Landlords Wanted
Beneath the bustling city streets of Manchester lies a hidden landscape of long abandoned tunnels and caverns. Inside Out gained exclusive access to these secret places and met up with some of the people fascinated by this subterranean world.
While many of us are familiar with the Manchester skyline towering above the streets, far fewer people are aware of the city’s foundations running deep beneath our feet. But two centuries of development has left a legacy of underground tunnels, sewers, canals, and cellars.
These rarely visited spaces have been unchanged for decades and offer a window into the city’s past.
A forgotten world
The arches were created over a century ago when the steeply sloping ground in front of the cathedral was levelled off to support a road. For years they housed cellars and small businesses but today the entrance is a closely guarded secret.
During the Second World War they were used as air raid shelters and a sign on the wall from the 1940s warns that gambling and insobriety won’t be tolerated. Later still they were used as public toilets – today the cubicles are still standing, a sign on one reading “Convenience closed for repairs”.
Further rooms lie down a broken staircase, the ceilings heavy with stalactites.