As a former engineer I have walked every inch from Ardwick to Dial House and then on to the Crescent, it's a fantastic experience. And just to confirm the blast doors are enormous !!. Spent months working down there and enjoyed every minute and of it. In the main sections of the exchange you could drive double decker buses quite easily which shows the scale of how big they are. There are two giant generators still down there but most of the exchange equipment has well gone. The fire caused major damage and took a long time to repair, engineers were working around the clock in shifts to sort it out. it is truly a fascinating place .
I've been researching Guardian for a long while. If I may add a bit of a narative to what you've already said. The Ardwick Exit (they were originally designed as emergency exits), originally was identical to Salford. However some people managed to penetrate Guardian via Ardwick, so the entrance was rebuilt to make it more secure. The entrance from Dial house is via a shaft in the basement of Dial house. Not from that works hatch outside. The unit on Back George Street is not the main entrance. Its the goods entrance. Where they took the telecoms equipment in and out via a massive goods elevator capped by a huge steel and concrete slab. The main entrance (the ones the workers used), was inside the York House telephone exchange. Behind a guards desk, and a locked door, was a series of steps that took the workers down, under the road, to a closed off basement below Rutherford house, where the main elevator down into Guardian was. There was no direct access to this elevator from Rutherford House itself, designed that way to confuse people. This entrance was backfilled and sealed off when York House was sold to its current owners. It is unknown if access from within Rutherford House was opened up. I suspect so, but not with certainty. There is a rumoured but unconfirmed entry shaft from the basement of Picadilly Plaza. The Ardwick site is also interesting because that was once the surface works where they brought out all the rock and spoil they dug out, then backfilled the massive surface portal at that location. The site is still in semi-active use, albeit not as a telephone exchange anymore, but as a way for BT to lay cables without digging up the city. The only known access point these days, is in the basement of Dial House. There may be others, but thats the only one I know to be still in use.
I cannot even convey how happy I am that finally I know that pipe has been flowing non stop for decades. I’ve just turned 30 and it’s always been a mystery to be, every time I walk past it I notice it. Thank you so much.
As someone who used to work down a R3 bunker (underground RADAR bunker) I’m always fascinated by people’s preconceptions and misconceptions about them. Interesting to see a reasonably sensible description of a Cold War complex.
This is the kind of stuff we all should be watching now, not that tv garbage they are putting out now, people like Martin are much better to watch and listen to. Manchester is quite an interesting place
In the mid '70s I was going out with a girl who's mother played in a Bridge School. One of the members of the club was a chap who was a senior engineer with BT, or Post Office Telephones as I think it was called. He took me down there, from, l think, around New York Street. I can't remember much about it except how unremarkable it was. We didn't go far. The analogue 'phone system you mentioned would have been a Strauger (sp?) system. The electro-mechanical nature of that system is why the dial on your phone went back so slowly to the start after you dialled.
Terrific stuff Martin. As a Manchester kid in the 50s I often wondered what some of these strange buildings were. My dad would say 'left over from the war'.
My dad used to work on these tunnels in the eighties and come home and tell stories of an underground Manchester. Blew my mind. Now i know they exist. Ta mate!
I went down them a few times with my dad in the 90s and he was working weekends. Never really appreciated them at the time being under 10 but looking looking back I wish I'd took it in a bit more
The mechanicle parts in those exchanges were called "selectors".The one connected to your phone was called a "uni selector" that had some electro mechanicle arms with contacts arranged in a semi circle .When you put your finger in "4" and dialled that digit it would send 4 pulses to the selector and move it to the forth contact and so on as you dialled the number.you can imagine the racket going on in a large exchange.I used to build those exchanges in the late sixties.
Well done, Martin! Very engaging and obviously well researched. I'm a splicing technician for a huge telco and I never miss an opportunity to lurk around central offices, all of which were built to withstand nuclear attack. I live and work in Pittsburgh, which was a prime target during the Cold War. 98% of the fiber trunk lines and large copper cables (most of which have paper insulation of the conductors and lead sheathing!!) are underground. No tunnels like Manchester though. Cheers + all the best from Pittsburgh USA!
