Leeds Railway Station's 'Lost World'

Places to explore
Post Reply
dogduke
Posts: 1402
Joined: Thu 03 Jan, 2008 6:47 am

Post by dogduke »

Phill_dvsn wrote: Cardiarms wrote: Out of interest, what does it control?The Milgarth to Westgate tunnel is obviously nonsense unless we accept that a major mining exercise took place in the late 1970's without anybody noticing. Also the Westgate HQ was administrative, HR etc. No need for a tunnel unless you need to covertly check you pension.The rooms under the station, (cellar?) would have to be under the newest bit, easy to build and maintain rather try to adapt some cramped arches between the river and Neville street. They probably back onto the Queens hotel cellars. Mind you there's the old Swinegate goit to factor in.     I think Cnosi knows a little about the space below the ticket area, i'm sure he'll say what he knows soon I'm led to believe it's mainly services, electrics, machinery and such. I guess if you look at the street view herehttp://snipurl.com/uqixnIt's pretty obvious to see there is a vast area underneath the concourse area. The whole station is built up on arches.     The area to the right of the bus selter-railings-was/is thestaff/laundry entrance to the Queens.That is a real warren of passages as I remember.As a kid Dad used to take me to work odd times duringthe school holidays,totally bewildering following him as he dashedthrough the various coridors and doors.This proves that the Queens runs under the exit road from the station to City Square.
Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.

Cardiarms
Posts: 2993
Joined: Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:30 am

Post by Cardiarms »

yes that whole area is built up to quite a height leaving a substantial space under the traveller's feet. Think of standing in bishopgate at the bottom of the steps. There's two stories there and if they went any deeper with cellars during the original contruction, possibly a third. I'm sure that the police/civil defence/communications organisations will have a secure comms network, possibly through dedicated ducts but pedestrian tunnels would be a feat of civil engineering and secrecy. Anything to the north of the inner ring road would have to be very deep to get under it. Tall buildings run in a spine through leeds with their piles being driven into the ground at regular intervals, leaving the streets as the main routes, the streets that are full of utilities. Utilities would have to have been moved, some of the sewers in the Town Centre are 5m deep. But the big question to me would be , 'why would you need a tunnel?'. Milgarth to Westgate? A van down the headrow is quicker, easier, cheaper. Town Hall to Civic Hall? What for? The Town Hall had the courts the Civic Hall runs the city, along with its outlying buildings. Hospitals are on either side of valleys, why connect them with deep, deep tunnels? The BBC and other police stations have been redeveloped with no traces of tunnels coming to light and they've moved, have they been reconnected? The truth is usually disappointing. One website insisted i read recently insisted that there was a control room in City Square. Well there might be, accessed fronm a secret door in the old toilets no doubt.    

User avatar
chameleon
Site Admin
Posts: 5462
Joined: Thu 29 Mar, 2007 6:16 pm

Post by chameleon »

Cardiarms wrote: yes that whole area is built up to quite a height leaving a substantial space under the traveller's feet. Think of standing in bishopgate at the bottom of the steps. There's two stories there and if they went any deeper with cellars during the original contruction, possibly a third. I'm sure that the police/civil defence/communications organisations will have a secure comms network, possibly through dedicated ducts but pedestrian tunnels would be a feat of civil engineering and secrecy. Anything to the north of the inner ring road would have to be very deep to get under it. Tall buildings run in a spine through leeds with their piles being driven into the ground at regular intervals, leaving the streets as the main routes, the streets that are full of utilities. Utilities would have to have been moved, some of the sewers in the Town Centre are 5m deep. But the big question to me would be , 'why would you need a tunnel?'. Milgarth to Westgate? A van down the headrow is quicker, easier, cheaper. Town Hall to Civic Hall? What for? The Town Hall had the courts the Civic Hall runs the city, along with its outlying buildings. Hospitals are on either side of valleys, why connect them with deep, deep tunnels? The BBC and other police stations have been redeveloped with no traces of tunnels coming to light and they've moved, have they been reconnected? The truth is usually disappointing. One website insisted i read recently insisted that there was a control room in City Square. Well there might be, accessed fronm a secret door in the old toilets no doubt.     Itis likely you are right - but we can dream and the proof of the pudding would be in getting in there wouldn't it! Like with many of these things, the lack of documentation is probably significant.I mentioned the old Sandford street, this looks as though it would have run below the stretch of New Station Street where it passes the station entrance and City House. I suppose the construction of that building will have put paid to anything there before. At the end of that was Waterloo Ford, crossing the river which would be under, I think, the present new station concourse and adjacent to said subteranean control rooms. Certainly I've read that the station signalling control room is well out of sight in this way.

