Going Underground: Tunnel tours in Manchester
Everyone who has lived in Manchester for a while has their own little “Manchester Underground” story: apparently there are large networks of tunnels, secret World War II bunkers all over the place, market depots and generally so many big holes in the ground that it is impossible to build an underground transport system here in this city. Elbow even wrote a song about it!*
After publishing an article on ‘Urban Exploration’ by Jim Gilette in the very** popular b&n magazine, I was intrigued to find out more about the world that’s hidden beneath the busy roads and buildings. Thanks to Gareth, I stumbled upon Manchester Confidential’s Tunnel Tours – 1 hour long guided tours through the tunnels under the Great Northern building in the city centre. Count me in!
Tickets are £10 and can be booked on the Manchester Confidential website. In case I don’t get lost down there, I shall report back next month.
* My interpretation of Grounds for Divorce: it’s about the massive hole that opened up in the middle of the road in Didsbury last year. What do you mean, the song was released long before that?
** not quite so.
[Photo by Stewart Priest. Thanks!]
Category: Manchester 8 comments »
July 17th, 2010 at 01:39
Cheers for the plug Sam.
I’ve since found out that New Manchester Walks also run Underground Manchester tours for £6 though theirs run a lot less frequently that Confidential’s: http://www.newmanchesterwalks.com/atoz/underground/
July 17th, 2010 at 01:45
Thanks for pointing out the New Manchester Walks tour, I might go on both just for the sake of it :) By the way, is this the same tour that ran as a one-off when the exhibition was on at Urbis a while ago?
July 17th, 2010 at 13:22
I think it’s the same but I’ve nothing more than a gut feeling to base it on.
July 21st, 2010 at 16:32
Thanks for the photo credit!
August 2nd, 2010 at 15:28
Um, I’ve only just read this properly. The hole in Grounds for Divorce is The Temple, not the one in Didsbury. Factoid.
August 2nd, 2010 at 19:47
Aaah ace, thanks for the info. I should make an effort and research a little sometimes.
I didn’t think that Elbow could predict what was going to happen in Didsbury after they recorded the song, but it fits in so well ;)
Mind you, does anyone take my writing seriously? DISCLAIMER: don’t.
August 21st, 2010 at 02:46
[...] I happily announced a few weeks ago, I had booked a place for one of Manchester Confidential’s “Tunnel Tours” to [...]
February 14th, 2011 at 19:38
After visiting the Manchester Underground near the Gmex. Something came alight about the underground. My dad was builing a pond and we came across some bricks. I was just wondering if this was apart of the manchester underground Tunnels in Ancoats Pallard Street M4 sector?