Wes thanks very much for commenting. Great that you found my videos. I'd love to see those buildings you work in, blast proof doors and superstructure, fascinating stuff. Thanks again and best wishes to you in Pittsburgh 👍
When our class ended our school days in 1968, a friend got a job as an engineer for GPO Telephones, and spent some time at Guardian, and we kept in touch for a while He said that in an emergency they could close down or isolate most domestic telephone lines, and concentrate on those for essential services He also said that they had a small TV & Radio studio. Again in an emergency if normal broadcasting was disabled they could still broadcast basic information He added that the tunnels were very handy for avoiding the crowds on Market Street if he wanted to nip out for shopping in his dinner time There was also a telephone line to the USA, and for a while part of his job each morning was to contact a similar operator in America to check that the connection was still functioning and adjust the volume, static, clarity, and so on. They would talk about their girlfriends, the latest pop music, and anything else that was of interest to a young man, for an hour or two, as they needed the speech while they made any adjustments and corrections
Yep. Same in Liverpool. In the event of a nuclear attack, all call boxes are cut. This was often used as anti-goverment rhetoric by RedWedge in early 1980s to incite anger and bill posted in the boxes throughout the city.
@@st1nk1n The hot-line was not a voice connection but a number of teleprinter circuits. A voice circuit could be activated but it was routed through the then defence telecommunications network.
From across the pond The Bronx you are doing a great job you got me exploring my own community. There was an old analog telephone building down the block from me that's no longer there. Now you got me wondering if there was tunnel under it branching out. We went through our cold war Boogeyman. I have found lots of abandon fallout in The Bronx in the 70s. Most of them being filled in by now. I did witness a new telecommunication tunnel being built here in the Bronx under one of the river in the early 2000s. The entrance looks similar to what you found. You'll walk by it and never know what it is. Cheer or Yo, that bad man, as we say here in Da Bronx. Bad is good in the street here.
The television drama from the 1980s Threads, gives an idea how Guardian may have been used, in the ultimate eventuality. I'm not ashamed to say, that film scares the willies out of me!
The entrance to the shaft you was looking for in Salford, is actually in the basement of Dial house and can also gained through two manholes outside the building into the basement. I have been in it, when I Was a contractor on the building of Dial house in the seventies.It was said at the time, the exchange equipment on each floor cost more than it did to construct the entire entire building.
I worked in dial house as a contractor when they were doing the refurb just before the fire in 2004. I was talking to a couple of sparks who had been working in the tunnels and you could gain access from dial house itself
I'm just subbed for a few days, but allready watch about 20 video's. I find this better and more satisfying to watch, then Discovery channel etc. I'm learning new things, even though I don't even live there. But i love the history over there, especially the industrial history. You are doing a wonderfull job at bringing small details of history to the public, that might otherwise be gone for ever!
You were right about the other access tunnel it might not look well protected but looks are very deceiving. A few years ago I was working next to the entrance when the range rover pulled up with very serious people. Very important exchange even today.
Pure class my friend. The content is always riveting, but what really makes these videos is your personality and ability to relay sometimes complex info/data in such a user friendly way. Keep it up Mr 0
Very interesting. In the very early 80s, I started a job in the civil service in a department which looked after Government building in Manchester. At that time, BT hadn't been privatised so we also had P.O. buildings which of course included the Guardian Exchange. I never got the chance to go down there as I was office/admin based but a few of the technical guys (building surveyors and H&V engineers) often had to go down there for checking the structure and for maintenance.
