1. The Central Area
2. Paddington
3. The Stables
1. The Central Area
The central part of the tunnels rectangle includes the remains of Williamson’s house, several small underground rooms and passages and some normally hidden large tunnels.
The sides and top floor are gone but the rest of the facade is clearly recognisable.
Boiler Room, above the Banqueting Hall
Boiler Room, Looking under the new stair case
The Wine bins, after starting Big Dig 2
The Wine Bins, after starting Big Dig 2
The New Starcase, decending to the Wine Bins and beyond…
Into the Wine Bins from the new STaircase
The New Starcase…
The Cavers Squeze…
Looking down into the Sandstone Arch
Dan Snow in the Wine Bins
Dan Snow in the Gash
Looking down into the Banqueting Hall through from behind the Wine Bins
Looking down into the Banqueting Hall through a hole in the Steps
The New Steps
The tidy, Wine Bins
Looking into the Sandstone Arch within the Trench
The Ladder and the Floor of the Sandstone Arch
Looking from the Gash, towards the Ladder
Looking down into the Sandstone Arch, showing the now cleared floor
The New Find, a Fireplace…
The Banqueting Hall
Underneath the entrance hatch
The same facade today.
A closer view of JW’s house. See the archway in the facade?
1920s explorers in the Banqueting Hall
The rear of the house facade. The Banqueting Hall and other famous tunnels are under your feet.
Another view of the entrance chamber
Mason Street in 1916. Williamson’s house still intact on the right. Courtesy Liverpool City Libraries.
FoWT’s guides near the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall
Rarely-opened room under the house, with large sandstone steps.
Intriguing tunnel in the same area.
… we found this short tunnel.
Descending through the gash
In 2004 we carried out a dig to find one of the tunnels which James Stonehouse described in the 1840s and which Liverpool Corporation covered up in the 1950s.
Inside the tunnel in front of the Great Tunnel.
FoWT’s digging team doing some clearing work.
Underneath the house site, the impressive arch of the entrance chamber
Impressive gothic arch in the wall of the Banqueting Hall
Climbing out again.
Back under the house site, this chamber is known as the Wine Bins. The wooden racks are recent, from some filming work.
The Wine Bins area again, with various bricked up arches.
Williamson’s legendary ‘Great Tunnel’ in an 1880s photograph. (Courtesy National Railway Museum)
Stepping out of thegash into the Banqueting Hall
Mason Street in the 1880s. Williamson’s house is near the end on the right. Courtesy Liverpool City Libraries
It took a bit of digging but we found it.
And a ghost sign high up on the wall
With a solid sandstone wall at one end.
A rarely-opened area near the front of the house. It’s quite a squeeze in places.
A 1940s press photo of two explorers in the Banqueting Hall
Back onMason Street (Jw’s house is the cream one in the distance), underneath this cooncrete slab …
Nearly there …
Mysterious old initials on the stonework of the facade.
Mysterious arches.
The railway cutting which chopped Williamson’s Triple Decker tunnel in two.
Down in the railway cutting today. You can see areas where the railway authorities had machinery in parts of Williamson’s tunnels.
Volunteers on the shrinking Mound
Looking down into the Banqueting Hall from the Boiler Room
This amazing View down into the nearly empty Banqueting Hall
The trench in the Banqueting Hall
looking up out of the trench in the Banqueting Hall
Volunteers at the mouth of the Gash from within the trench in the Banqueting Hall
Volunteers at the mouth of the Gash from within the trench in the Banqueting Hall
The New Find, still yet to be completely emptied
The New Tunnel from within the Trench…
Looking back towards the Gothic Arch from within the New Tunnel. You can see the Gothic Arch above the scaffolding Tower.
Looking down from the Scaffoling tower, showing the Trench and the New Tunnel in the wall of the Banqueting Hall.
2. Paddington
A hundred metres away from the house site is the Paddington section of the tunnels. They were filled in and unseen for 70 years until FoWT carried out a series of digs to try and find them in 1999. We were successful and they became a famous addition to the modern Williamson Tunnels.
The Paddington tunnels invite you to descend…
A mix of Williamson’s original sandstone steps and our modern steel equivalent.
In 1999 the rubble had us crawling along up against the ceiling.
Work to install the new staircase in the early 2000s.
Shafts of daylight in one of the passages near the surface.
Down on Level 2, with an arch that goes nowhere.
Level 2 at Paddington.
Level 2 at Paddington.
Level 2 at Paddington.
1920s explorers on Level 2 at Paddington.
Starting down the steps to the lower levels
At the bottom of the steps, an impressive multi-layered arch.
The digging team at work uncovering a hidden passage.
Church-like structures.
Heavy rocks needing to be moved as part of excavation work.
Williamson’s workers hacked these flat walls out of the bedrock using pick axes.
Strange structures in the ceiling.
Waiting for the next skip.
The buckets in the Mile Tunnel
The FoWT digging team
Level 4, Showing the flood Water…
View from above of Level 4
Level 4, showing the water and the dig progress.
Volunteer Digger, Rex doing leveling work
Peering down into the bottom layer of Paddington in October 2015.
Level 4
Hauling buckets up from Level 4 to Level 3
Level 4
Level 4
Level 4
Looking down from the arch in Level 3
Looking from the Gypsum Chamber into the Ash Chamber
Level 4 Ash Chamber
A few of the Team
Level 2, peering down into Level 4
A Long way down…
Level 4 above, getting deeper…
A few of the Team
Level 4 almost at it deepest, from above
Uncovering the Timber covering the Bedrock
The Timber on Level 4
The Timber on Level 4
The now bare Bedrock Floor at the far end of the Ash Chamber
Channel in Ash Chamber
Ash Chamber
Channel Detail, Ash Chamber
Volunteers in the Ash Chamber
Volunteers in the empty Ash Chamber
Cleared bedrock in Ash Chamber
Empty Ash Chamber from Gypsum the Chamber
The Empty Ash Chamber, peering down from Level 3
Ash Chamber showing our progress
3. The Stables Area
At the southern end of the tunnels ‘site’ are the remaining old Lord Mayor’s stables. This area has the famous ‘Double Tunnel’ and the ‘Triple Decker’ tunnel. The Heritage Centre provides visits to a renovated section of the tunnels here.
The famous Double tunnel, renovated.
How the Double Tunnel looked in the 1990s.
The Double Tunnel featured in a painting from the 1880s. Courtesy Liverpool City Libraries.
Unique arch structure buried in the South Tunnel.
Strange mix of brick and block in this arch.
Descending through the South Tunnel.
Inside the South or Corner Tunnel
Inside the legendary Triple Decker tunnel.
Inside the Triple Decker tunnel
On the way out of the Double Tunnel.