Cardiarms
Posts: 2993
Joined: Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:30 am

Post by Cardiarms »

Was the ford above, on, or below the dam?I still can't get my head around how the got from the Dark Arches on the north side got to Swinegate itself. That's quite a fall and must have involved a couple of weirs.

User avatar
cnosni
Site Admin
Posts: 4199
Joined: Wed 28 Mar, 2007 4:47 pm

Post by cnosni »

BIG N wrote: Now I'm not one to gloat but just thought I would gloat by copy and pasting one of my very first posts on this site back in Dec 2007.It was posted in a long running thread entitled "Tunnels from City station"..............................Apologies for my late contribution to this thread, but I have only just discovered this excellent site.Tunnels running from Central Station into (and beyond) the city - fact or fiction?Well we all know how urban myth's tend to snowball until they are either proved or, more often than not, dispelled - however, let me relate to you something I was told by two totally different people.Both worked for the Telecoms section of what was then Railtrack and both people told me of a Control room that is several stories below ground level under City station, further more both people told me that there were indeed a series of tunnels linking various buildings up around the city such as City hall, the Town hall, various police stations - including Milgarth and the old headquarters building close to International pool - along with hospitals, the BBC buildings, and several council buildings on the outskirts of town.Both people informed me that they were aware of the links these tunnels provided as they contained "live" phone and power links from the various outposts back to the control room under the station and that it was part of their responsabilitys to maintain these links, and more importantly the control room in full working order.I was shown where the enterance to this room was but was told by the person that showed me that it was more than their job was worth to try taking me down there, but the door is still in place and as a matter of fact I passed it a couple of weeks ago whilst taking a friend to the station, it is very close to the general public area in the booking hall.One of the people also told me there were a great number of tunnels that had been bricked up or sealed which would seem to be supported by photos earlier in this thread............................I guess this is the reason it took this young lady so long to recieve permission to go in there, remember - I was a railway employee at the time and two people were afraid to take me down there.Perhaps the couple of piccys released to the YEP are poor quality, maybe thats the same of the rest but perhaps she has only sent them the poor stuff, choosing to save the real quality till her exibition, perhaps the benifit of the doubt until such time ??Incidentally, I dont think anything can be seen of this control room from the dark arches area, as I recall, I was told its a sealed area without windows etc.Oh and lets not forget, if I'm correct, todays platform 8 at Leeds is the old number five - the first through platform when you get through the barriers, so in actual fact there is a big chance the bulk of this complex is under the concourse etc, in fact knowing where the surface door is - it is deffo under the concourse.Gloat over guys LOL     I thought the tunnel shown in then YEP is the old subway blocked off when platform 5 was made into platform 8 during the leeds First transformation of the station.The access is through the dark arches.I must have got the wrong end of the article
Don't get me started!!My Flickr photos-http://www.flickr.com/photos/cnosni/Secret Leeds [email protected]

User avatar
chameleon
Site Admin
Posts: 5462
Joined: Thu 29 Mar, 2007 6:16 pm

Post by chameleon »

Cardiarms wrote: Was the ford above, on, or below the dam?I still can't get my head around how the got from the Dark Arches on the north side got to Swinegate itself. That's quite a fall and must have involved a couple of weirs. here: (Just noticed there was a swimming pool too!)
Attachments
__TFMF_igdahz55qapox5451g0iwvew_da2a52dc-dacf-41cd-a810-0e0567dec11a_0_main.jpg
__TFMF_igdahz55qapox5451g0iwvew_da2a52dc-dacf-41cd-a810-0e0567dec11a_0_main.jpg (779.02 KiB) Viewed 2801 times

Si
Posts: 4480
Joined: Wed 10 Oct, 2007 7:22 am
Location: Otley

Post by Si »

What's the plectrum-shaped thing just below your arrow in the middle of the river, Steve?

Cardiarms
Posts: 2993
Joined: Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:30 am

Post by Cardiarms »

Thanks - is that the 'bump' in the river you can see under the dark arches?

Phill_dvsn
Posts: 4423
Joined: Wed 21 Feb, 2007 5:47 am

Post by Phill_dvsn »

There's two bumps in different areas in two tunnels under there. If someone can put these up for me-feel freeThe furthest ridge herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/609173697/Second bumphttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/2790897864/
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

Chrism
Posts: 1828
Joined: Sun 20 Jan, 2008 8:26 am

Post by Chrism »

Here
Attachments
__TFMF_ylu0i445gciswdn3t5jkfvmg_08017cf5-cd90-4241-a2d5-3dd35518fd83_0_main.jpg
__TFMF_ylu0i445gciswdn3t5jkfvmg_08017cf5-cd90-4241-a2d5-3dd35518fd83_0_main.jpg (333.32 KiB) Viewed 2801 times
Sit thissen dahn an' tell us abaht it.

Post Reply