Your video tells a largely true account of the Guardian complex however there is one point that needs correction. The entrance in Back Geoge St is not protected by a giant steel door behind the shutter door as suggested but by a concret plinth weighing around 450 tons . As maintenance engineers we would have to prove it could be moved over the verticle shaft and seal the tunnel to Guardian. The plinth was on a railtrack and was driven by a few elecric motors . The weight of the plinth would crush clearance shims over a period and the plinth would drag against the shafts' concrete so we had to regularly renew the shims and test for correct operation. To enable the plinth to bed over the shaft the rail would curve downwards slightly at the end of travel and provide a nearly airtight seal There is an entrance in the yard to the left hand side of the building which provides access to about three flights of stairs leading to a lift. From my recollection there were steel doors at the top and bottom of the stairs and a giant steel door sealing the main tunnel to the exchange at the bottom of the shaft. Bren
In the 1990's I worked for the BBC and they had a emergency plan which keep broadcasting for pre and post WW3 and what would have been the loss of many broadcast studio facilties in the big cities. The BBC had a small studio in each regional operation centre used by the government also had broadcast studios which would pass on local information to the public. All the broadcast facilties had generators with fuel tanks to keep them running for several weeks and all the main facilties would have been manned, so each site had beds, food store, bathroom and a kitchen. From what I can remember the plan was to split the BBC in to regions, so that local information can be provided/pass on to the public quickly and that meant the BBC would split its transmitter network so that could run this regional plan. The sound programme links between the studio's and transmitters would have used BT facilties such as Guardian and if facilties such as Guardian were off line for some reason, the BBC transmitters had the abilty to receive other transmitters in the BBC's network and re-transmit that signal onwards (Called RBS - Rebroadcast Standby in the BBC). My memory is poor here, but at certain times of the day the BBC would do a national programme which would be done from a BBC facility near Evesham which was also the location of the BBC's engineer training offices called Wood Norton Hall.
The BBC had a studio in each of the Regional Seats of Government - ex RAF nuclear bunkers that were repurposed to control/inform the population after an attack.
These Manchester UK videos are great. Watching them makes me want to visit Manchester. We have a Manchester here in New England, but it's not half as old or interesting.
Indeed. I have several high viz vests from various utility companies (all aquired legally!) and hard hats for same. Lets me take pictures of infrastructure without getting the cops called! Although I did have one lady scream at me when I was wearing an Electricity jacket that the power company were all crooks and her prepayment meter stole money from her! LOL
Great video. My Dad used to work for BT and had the keys to that car park in China Town; we used to park there because it was free! The lift that goes down is completely mechanical, I think diesel powered so it wouldn't be affected by the EMP from a nuclear weapon. As someone else has said here, my Dad said there was a secret entrance in a cleaner's cupboard in some offices somewhere.
There is a small nuclear bunker under Beaconsfield Registry office right at the back of the building, not used for yrs, I think it's used to store old docs I got a glimpse of it about 5yrs ago but it was intended for the local judge and some council officials. There must be hundreds of these bunkers dotted around the country. I was working in a bunker in Oxford back in the '90s to do with the ROC I was told it was a hub to collect blast and fallout data from remote observer stations. It was partially above ground it had been recently upgraded all-new HVAC plant, generator etc it was shut down shortly afterwards. Gone now, flats on the site for a Uni if my memory serves me right. An anecdotal story I worked with a bloke a good few yrs ago and he was on a military base lifting manhole covers looking for something and he lifted one cover to see a two-lane road with white lines down the middle he quickly put the lid back and fecked off... made me laugh because from his reaction it was something he wasn't supposed to see.
I remember my Dad talking about this as a kid. (I'm now 69) he was a brickie and worked on Dial House. I think he may have worked on the tunnels as well. Never took much notice of him at the time. But in later years I got into urban exploring, well reading about it and found it fascinating. Great video really enjoyed it, thanks for you time and effort in doing it.
4625Khz is the home of 'The Buzzer' or ZhUOZ as its also known. I love the cold war stuff. I love your video of the Manchester Exchange, it shares lieange with the Anchor Exchange in Birmingham. Your video gives a lot more interesting facts than stuff I have read on the internet :) Thanks for sharing! :) love it :)
Guardian as an exchange was still in use well into the 1980’s. post office telephones and then BT used it as a private network . As telephone operators we used it to connect to other exchange operator’s around the country.it was particularly useful when the public network was congested. You could call another operator in the place you need to call, this would bypass the public network and the remote operator would connect you to the local number. There was another exchange called Manchester pioneer which I believe was adjacent to guardian
My city of around 200,000 people in the US has a bunch of U-shaped vent pipes emerging from the ground at several public places around the city. A baseball diamond, a popular park, a shopping mall, etc. There is no underground structure known to the public but there is a small military base and a military landing strip in the city. Ever since I realized how many of those identical and inexplicable vent pipes there are, I've wondered if there is a secret military presence underground.
