Today, much of Williamson’s
labyrinth is inaccessible, either through being filled with rubble or through
being bricked up. For the moment therefore, the only impression we can gain of
some parts of the system comes from anecdotal evidence. Here, then, we bring
together some of the more descriptive quotes from the writings of the two
historians whose works have fed most contemporary accounts of the Williamson
tunnels.
Firstly, Charles Hand describes the tunnels under Paddington as
he saw them in 1916: “..... we descended with
infinite care the stone steps leading into the very bowels of the earth. At the
bottom of the first flight, an archway cut out of the moist and musty rock led
away to the right, and the next flight branched away on either hand, giving
access to low tunnels and more steps down ..... We groped our way carefully
along the accessible ramifications of these crypts to the depth of three
storeys below the street level. There are three or more storeys below these -
the basement is said to be as deep as the buildings are high ..... We failed to
discover a boundary. We were in a nightmare maze of constructed tunnels and
caves. Nobody knows their extent.” and
then the structures under Williamson’s house: “They are grotesque beyond description; words fail to give an
adequate idea of their appearance. Dungeons carved out of the solid rock, with
no light and no ventilation, the only access being through a heavy wooden door,
vaults with a roof of four arches meeting in the centre in a manner that
present-day builders would not think of attempting; monstrous wine bins with
many stone partitions for enormous quantities of bottles; massive erections of
masonry and stone benches - all apparently without the slightest objective or
motive.”
Stonehouse describes
the system under the Grinfield Street area as he witnessed in 1845:
“In one section of the ground (that near
Grinfield-street), where there was of late years a joiner’s shop, the
ground was completely undermined in galleries and passages, one over the other,
constituting a labyrinth of the most intricate design. Near here also was a
deep gulf, in the wall sides of which were two houses completely excavated out
of the solid rock, each having four rooms of tolerable dimensions.”
and then some of the structures behind the houses
midway along Mason Street: “There is a vault
in the southern wall opposite the wall just described. It runs towards
Grinfield-street, and is composed of two large arches side by side, surmounted
by two smaller ones. In the eastern face of the quarry there is an immense arch
perhaps sixty feet high; and about thirty feet from its entrance there is an
immense and massive stone pier from which spring two arches on each side, one
above the other, but not from the same level. The pier is hollowed on the
inside by three arches. On the left hand wall inside the arch there are two
large arches, from which vaults run northwardly, and on the right hand side of
the wall there are also two vaults which extend to a great distance in a
southwardly direction, towards Grinfield-street. From these vaults, other
vaults branch off in all sorts of directions. The houses in Mason-street all
rest upon these arches; and as you passed along the street, the depth of some
of them at one time was visible through the grids.” |
