Edinburgh Tunnels

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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby toomse » Fri Dec 04, 2009 2:27 pm

Here’s details of the BT deep level tunnel network that runs from Capital Exchange and below the former Telephone House building


partial duct diagram (the north and south lead in sections are mid level)
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true to scale diagram
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Google map of the west tunnel route that runs along Gorgie Road to just past Stenhouse Drive
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Google map of the south tunnel route that runs to Colinton Road
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ventilation shaft and emergency escape hatches in the grounds of the former Telephone House at Gorgie Road
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ventilation shafts and emergency escape hatches at the end of the west tunnel route
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ventilation shaft and emergency escape hatches at the end of the south tunnel route
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby mysterioussmoke » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:19 am

New Street has a NCP car park, open to the public. There is two levels under the new council building. On the basement level is a set of plain white double doors, on the far wall nearest the station. A small cheap padlock has been placed by no one offical and can easily be removed. Behind these doors is a tunnel. I have no idea as to where the tunnel leads and I have been aware of it for sometime. Would anyone like to help me find out?
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Hyabusa » Wed Jun 02, 2010 11:29 pm

im always looking for urban explorers to join me in my quest to find and photograph all underground places and abandoned buildings in the Edinburgh area drop me a line if you want to go out and play :D
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby baltoi » Thu Jun 24, 2010 7:19 pm

Just found these posts, especially about the Vaults under Waverley Station. I had a summer job in the late 70's/early 80's with GEC who were the contractors for the East Coast resignalling project, their project office being upstairs in the now demolished New Street goods shed. We used to use some of the vaults to keep bits of kit safe and dry. The vaults were accessed just before the railway bridge and had an entry tunnel which ran parallel to New Street, then took a right turn to where the main individual vaults were on either side. The tunnel eventually opened out to a large open space, which was used for BR staff car parking. From memory there may have been about 10-12 of the individual vaults up each side.

A number of the individual vaults were kitted out with heated wooden "sheds", which had been used by Fyffes to ripen bananas. Fyffes also had a small office in the goods yard, I'm not sure if there was any lift to bring the bananas up to ground level, but there might have been.

My late father, who worked for British Rail told me at the time that some of the vaults were used up to the 1960's by Boots the chemist, and there were people working down there in some capacity on a regular basis. It may just have been for storage and distribution, but it would have been a health and safety nightmare, with only one entrance in and out. Quite a dry place considering, but pretty creepy if you were sent down on your own to go and get something!
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby BrigitDoon » Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:07 pm

Hi baltoi; welcome to HG :)
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Lucky Poet » Mon Jul 26, 2010 2:53 pm

Hi there, and welcome. I'm not wanting to naysay, but if it's the thing on the corner with Regent Road, I was under the impression that it was an early public convenience? It'd be a nightmare doing much excavating under the hill too, it being volcanic rock. An interesting idea though :)
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Glesga_Steve » Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:27 pm

agibsonallan wrote:Before the new build of the Omni center there was the bridge to nowhere from the st James center .
The bridge was a escape road from the Scottish office in the St James center to the Edinburgh control bunker under calton hill . as you come across the bridge and you head up the street before you get to the stairs going up to calton hill there is two doors looks like a storage cubbyhole one is wood and one is metal thats the way in to the bunker

Lucky Poet wrote:Hi there, and welcome. I'm not wanting to naysay, but if it's the thing on the corner with Regent Road, I was under the impression that it was an early public convenience? It'd be a nightmare doing much excavating under the hill too, it being volcanic rock. An interesting idea though :)

It looks to me that you are correct LP.

The OS Town Plans for Edinburgh (available on the NLS website) do indeed show a public convienence on that corner where those two doors are situated. It's annotated as 'Urinal' and shows what appears to be a long (approx 10m) narrow (approx 2m) feature/room built into the corner of the park with what seems to be one entrance located roughly where the metal door is.
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby BillM » Mon Dec 05, 2011 12:21 am

Lucky Poet wrote:I came across mention of a very old tunnel or cave near the railway one at Calton Hill, but it was a sketchy report from very long ago and there's been no trace found since (I'll try to find the source again though).

