Underground Manchester.

[chris14679]

I met a guy a few years ago who had the bizarre hobby of exploring drains! On one occasion (and obviously after a fair bit of research!) he was able to climb into a manhole cover in Gorton and follow a drain (a former river which had been enclosed in a small tunnel) until emerging several hours later in Rusholme!

I also recall reading that a disused underground canal runs from near deansgate locks, under the great northern warehouse, where there was a small dock in the basement, under deangate and all the way across under granada studios to join the river Irwell. It has been drained and was used as a bomb shelter in WWII.

[Phil Blinkhorn]

The Gorton watercourse would be Gore Brook. There are many tales about how Gorton (and the brook) got their names - from a battle between Danes and Saxons at which the brook ran red with blood to the more likely early English word Gor meaning dirty, the reasoning being the brook is a brownish colour due to it flowing from the peaty Ashton Moss.

The water course is culverted at various points but is also in the open air, especially at the Platt Fields end.

Paralleling the brook is the Mickle or Nico Ditch which dates from circa 900 and was a defensive earthwork running from Ashton Moss to Platt Fields. There is a story that this was constructed in one night - obviously the pre-Norman conquest inhabitants of Manchester had access to some long forgotten superior JCBs, not to mention a massive workforce with a superhuman workrate!

The Platt Family estate encompassed lands surrounding the entire length of the ditch. The family held the estate from 1225 - 1625 when it passed into the Worsley family who provided both the first Member of Parliament for Mnchester (one of Cromwell's major generls) and Captain Worsley who led the militia at the Peterloo Massacre.

[tam19711]

Manchester tracks north of Victoria Station c1985 (bw)

It's interesting to read this thread, Manchesters underground has long fascinated me.

As many of you have noted there is a cobbled entrance underneath Victoria Station behind Chethams music school. However there is another one which I believe links up to this road. It's found underneath the railway line on the north side of the station on the road red bank, although gated up, you can see down it for quite some distance.

I remember a surveying team went under the station on an inflatable boat along the river Irk in the nighties, does anybody have the report on this?

There is also an underground tram that I think is now disused, that runs to the main post office on Newton Street

The phone lines under Piccadilly are the remains of a cold war bunker that run from Ardwick to Piccadilly and on a short distance to near the river Irwell.

And finally one I have seen first hand is the remains of the underground Salford Junction canal that runs under GMEX and Granada Studios, it's just a selection of huge chambers that are now dry, this was used as an air-raid shelter during the Second World War, a wardens office still exists down there, an entrace chamber can be located to the right of the main entrance to GMEX.

[aidanorourke]

Manchester Jutland St in rain 1997 (bw)

Thanks very much for this information. It seems there is more to underground Manchester than we might have been aware of.

Another subject is undergound rivers. It's said there is a River Tib underneath Tib Street. Did the Romans call it Tib after the Tiber? And under Store Street, beneath Piccadilly Station Approach and Gateway House, it's said there is a lost river. It certainly seems like there is a kind of valley there.

That's where that steep street Jutland St, former Junction Street is located and in a short time, the Inacity Tower will rise up from there, so Manchester goes up into the sky as well as deep into the ground.

Which reminds me, what about all those old coal mines in the 'coal crescent' to the north west, north and north east of Manchester? I must visit the Stockport Air Raid shelters soon.

[Phil Blinkhorn]

Jutland St has always fascinated me. Is it the result of natural contours or is it man made?

I worked at Rylands in the 1960s and their extension building, along Tib St and across Bridge Way from the main building, was renowned for its damp cellar, even in the driest summer. In the autumn of 1965, after an extremely wet August, the basement had a seepage which left almost a quarter of an inch of standing water on the floor. I never heard of a river under Tib St but that may explain the seepage.

[neil]

"Secondly a piece I remember from the BBC North West news was the excavation of an old Saxon bridge that had been uncovered, this happened post 1996 and is somewhere in the region of Hanging ditch or Blackfriars in the area where it is known the medieval Manchester Settlement was located."

If you go into the basement cafe in manchester cathedral you can see the original bridge in all its splendour and even touch it if your that way inclined.

[manc1890]

I have had the oppurtunity to see the Irk run 60 feet below Victoria station.

All though there is a lot of Urban myth to what lies beneath the city, there is another forgotten world down there.

[aidanorourke]

Thanks very much - that sounds fascinating. Can you tell us a bit more?

[Terl]

Originally Posted by aidanorourke

Yes, I have heard this also. When Victoria Station was extended around the 1880s, the area on either side of the River Irk was covered over. That's directly underneath the entrance, where the taxis wait.

It's said that whole houses and streets were buried beneath the station. A cemetery on the banks of the Irk also lies deep underneath Victoria Station, round about where the tram stop is located.

It's said that there are streets and houses below the Cathedral, underneath Victoria Street next to the Irwell.

If you look from the salford side of the old Victoria bus station, you can see bricked up windows and doors. Not sure if this was for the river users or something else

I think all this may be an urban myth. However one underground street does apparently still exist. That's the underground passageway that used to be the Market Centre. I'm told the entire length of the passageway, once a place to buy jeans, cassettes and other cheap items, is still intact.

I remember when they closed off the underground market, but I can not remember if they just capped the entrances, or filled it in.

[Ashtonian]

Originally Posted by Terl

If you look from the salford side of the old Victoria bus station, you can see bricked up windows and doors. Not sure if this was for the river users or something else

I remember when they closed off the underground market, but I can not remember if they just capped the entrances, or filled it in.

It's interesting to see just how high the embankment is on that part of the Irwell.
Several storeys if you look at it. I've often wondered what lay behind those windows and doors.

The Irk flows into the Irwell at the bottom of station approach where Victoria St become ST Ducie St