Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre in Edge Hill to Close
The Williamson Tunnel Heritage Centre in Edge Hill is due to close its doors on 20 December, according to manager Dave Bridson. The centre is dedicated to preserving Liverpool's mysterious underground tunnels.
Not every tunnel goes dark
Friends of the Williamson Tunnels is a separate organisation. It operates sections of the network under Mason Street and Paddington. Those sections will not be affected when the heritage centre shuts.
A merchant, a fortune and no paperwork
Joseph Williamson was a wealthy tobacco merchant living in Liverpool in the early 19th century. He retired at 49. A huge part of his fortune then went into building tunnels under the Edge Hill area.
Why he did it is still a mystery. Some say it was a way to give jobless people a day's wages. Others think the tunnels created arches over quarry pits, so that houses could be built on the ground above.
No official records were kept. When Williamson died, the tunnels were filled in and sealed, and the public mostly forgot them. Urban myth filled the gap for decades. Volunteers found them again in the 1990s, dug them out, and the site welcomed visitors from 2002.
Thirty years of digging
Bridson has worked on the site for 30 years, digging it out and leading tours of the network. He said he was "very, very sad" to be closing it.
He also said there are restrictions on future excavations, and that the building brings its own maintenance costs.
The rent and the missing investor
The centre puts the closure down to higher rent, upkeep of the building and no long-term investor. Last year the Joseph Williamson Society, which runs access to the tunnels, said the yearly ground rent would go up from a token sum to £20,000, a commercial rate.
A fundraising appeal brought in £23,000. The centre said that gave it some "breathing space". No long-term investor has been found since.
"We've been looking for an investor but nobody seems interested," Bridson said. He added that the public cannot keep being expected to pay £20,000 every year, with other costs tied to the lease on top of that.
Our View
The appeal raised more than a year of the new rent, yet Bridson says no investor has shown interest, so the gap is not closed. It is not clear what happens to the excavated passages after 20 December. That answer would show whether the closure is final or only a pause.
Source: BBC News