funny how all governments are the same. no matter what country, they all think the same. nuclear war is not like WWII. it is not like rioting or a very bad storm. it is complete devastation so, they built the telephone exchange for who? we can assume government leaders will survive in bunkers, but who would they call? what would they have to talk about? i doubt anyone in Hiroshima or Nagasaki needed to make a phone call after the bombs went off. "General, Manchester has been flattened, everyone is dead, everything is on fire, high levels of radiation, but the phones are working."
@@alanclark2416 Address please? Phone number ? Do they accept charge cards? fly By Points? Liquor license? buffet? all info greatly appreciated. Look me up at my Gettysburg address
I worked as an operator at Manchester Peterloo telephone exchange in the early 60's. My Dad worked in the tunnels beneath the exchange in the 50's and 60's
My Mother used to work down there. It wasn't until the wall of secrecy was lifted, in the 80's I think, that she spoke about it. All we knew from her was that she worked at Piccadilly. Later she said that her access point was a secret lift in the Piccadilly Plaza hotel. There is also a miniature rail system underground in Manchester to handle mail services.
Incredible ,Your video makes me wonder just how many more places like this exist throughout GB unknown to us. Another great video, Thanks Martin, really interesting stuff.
I never realised that there was such a series of tunnels under Manchester like these, Martin. You did well to find the other entrances at Salford and Ardwick, apart from the main one in the city centre. There must have been masses of hard sandstone rock excavated and then taken away to form these, and all on the quiet too. Great video, and many thanks.
Another really interesting video Martin, thanks. It incredible to find out about these things I must have walked above many times when I've worked in Manchester. I used to go out exploring Manchester and Stockport in my afternoon breaks as I worked for the Library Theatre Company in the basement of the Central Library. Back then it was before a lot of the recent redevelopment had happened. I love the way so many people share their own knowledge and stories in the comments... Brilliant!
Hi, Thank you very much really pleased you liked the video. If you look at my other vids you may find something. Plus I will be making more. Thanks again 👍🏼😃
The tunnel entrances in Salford and Ardwick were changed at some point. When I walked to see them about 25+ years back, they were both rather scruffy looking small brick buildings with louvred vents and doors. Both a similar size to the one now in Salford. You could hear the air handling plants moving air though them. Both of these were demolished and the entrances that you see more were formed. I think there are some pics of the original entrances online still. I also think this was in response to the fact that someone from Salford broke in to the Salford tunnel one night. I can't remember the time frame. My understanding is that the entrance to the tunnels from within the Back George Street building is a horizontal 16ton slab that retracts. This was to be used for the purpose of sealing the entrance against bombs. As you said it was not fit for purpose by the time construction was complete. I was also lead to believe that the main entrance to this building was from the other side. If you go to the other side, from memory, there used to be a black garage type split opening door which was bricked over some years back..
My late father was responsible for bridges and tunnels for what then was Manchester Corporation. He visited Guardian several times. Also in the late 40’s I can remember that there were normal colliery style head sticks where the brick shaft is now. The things which turn and click are Strowger selectors !
Only just come across this Martin. Fascinating would love to no the extent of highly secret subterranean activity that’s gone on over the yrs and how much is still in use or been abandoned
Great video. I did the Free Walking Tour Manchester and they explained about the tunnel. I worked with an electrical engineer who told me he went down there years ago and they came out in the lobby of an office building.
