(Image: mwmbwls; abandoned escalator well from cancelled Picc-Vic Tunnel project)
Readers of the Manchester Evening News may know about a subterranean tube line that was proposed for the city back in the early 1970s. But given the popularity of other little known abandoned underground stations (like the one under Glasgow Central station in Scotland and numerous others – see here) featured before on Urban Ghosts, we felt this story would be of interest to our readers in the Cottonopolis and beyond. Manchester’s abandoned underground railway project never saw use, but relics of its lost infrastructure still exist beneath the city centre.
(Image: mwmbwls; promotional artwork for Manchester’s underground railway that never was)
1970s Manchester has been described as a ‘brave new world’ and, viewed through the lens of the present, the concept images seen here have a wonderful air of retro-futurism about them. The remains of what would have been the ‘Picc-Vic tunnel’ were revealed several years ago, after experts found its proposed route marked on drawings and maps that had been lost for decades.
The proposed 2.3 mile-long Manchester underground railway predated the city’s Metrolink by 20 years. But the plan was axed due to budget cuts and the Metrolink light rail service finally opened in 1992. Today, all that’s left of this subterranean line that never was is an empty void (top) hidden 30 feet beneath the Arndale Centre. Often described as an abandoned underground station that was never finished, the space was actually an escalator well leading to a station that wasn’t even built.
(Image: SELNEC via mwmbwls; proposed route of the Picc-Vic tunnel from Piccadilly to Victoria)
The escalator well, which was discovered 30 ft beneath Topshop, would have led to a tunnel linking Piccadilly and Victoria stations by an electrified line. The findings, including long-lost maps and architectural drawings, were showcased in a 2012 exhibition called Infra_MANC, led by Dr Martin Dodge from the University of Manchester and Richard Brook from Manchester School of Architecture.
According to the MEN: “The long-forgotten project would have had four major routes and two tunnels, each 18ft wide. Trains would have run every two-and-a-half minutes at the centre of the network and every 10 minutes further out. Moving underground walkways would have linked Piccadilly Gardens, St Peter’s Square and Oxford Road station.”
(Image: SELNEC via mwmbwls; an entrance was slated for St Peter’s Square)
Dr Dodge told the newspaper in 2012: “Our research has unearthed new engineering plans and architectural drawings that reveal how Manchester just missed out on having its own mini Tube system. When we came across the space beneath Manchester Arndale by consulting old plans and a process of elimination we became certain that it was the location of the Picc-Vic station.”
The proposals, which were 20 years in the making, included underground stations beneath Whitworth Street, Central Library and junction of Cross and Market streets. Construction of the £9.2 million project (£80 million today) was set to begin in September 1973 and continue until 1978. But the project was scrapped by transport minister John Peyton as part of a raft of spending cuts totaling £500 million.
(Image: via mwmbwls; mapped: Manchester’s abandoned underground railway proposals)
It turns out, however, that the abandoned Picc-Vic tunnel wasn’t the only ill-fated rapid transit system beneath the streets of Manchester that failed to come to fruition. A series of proposals were made between the turn of the 20th century and 1983, including two underground tramway proposals in 1903 and 1914 respectively. Another underground railway proposed in 1938 similarly came to nothing. Each scheme has been mapped by Manchester University cartographer Graham Bowden, and can be seen in the above image alongside the modern Metrolink lines.
Related – Abandoned Manchester: 10 Historic Places in the Cottonopolis
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