Underground, Overground, Wandering Free

March 11, 2006 12:45 AM

Subterranea Britannica is a website devoted to underground sites in the UK, be they storage facilities, old kilns, chalk mines, military facilities from the cold war, astronomical observatories or even a precursor to the Channel Tunnel. It's full of photographs and informative articles and is a great resource for those interested in spaces beneath the earth. Dig deep and fill those gaps in your knowledge of British holes!
posted by longbaugh (16 comments total)

I had no idea someone had attempted a Chunnel in the 19th century. Cool. It sounds like they might have succeeded, too, if politics hadn't scuttled it.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 1:05 AM on March 11, 2006

Nice title, but I'm sure this is a repost...
posted by twine42 at 2:16 AM on March 11, 2006

twine42 - I did check last night before posting but MeFi was playing silly buggers. I've checked again via google and yahoo and it's not been an FPP so far as I can tell - though Grangousier referred to it in a previous comment as has carter back in 2004 but it's never had it's own FPP so far as I can tell. I hadn't seen those two previous comments but lucked onto the site whilst looking for a reference in the Sark thread. I think it's certainly worth sharing.
posted by longbaugh at 2:37 AM on March 11, 2006

I *love* this stuff - thank you.
posted by mrbill at 2:38 AM on March 11, 2006

See also the usenet group uk.rec.subterranea
posted by hardcode at 3:20 AM on March 11, 2006

*envy* - fab FPP, love this stuff. Here in UniStat, you no longer can prowl around photographing infastructure - current or disused - without provoking the ire of Homeland Security.
posted by sidereal at 4:26 AM on March 11, 2006

Now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.
posted by Pallas Athena at 5:34 AM on March 11, 2006

Also, they don't have my favourite one, Margate Shell Grotto.
posted by Pallas Athena at 5:50 AM on March 11, 2006

Or Carnglaze Caverns in Cornwall.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:00 AM on March 11, 2006

Great stuff. I love things like this -- in the U.S., the U.K or anywhere. It kind of gives me the chills...in a good way. :)

...and I love this guy's stuff.
posted by bim at 10:23 AM on March 11, 2006

This is wonderful. Thank you.


I want one!
posted by brundlefly at 11:05 AM on March 11, 2006

supakewl.

One interesting thing is that the c19 Chunnel seems on this account to have failed becuase of political rather than engineering problems. Those Victorians were serious about their civil engineering.
posted by washburn at 11:58 AM on March 11, 2006

. . . as artiface already pointed on in the first comment.
posted by washburn at 11:59 AM on March 11, 2006

What fun! Thank you longbaugh. There's something appealing to me about underground dwellings, tunnels , hidden escape routes, stashes of all kinds and secret passageways. I enjoyed looking at the Maginot Line and Camden Catacombs pics at the wonderful Subterranea Britannica site.
posted by nickyskye at 1:16 PM on March 11, 2006

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted to the front page before -- still, better late than never. It's an excellent site (and even includes a few photographs of the underground bookstacks in my own place of work).

Alas, even the indefatigable researchers at Subterranea Britannica haven't managed to get into the underground library and ballroom at Welbeck Abbey. There's a photograph of the entrance on another site, but no photographs of the interior.

Another excellent site, for those interested in such things, is Berliner Unterwelten, dedicated to 'the hidden secrets of underground Berlin', with plenty of photographs (and text in English).
posted by verstegan at 3:49 PM on March 11, 2006

Great post, thanks.
posted by arse_hat at 11:08 PM on March 11, 2006