Friends of Williamson's Tunnels

.....News added on 21st July 1999.....

· Major new find under Paddington

On 17th July, with the site owner's permission, we carried out a dig at the site of the former 126 Paddington, just as the new building development there nears completion. We found a wonderful part of the Williamson labyrinth which had not been seen since the 1920s. Over the past week, this has led to good media coverage in the local press and radio, including comments from the FWT committee.

· Latest on Stable Yard site

The developers of the Stable Yard/Grinfield street portion of the overall tunnels site still await a decision from Government Office North West as to whether they will be receiving a grant of several hundred thousand pounds to set up their small tunnel attraction adjacent to the Stable Yards (this is the project that we have many concerns about). The decision is taking this long, we understand, as Government Office has asked the developer to provide a guarantor who would repay the grant if it was not spent according to its conditions. In the meantime, the developer has now fenced off the Grinfield Street site and has churned up what was the grassed area.

· Work on house finished

The Council's contractors have more or less finished the process of 'making safe' the remains of Williamson's house in preparation for making it available for sale or lease. The roof and the side and rear walls were removed, along with the unimportant modern facade which adjoined the original facade of Williamson's house. That original facade and its short return wall are all that remain. The contractors also removed the rubbish from the late concrete floor and this is now open to the elements, although access from the front is now fenced off.

· E.G.M.

We held an Extraordinary General Meeting in early July to tackle the issue of the Grinfield Street/Stable Yards development. Due to the short notice we were only able to invite local FWT members. We made sure everyone understood the pros and cons of the situation and listened carefully as the developer's architect, who we had invited to speak to the meeting, went over their plans. We learnt little new, but took note of the assertion that their request for public funding from Government Office North West was really the last chance as all other avenues of funding had proved fruitless. When we put it forward that there appeared to be no contingency funding to preserve the additional tunnels which we are sure they will find once they begin work in earnest, the architect was of the opinion that any such expenditure would have to come from the developer's own pocket (and that he would only do that if he considered doing so a financially beneficial move). This doesn't inspire a great deal of hope. Later, the FWT committee and members agreed on a course of action.

· Williamson in the theatre

In a pleasant diversion from the battles we constantly have to engage in, we were delighted to play a small part in the recent trial run of a new play about Williamson written by playwright Karen Brown and titled 'The King of Edge Hill'. The play has been written for the radio, but was adapted as a trial for the theatre and performed to an invited audience in mid-June at the Unity and Everyman theatres. FWT committee members were kindly invited to the performances (having provided one of our tunnels photos for the flyer sheet and had an earlier meeting with Karen to share background information) and came away impressed by an excellent performance of a clever and perceptive piece of theatre. We look forward to the radio broadcast and will make the date known once we have it.