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Underground Manchester: Tunnels, a tube station and even shops hidden beneath the city's streets revealed
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Manchester Evening News
Apr 17, 2016, 11:45:46 AM4/17/16
to
Lying just below the surface of Manchester sits a complex network of
underground tunnels.
Several kilometres of [subterranean
passageways](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-
news/rare-chance-see-inside-manchester-9065397) and spaces stretch under large
parts of the [city centre](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about
/manchester-city-centre) and beyond.
These tunnels include the remnants of a tube station that never was, a
communications bunker, air raid shelters,
[canals](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news
/watch-amazing-video-manchesters-sewers-8946009) and even shops.
Author Keith Warrender has written two books on the subject, Underground
Manchester and Below Manchester, and regularly gives talks on what is below
the surface of Manchester.
Keith, who took the took the above pictures during his various trips below
ground, said there is evidence of tunnels being used below the city for
several hundred years.
Keith Warrender 
Disused toilets in the Arches which were in use until the 1960s
Keith Warrender 
ARP Warden's post, Victoria Arches
**Read: [ Mapped: The whole of underground Manchester](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mapped-whole-underground-manchester-11028890)**
**Read: [ How Victorian water engineers put Manchester on the tap](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-victorian-water-engineers-put-10769535)**
He added: "It was something that interested me and I began to research the
subject and started to do talks on it. People then shared their own things
with me and it all came from there.
"The tunnels range from a long period of time.
"Some go back to the times of the religious persecution where people of the
Catholic faith had routes in and out of the city. That is one of the earliest
ones.
"Then we got to the Victorian period when that is when there was the big flood
of underground projects."
Some of these projects include the Victoria Arches which was a structure built
into the embankment of the [River
Irwell](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/river-irwell). The
shops, accessible from street level via wooden staircases closed in the 1930s
and the space was used as an air raid shelter in World War Two.
There are also underground river and canal tunnels such as the
[Manchester](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/manchester) and
[Salford](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/salford) Junction
Canal Tunnel underneath the Great Northern which joins the Rochdale Canal and
River Irwell.
Keith Warrender 
Engine room in Guardian telephone exchange
Keith Warrender 
Shaft at Guardian underground network
**Read: [ Video: Take an eerie tour through Manchester's forgotten underground tunnels](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/video-manchester-underground-tunnels-tour-10588239)**
**Read: [ Revealed: 100 years of failed transport plans for Manchester - monorail and underground tube included](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/failed-transport-manchester-monorail-underground-9830097)**
****
Keith, 67, from [Timperley](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-
about/timperley), said: "The Victoria Arches is a fantastic space.
"The arches were used for many businesses in the 1800s and later as an air
raid shelter during the Second World War.
"I have been down there a few times and you can still see the remnants from
that period."
There are also tunnels and underground spaces which are the result of more
modern work, such as the Guardian Exchange and the remains of the Picc-Vic
railway tunnel scheme.
Keith, 67, said: "The Guardian Network is several miles long and runs from
Chinatown all the way out to Ardwick.
"It is a switch telephone exchange which was used during the Cold War and is
now used as a cable tunnel.
"BT keep it very secure so hardly anyone ever gets to go down there.
Keith Warrender 
Impressive arching beneath the old Central Station goods yard in the
Manchester and Salford Junction Canal tunnel
Keith Warrender 
ARP warden's post and first aid rooms, Manchester and Salford Junction Canal
tunnel
**Read: [ 14 facts about Greater Manchester that even the proudest Mancunian might not know](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/14-lesser-known-manchester-facts-11191775)**
**Read: [ Underground trains, orbital trams and canal boats - plans to give Greater Manchester a public transport system to rival London's](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/underground-trains-orbital-trams-canal-11094619)**
"There was a fire a few years ago which knocked out the phone lines in
Manchester so they are very concerned to keep it secure."
The Picc-Vic project was a proposed underground tube line in Manchester and
initial work had begun on a tunnel below what is now the Arndale Centre.
Keith added: "They got well on with that space and it seemed to be certain
that it would happen.
"But due to a mixture of political and financial problems the scheme was
stopped.
"There is now a big void there where the station would have been."
But these are just some of the tunnels and underground spaces below the city,
with some people saying they have even seen an old row of underground shops.
Keith Warrender 
One of the connecting subways in the old Coop buildings near Corporation
Street
Keith Warrender 
River Irk below Victoria Station
**Read: [ Rare chance to see inside Manchester tunnels that sheltered hundreds of people from WWII bombs](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rare-chance-see-inside-manchester-9065397)**
**Read: [ Watch: Amazing video of Manchester's sewers captured using 5,000 images](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/watch-amazing-video-manchesters-sewers-8946009)**
"I do wonder if it is somewhere around the cathedral and were built when
Manchester was much lower than it is now.
"There are quite possibly more tunnels constructed in Victorian times used by
shops to gets there goods from one place to another. Some of these will still
exist today but they are probably owned by various utility companies.