Are you thinking of the Jewish tomb, a 40 metre long cave under Calton Hill, used as a burial place by an 18th century Edinburgh Jewish dentist?
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Lucky Poet » Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:05 pm

Not that, no - it's up just north of the observatory enclosure I believe? (Though I've never actually spotted the capstones that are or at least were visible along the pathway.) I can't for the life of me remember exactly where I read about it, but I recall it having a hint of the folklore about it (i.e. very likely exaggerated or made up entirely). I've had a wee dig around (not literally) with no success, but I'll see if I come up with anything. The story definitely had it being in the area where the railway tunnels from Waverley now run.
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby BillM » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:08 pm

Lucky Poet wrote:Not that, no - it's up just north of the observatory enclosure I believe? (Though I've never actually spotted the capstones that are or at least were visible along the pathway.) I can't for the life of me remember exactly where I read about it, but I recall it having a hint of the folklore about it (i.e. very likely exaggerated or made up entirely). I've had a wee dig around (not literally) with no success, but I'll see if I come up with anything. The story definitely had it being in the area where the railway tunnels from Waverley now run.

No, it's not a legend. The legend is the Fairy Boy of Leith, which could refer to the same cave. The records still exist of the sale of the cave to the dentist by the council. And it's on old OS maps. There was a story in the press fairly recently of its rediscovery and another of the marker stones being tarred over and no longer visible. The entrance can clearly be seen, now bricked up, if you know where to look. I've got a photo of it somewhere which I'll look out.
But another Edinburgh tunnel, vault or whatever which has always intrigued me is the doorway into the hillside to the rear of the National Gallery on the Mound. I've always wondered what that led to. Again, I've got a photo somewhere. it's maybe just an air raid shelter, but it would be interesting to find out.
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Lucky Poet » Tue Dec 06, 2011 10:49 pm

Sorry Bill, I wrote that extremely badly and should have said, yes the Jewish tomb is definitely real, and the particular folklore-sounding account that I embarrassingly just slightly remember talked of a different part of the hill. C-minus for me.

I'd be most interested to see photos - partly as it might mean I've seen the tomb umpteen times and not even realised what I was looking at...
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby BillM » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:37 pm

Well, I studied old maps going back to the mid 1800s an descriptions of where the entrance to the cave was (the actual burial vault was on the North side of the observatory, the entrance at the South-West. One description was from an old lady who when younger had lived in the Old Observatory (or "Gothic House".) I marked on the map where I thought the entrance was, entered the bearings into my GPS receiver and used it to guide me. Rather spookily, it took me to exactly this place.
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There is a story inn the Scotsman of the entrance having been re0discovered (I think) some time in the 90s but bricked up by the council for safety reasons. Everything ties up, so I'm quite sure that the brickwork in the photo is the blocked up entrance to the cave.
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Lucky Poet » Thu Dec 08, 2011 5:34 pm

How interesting! And major bonus points for conducting GPS detective work.
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Lucky Poet » Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:38 pm

Not in any way mysterious, but here's the very much secured northern portal of the old Scotland Street Tunnel, leading to Waverley:
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180 degrees round, and the line went under Rodney Street, through a slightly odd elliptical tunnel, now open as a shared cycle/footpath:
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Not without some difficulty - partly owing to the road above the north portion being lowered in the early 20th century, engineers were worried about removing rubble infill at that end; the solution was to construct a reinforced concrete sleeve, which seems popular with the local spray painters:
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A bit of background here: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_edin_t/0_ ... l_1904.htm

(Note the rather wobbly line of roof lights; it actually follows the masonry of the tunnel lining, suggesting that the tunnellers had a bit of trouble finding their direction?)
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Re: Edinburgh Tunnels

Postby Batshiet » Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:57 pm

Hi there, I know this is an old thread but maybe someone will see it. I just looked around Moat drive and there's a shelter entrance with ventilation slats on its backside. Doesn't look like your typical bunker. Then at the Dell Post Office there is another thing in a car park. A pipe goes up from underground like an exhaust from generator or or some machinery. BT hatch with railings. Just across the road there's a foundation next to railway tracks. More hatches. Everything adds up nicely to Google maps screenshots posted here. I wonder if anyone knows what could be that odd building at post depot. It's hardened, has massive shutters. Reminds me of a lift for cargo, it could take whole van. This all s tempting but probably alarmed, I'd like to have nosey but it's risky. Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.

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