance to the car park behind the new Northern Warehouse carpark, in the row or arches where there's a radiator specialist or something. We went down and it has to be by far the most amazing thing I've seen in Manchester. It was all brick-lined, barrel-vaulted roofs, that we were expecting but we came across small room swith beds in which I presume where emergency shelters remaining from the war. What really startled me was running what seemed to be the length of Deansgate was a canal complete with walkway to the side, it reminded me of Ghostbusters when they find a river of ooze under the city, only with no ooze! It had been occupied/accessed since the war obviously since then due to the obligatory graffiti, swastika's et all.
The other time I went underground wa in my next wknd job which was at Habitat on St. Annes st. In the basement where furniture was stored was access to another level underneath, this was quite spooky as the lighting was very poor, but it seemed very similar to what I had seen previously very near by on Deansgate. It seemed that there were blocked up doors linking up to other areas beyond, in fact you could get to all the other shops/units within the block by means of the underground passages, these got locked up by Shabitat for security.
Anyway, I'm going to go back and read the thread properly, sorry if I've repeated anything.
The other time I went underground wa in my next wknd job which was at Habitat on St. Annes st. In the basement where furniture was stored was access to another level underneath, this was quite spooky as the lighting was very poor, but it seemed very similar to what I had seen previously very near by on Deansgate. It seemed that there were blocked up doors linking up to other areas beyond, in fact you could get to all the other shops/units within the block by means of the underground passages, these got locked up by Shabitat for security.
Anyway, I'm going to go back and read the thread properly, sorry if I've repeated anything.
robinhood21 said:
Leithen said:
The sewer shot is probably the giveaway to their means of access to the tunnels - head torch coming up....
If you look closely, you will see that the light is actually a reflection in the water.
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