"In the area around Harvey Nichols there were ways out of the city and towards
the cathedral, but this area was bombed during the Second World War so that
area has now been redeveloped.
"There are also tunnels leading from the cathedral to Market Street which were
used up to the 1930s."
**'[Underground Manchester](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Manchester-Secrets-City-Revealed/dp/094636141X)' and '[Below Manchester](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Below-Manchester-Going-Deeper-Under/dp/0946361428)' by Keith Warrender are available direct from Willow Publishing, local book shops or online retailers.**
## What was the Picc-Vic project?
### ** 
**
Long-lost maps and drawings have revealed how Manchester was [on the verge of
its own underground tube line](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news
/greater-manchester-news/down-the-tube-maps-and-sketches-show-684333) - two
decades before Metrolink arrived in the city.
The remnants of what would have been the 'Picc-Vic tunnel' are 30 feet below
the Arndale Centre.
Experts say it would have been the centrepiece of a 'brave new world' of
helipads, tunnels and moving pavements in 1970s Manchester.
They have identified the forgotten void, below Topshop, as the beginnings of a
station which would have been at the heart of a 2.3 mile-long electrified
line.
It would have linked Piccadilly and Victoria stations for the first time.
 A huge hole built 30ft below Top Shop in the Arndale Centre marks
where the line would have begun
The long-forgotten project would have had four major routes and two tunnels,
each 18ft wide.
Trains would have run every two-and-a-half minutes at the centre of the
network and every 10 minutes further out.
Moving underground walkways would have linked Piccadilly Gardens, St Peter's
Square and Oxford Road station.
Underground stations would have been built below Central Library, Whitworth
Street, and the junction of Market Street and Cross Street.
The proposals were developed over 20 years. Building work was due to start in
September 1973 and intended to finish by 1978.
### Underground Manchester
[  Underground Manchester mapped
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mapped-
whole-underground-manchester-11028890) [ 
How Victorian sewers connected city
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-
victorian-water-engineers-put-10769535) [  Video:
Eerie tour through tunnels ](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news
/greater-manchester-news/video-manchester-underground-tunnels-tour-10588239) [
 Manchester-Sheffield tunnel plan
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pennine-
tunnel-manchester-sheffield-study-10392396) [  A Manchester underground train?
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/failed-
transport-manchester-monorail-underground-9830097) [  What
lies beneath Manchester's streets
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news
/underground-manchester-network-subterranean-revealed-9471616) [  The tunnels that sheltered us in WWII
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rare-
chance-see-inside-manchester-9065397) [  Manchester's
amazing sewers ](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-
manchester-news/watch-amazing-video-manchesters-sewers-8946009)
1 of 8
underground tunnels.
Several kilometres of [subterranean
passageways](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-
news/rare-chance-see-inside-manchester-9065397) and spaces stretch under large
parts of the [city centre](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about
/manchester-city-centre) and beyond.
These tunnels include the remnants of a tube station that never was, a
communications bunker, air raid shelters,
[canals](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news
/watch-amazing-video-manchesters-sewers-8946009) and even shops.
Author Keith Warrender has written two books on the subject, Underground
Manchester and Below Manchester, and regularly gives talks on what is below
the surface of Manchester.
Keith, who took the took the above pictures during his various trips below
ground, said there is evidence of tunnels being used below the city for
several hundred years.
Keith Warrender 
Disused toilets in the Arches which were in use until the 1960s
Keith Warrender 
ARP Warden's post, Victoria Arches
**Read: [ Mapped: The whole of underground Manchester](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mapped-whole-underground-manchester-11028890)**
**Read: [ How Victorian water engineers put Manchester on the tap](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-victorian-water-engineers-put-10769535)**
He added: "It was something that interested me and I began to research the
subject and started to do talks on it. People then shared their own things
with me and it all came from there.
"The tunnels range from a long period of time.
"Some go back to the times of the religious persecution where people of the
Catholic faith had routes in and out of the city. That is one of the earliest
ones.
"Then we got to the Victorian period when that is when there was the big flood
of underground projects."
Some of these projects include the Victoria Arches which was a structure built
into the embankment of the [River
Irwell](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/river-irwell). The
shops, accessible from street level via wooden staircases closed in the 1930s
and the space was used as an air raid shelter in World War Two.
There are also underground river and canal tunnels such as the
[Manchester](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/manchester) and
[Salford](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-about/salford) Junction
Canal Tunnel underneath the Great Northern which joins the Rochdale Canal and
River Irwell.
Keith Warrender 
Engine room in Guardian telephone exchange
Keith Warrender 
Shaft at Guardian underground network
**Read: [ Video: Take an eerie tour through Manchester's forgotten underground tunnels](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/video-manchester-underground-tunnels-tour-10588239)**
**Read: [ Revealed: 100 years of failed transport plans for Manchester - monorail and underground tube included](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/failed-transport-manchester-monorail-underground-9830097)**
****
Keith, 67, from [Timperley](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/all-
about/timperley), said: "The Victoria Arches is a fantastic space.
