Liverpool has a Buried Underworld and No One Knows Why

For fifteen years, retired Liverpudlian locals and curious have-a-go volunteers have been digging up a vast network of 200 hundred-year old tunnels and cellar systems beneath their streets, not knowing how far they go, where they lead to and why they are even there.

The only clue history has given, is that they were built by a successful and philanthropic tobacco merchant by the name of Joseph Williamson, born in 1769. An entrance to the system was even found in the basement of his former house, but there are no known records or paper from his lifetime that give any explanation as to what this secretive underground network was for.

This is particularly strange given the complexity of the design and vastness of the tunnels, which include multiple levels with stone steps leading to caverns as deep as 20 feet. Years before the great railway tunnels and bridges of 19th century England were built, the system features an advanced design ahead of its time, with solid arches that have stood the test of time 200 years on. Such level of construction would have required extensive and skilled manpower on Williamson’s part; hiring a substantial number of workers to build them; and yet, mysteriously, there are no records.