28 October 2023 , 11:10
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A seemingly ordinary brick wall in Liverpool city centre hides a secret world.
The wall, located near the roundabout that connects Park Lane with Jamaica Street, conceals the Wapping Tunnel, the first underground rail tunnel ever built below a city. It opened in 1830 and ran from Edge Hill to the old Park Lane goods station. The tunnel was used to transport goods across the city when trading on the docks was at its peak.
Alex Brewster, who runs a TikTok channel called Living Liverpool Tour, recently spoke about the tunnel in a new video which was viewed by over 34,000 people. The 41-year-old, from Crosby, said: "I've known it's been that tunnel for years, I just hadn't made a video about it."
Liverpool's disused Wapping Tunnel (Kyle May/LMRT)He told the Liverpool Echo: "I used to work fairly close by. Originally I assumed it was part of the Northern Line connection but it's too far towards the water." The station was knocked down in the 1970s, but you can still see the tunnel entrances off Kings Dock Street and near Edge Hill Station. There is also a brick wall and a ventilation shaft on Grenville Street South.
Alex said: "I always had it in my head to do more about this above-ground infrastructure and talk about them because you can't legally get down there but you can walk past these chimneys and cuttings." Over the years, there have been several ideas about how the tunnel could reopen.
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In 2016, a study commissioned by Merseytravel explored whether the tunnel could reconnect the Northern and City Lines. It also considered creating a new station along the route to serve the city's Knowledge Quarter.
The report found that the Wapping Tunnel was in good condition, although some parts had experienced flooding. It suggested that some repair work would be needed, but reopening the tunnel could be possible. Alex thinks that reopening the tunnel could be very beneficial. He expressed: "It's quite logical that, if we needed more train infrastructure, we would have it underground.
"If you think about how Liverpool is now, there's not a need for a goods yard but there is the arena, the Baltic, the Liverpool ONE area. All of that serviced by a station, running to the Wavertree/Edge Hill side - that doesn't currently exist. It could work as a park ride at the end of the M62, getting people down to the arena on a gig day."
The Wapping Tunnel is one of many tunnels closed off to the public in Merseyside. Others include:
- A tunnel underneath the former NatWest Bank building on Castle Street, which is said to have connected the major banks of Liverpool's financial district during WWII
- An underground room and passageway underneath Renshaw Street, the original use of which remains a mystery
- Rumoured passageways beneath a church in Kirkby
- The Birkenhead Dock Exit in the Queensway Tunnel, which is now reserved for safety tests and film shoots
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]