Bit late to this party, loving the videos you have produced, but the fact none of the 165 comments (so far) on this one mention your Mr Benn on the mantelpiece... WTF , judging by your musical tastes hobbies and attitudes you're a brother from another mother, keep it up pal xx
Knew about Guardian and it’s purpose, also knew there was a shaft somewhere in there a it is but didn’t know about the Salford shafts. Always laugh at all the urban myths. Heard you can’t visit due to the amount of B.T. Cabling. Great video once again Tony
Many years ago (early 1970s) when working as a PO telephone engineer, I had to go down the Salford entrance to replace a telephone that had become damaged by water ingress, located at the bottom of the shaft, which was used for 'emergencies'. Back then, the entrance was just an 'innocuous' little brick structure with a heavy steel door, (without the steel fence) built to one side of an office car park. When they built the Dial House extension, the first thing they built was a concrete shaft about 20' in diameter, (reported to be 150 feet deep!) that would connect to the underground system. There is another 'exchange' besides Guardian, not too far away from Dial House, but I'm not sure that I can tell you under where it is - I had to sign the Official Secrets Act way back in 1969. There's a lot more down there than you think !!
Great vid.. my father worked for the post office as a telephone engineer in Manchester throughout the 50s till late 80s he’s 90 years old now I will ask him about any buildings he worked at .. I do know he had his photo wiring up a building of importance as it was in the Manchester evening news 1960s he also said he was on the team that wired up the post office tower in London .. All them years wiring them up and we at home never had a telephone ! (He said it was so they couldn’t call him out at stupid hours lol ) which makes sense. Keep up the great vids
Part of the network that included the Kingsway exchange in London and the Anchor exchange in Birmingham. System now carries many of the BT main trunk lines.
What was the cover story for building those tunnels? Sewer upgrades? Subway tunnels? Makes one wonder about the sewer upgrades and crossrail in London atm. Or would they be more guarded than that?
There is very little point in trying to protect against nuclear bast now since the bombs are so accurate and powerful that everything would be vaporised - even deep down in protected bunkers. There are very few bunkers in the UK now. They could only hope to protect against a small nuclear near miss or a conventional attack.
The United States had another approach to a nuclear-resistant telephone network: the AT&T Long Lines network. It consisted of a network of towers housing huge microwave horns, forming a line-of-sight network spanning the entire country. The equipment at the base of many towers was housed in concrete bunkers that were blast resistant to a nuclear bomb as close as 5 miles. The network was not only a backup network, however, as it was used for long distance telephone calls, television broadcasts, and data transfer throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, until it was deactivated in the 90s. However, many of the towers still stand, and occasionally you can see them with the microwave horns still attached. If you ever see an odd looking tower with huge horns on it while travelling America, you have seen an AT&T Long Lines tower.
Most of the UK military lines destined for the USA headed north through the main cities to Mormond Hill in Scotland. From there they were transmitted across the Atlantic.
We were driving around and i spotted a Tower I later looked it up on Google Earth and had no idea what it was but got a bigger picture of it. A year later I looked it up again and somebody had filled in more information on it. it was kind of cool to find out that I drove by long lines Tower.
@@imark7777777 Yeah, they are pretty neat! I always would see a big odd looking tower on the way to Oklahoma City when I would travel there a couple times a year, and this year I finally decided to figure out what it was. The one that I always see is particularly interesting as it still has the microwave horns intact. It's in Gainesville, Texas, and is on Tower Hill road. (what a fitting name!) There's a pretty interesting website about the towers (long-lines.net) that I would recommend giving a visit if you're interested in the history of the system.
Fascinating history, love how you explained it and all the footage. I’ve subscribed to see more. I like some urban explorer channels but a lot of them don’t have a scooby what they are looking at and do zero research, just sensationalise everything. Cheers Andy UK
When I was a kid my dad used to talk about working at Guardian with the GPO. He also mentioned a telegraph pole he said was one of the tallest in the country, all so how it was a pain to climb.
It’s entirely possible it was one of the ones in the middle of the railway shunting yard at Red Bank, bottom of Cheetham Hill Rd. I know those were known as 60foots …. and as an apprentice in the 60’S I had to climb one. Good view though. Lol Why they were 60ft, no idea.