"The arches were used for many businesses in the 1800s and later as an air
raid shelter during the Second World War.
"I have been down there a few times and you can still see the remnants from
that period."
There are also tunnels and underground spaces which are the result of more
modern work, such as the Guardian Exchange and the remains of the Picc-Vic
railway tunnel scheme.
Keith, 67, said: "The Guardian Network is several miles long and runs from
Chinatown all the way out to Ardwick.
"It is a switch telephone exchange which was used during the Cold War and is
now used as a cable tunnel.
"BT keep it very secure so hardly anyone ever gets to go down there.
Keith Warrender 
Impressive arching beneath the old Central Station goods yard in the
Manchester and Salford Junction Canal tunnel
Keith Warrender 
ARP warden's post and first aid rooms, Manchester and Salford Junction Canal
tunnel
**Read: [ 14 facts about Greater Manchester that even the proudest Mancunian might not know](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/14-lesser-known-manchester-facts-11191775)**
**Read: [ Underground trains, orbital trams and canal boats - plans to give Greater Manchester a public transport system to rival London's](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/underground-trains-orbital-trams-canal-11094619)**
"There was a fire a few years ago which knocked out the phone lines in
Manchester so they are very concerned to keep it secure."
The Picc-Vic project was a proposed underground tube line in Manchester and
initial work had begun on a tunnel below what is now the Arndale Centre.
Keith added: "They got well on with that space and it seemed to be certain
that it would happen.
"But due to a mixture of political and financial problems the scheme was
stopped.
"There is now a big void there where the station would have been."
But these are just some of the tunnels and underground spaces below the city,
with some people saying they have even seen an old row of underground shops.
Keith Warrender 
One of the connecting subways in the old Coop buildings near Corporation
Street
Keith Warrender 
River Irk below Victoria Station
**Read: [ Rare chance to see inside Manchester tunnels that sheltered hundreds of people from WWII bombs](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rare-chance-see-inside-manchester-9065397)**
**Read: [ Watch: Amazing video of Manchester's sewers captured using 5,000 images](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/watch-amazing-video-manchesters-sewers-8946009)**
"I do wonder if it is somewhere around the cathedral and were built when
Manchester was much lower than it is now.
"There are quite possibly more tunnels constructed in Victorian times used by
shops to gets there goods from one place to another. Some of these will still
exist today but they are probably owned by various utility companies.
"In the area around Harvey Nichols there were ways out of the city and towards
the cathedral, but this area was bombed during the Second World War so that
area has now been redeveloped.
"There are also tunnels leading from the cathedral to Market Street which were
used up to the 1930s."
**'[Underground Manchester](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Manchester-Secrets-City-Revealed/dp/094636141X)' and '[Below Manchester](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Below-Manchester-Going-Deeper-Under/dp/0946361428)' by Keith Warrender are available direct from Willow Publishing, local book shops or online retailers.**
## What was the Picc-Vic project?
### ** 
**
Long-lost maps and drawings have revealed how Manchester was [on the verge of
its own underground tube line](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news
/greater-manchester-news/down-the-tube-maps-and-sketches-show-684333) - two
decades before Metrolink arrived in the city.
The remnants of what would have been the 'Picc-Vic tunnel' are 30 feet below
the Arndale Centre.
Experts say it would have been the centrepiece of a 'brave new world' of
helipads, tunnels and moving pavements in 1970s Manchester.
They have identified the forgotten void, below Topshop, as the beginnings of a
station which would have been at the heart of a 2.3 mile-long electrified
line.
It would have linked Piccadilly and Victoria stations for the first time.
 A huge hole built 30ft below Top Shop in the Arndale Centre marks
where the line would have begun
The long-forgotten project would have had four major routes and two tunnels,
each 18ft wide.
Trains would have run every two-and-a-half minutes at the centre of the
network and every 10 minutes further out.
Moving underground walkways would have linked Piccadilly Gardens, St Peter's
Square and Oxford Road station.
Underground stations would have been built below Central Library, Whitworth
Street, and the junction of Market Street and Cross Street.
The proposals were developed over 20 years. Building work was due to start in
September 1973 and intended to finish by 1978.
### Underground Manchester
[  Underground Manchester mapped
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/mapped-
whole-underground-manchester-11028890) [ 
How Victorian sewers connected city
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/how-
victorian-water-engineers-put-10769535) [  Video:
Eerie tour through tunnels ](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news
/greater-manchester-news/video-manchester-underground-tunnels-tour-10588239) [
 Manchester-Sheffield tunnel plan
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/pennine-
tunnel-manchester-sheffield-study-10392396) [  A Manchester underground train?
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/failed-
transport-manchester-monorail-underground-9830097) [  What
lies beneath Manchester's streets
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news
/underground-manchester-network-subterranean-revealed-9471616) [  The tunnels that sheltered us in WWII
](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rare-
chance-see-inside-manchester-9065397) [  Manchester's
amazing sewers ](http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-
manchester-news/watch-amazing-video-manchesters-sewers-8946009)
1 of 8
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