I did some work for BT in the Kingsway tunnels in central London about 10 years ago and what you've described is near identical to what I saw down there - loads of old analogue exchange equipment, and facilities for a lot of staff including a bar and full size snooker tables!
My dad was included in this grand plan to keep the "system" going after nuclear attack......when I asked him about his own personal response to a nuclear attack......he said " bugger being underground while my family dies.....I'd be on the roof taking it like a man"
What year did you go down there? I started there just before the fire and was there for about 2 yrs after. We was working for an asbestos removal company contracted out to Amec. All we did was environmental clean everything. It was basically just storage and cables running everywhere down there. One of my jobs was to switch the lights off down there after each shift, but they do say to do something that scares you once a day every day. That always did. Lol
7:20 - Yes this is the Dial House shaft, but it has been capped and now serves only as a ventilation duct (note louvered panels in side walls) feeding 2x 300mm metal pipes (no idea why they built the steps up to the top surface!!)
Given a thermonuclear attack on Manchester in the 50's, with the megaton bombs the Soviets had, 150 - 200 feet underground would not be enough. The crater would be deeper, the electromagnetic pulse would fry any electronics and even if not, the pressure wave of several mega pascals would have probably crushed everything. Even if the infrastructure survived, doubtful if people would. Cool video Martin!
I no someone that has been in the Salford shaft,,he said it’s amazing,,when you go in the Salford shaft you go down a little ladder in to a room then there is loads of other ladders till you come on to a old looking tunnel with street signs,,,he said it looks a bit like a Victorian street,,he said it’s about 100 ft down
Very cool Martin, this is exactly the kind of thing that I love knowing more about. I like how you use maps to show where stuff is as well. Great work man!
I worked there for 1 year of so 2004 while the uplift works were being carried out. During this time almost all of the old telephone operational stuff left from the 50s was removed. Still an old tennis court marked out though. BT arent keen for this to be public knowledge. Though this video is available still after a year later.
@@MartinZero some very intresting video uploads. Your local historical knowledge is astounding and enteraining to watch The rumours were at thr time that BT would shut down websites exposing information about the Guardian. With thier recent financial difficulties and streamling yeah and a book about it . Seems unlikely
I would love it if you came to Birmingham and did one of these about Anchor Exchange. I would give you a hand on the photos and information I have gained over the years too.
@@MartinZero it mad to see how far your channel has grown. And the way you produce your videos now is 1st class. You could have your own tv show . It’s great seeing yourself and @DaftMonkey fast growing on here 👍🏻
What can I say mate, well worth the wait! By far your best put together video yet, loved the intro. Some interesting stuff I didn't lnow too. I've got one about the backbone network involving Heaton Park that's been on my to do list for the best part of 2 years if you fancy joining me.
I would like to see a vid on Heaton park. I read a magazine years ago and it said there was some kind of hospital under the park with a tunnel leading the the Manchester town hall. There is a ventilation shaft of some sort in the park, about the size of a phone box. Might be for the metro link tunnel, would like to find out more. Love the vids👍
Many thanks, Martin (for this and for the other Urbex/Rly explorations - they've become addictive now). I did a couple of tours, incl. by Keith Warrender and I was spellbound. One tour paused at Parsonage Gardens - turns out that this could've become a 2nd Whitehall, potentially. WWII contingency plans had naturally included a scenario whereby Gerry invades and occupies southern England - hence THIS spot was 'prepared as a back-up' and would've become the alternative seat of government.
I used to go to the dentist off George St and aways wondered what that fearsome razor wire fence was all about. But being a little kid I couldn't see over it. Just a brick blockhouse to be seen.
Back in (I think) the late 80’s I worked in Manchester BT PR and organised an ‘Digital Communications’ event hosted by the then chairman of BT, Iain Vallance for a number of corporate business people. The guests arrived at the George St entrance (wondering what the hell they were coming to) then taken down in the lift for a walk through tour of the old equipment rooms before coming up into BT York Street where the main business event and presentation of the new digital exchanges took place. The concept was sort of old -> new, sort of thing. Seemed like a good idea, at the time LOL. Going back somewhat further, as a child in the 50’s I remember my father taking me to the big toy shop next to Lewis’s (can’t remember the name) and pointing out the winding gear of the ‘coal mine’ just off Piccadilly Gardens. Everyone of course thought it was a coal mine (however bizarre one in the middle of the city would have been) but of course it was the secret shaft where all the tunnelling spoil was taken out (at night) and which was deposited on the banks of a river in South Manchester to later become a golf course (IIRC).
Hi Martin you are correct on this I use to be the lift engineer which still operates one of the shafts it’s absolutely brilliant how you access the lift I couldn’t believe it at first and I remember the orange bunker door before going down steep stairs to an open steel platform with a lift straight in front down about 150 feet to the bottom 👍
we have this system in springfield illinois, there is no record of it, but i know its there because i was in it and saw the rows of computers and what they do, its operational to this day, it also has giant battery power back up system, the main entrance is a old abandoned brick building, it looks like nothing as you drive past it. and yes 150 feet deep. i took the secret elevator down, it was a very long ride,
Nice video. I did look at the other older videos from 1996 and not that much to see however the video quality is poor so I wish you would try and investigate if you can get access, talk to local technicians etc. In the other videos it looks like they gained access to the tunnel system through dial house in the basement, that is also probably the current access they use as I suspect the telephone exchange is in use even though everything is digital now. I would love to see update video with a tour of the place if that is possible. Great video.
wow amazing! i used to live next to dial house and would look at the water coming out of the pipe all the time wondering what was going on, why was so much water going to waste, now i know! And now i know what the main entrance actually is! always saw this and wondered again, what is this building!? i'm amazed.
7:23 this looks very much like a ROC bunker entrance with the raised plinth housing air vents and the outlet pipes for a manual sump pump at the bottom of the vertical ladder.
I heard the telephone exchange was separate from the bunker. Just as they finished the bunker, the Hydrogen Bomb was invented, rendering it practically useless. I'd love to see what's down there tho', legally of course.
As a former engineer I have walked every inch from Ardwick to Dial House and then on to the Crescent, it's a fantastic experience. And just to confirm the blast doors are enormous !!. Spent months working down there and enjoyed every minute and of it. In the main sections of the exchange you could drive double decker buses quite easily which shows the scale of how big they are. There are two giant generators still down there but most of the exchange equipment has well gone. The fire caused major damage and took a long time to repair, engineers were working around the clock in shifts to sort it out. it is truly a fascinating place .
Thanks Bob, id love to see it
I've been researching Guardian for a long while. If I may add a bit of a narative to what you've already said.
The Ardwick Exit (they were originally designed as emergency exits), originally was identical to Salford. However some people managed to penetrate Guardian via Ardwick, so the entrance was rebuilt to make it more secure.
The entrance from Dial house is via a shaft in the basement of Dial house. Not from that works hatch outside.
The unit on Back George Street is not the main entrance. Its the goods entrance. Where they took the telecoms equipment in and out via a massive goods elevator capped by a huge steel and concrete slab.
The main entrance (the ones the workers used), was inside the York House telephone exchange. Behind a guards desk, and a locked door, was a series of steps that took the workers down, under the road, to a closed off basement below Rutherford house, where the main elevator down into Guardian was. There was no direct access to this elevator from Rutherford House itself, designed that way to confuse people. This entrance was backfilled and sealed off when York House was sold to its current owners. It is unknown if access from within Rutherford House was opened up. I suspect so, but not with certainty.
There is a rumoured but unconfirmed entry shaft from the basement of Picadilly Plaza.
The Ardwick site is also interesting because that was once the surface works where they brought out all the rock and spoil they dug out, then backfilled the massive surface portal at that location.
The site is still in semi-active use, albeit not as a telephone exchange anymore, but as a way for BT to lay cables without digging up the city. The only known access point these days, is in the basement of Dial House. There may be others, but thats the only one I know to be still in use.
Thanks for the info
I cannot even convey how happy I am that finally I know that pipe has been flowing non stop for decades. I’ve just turned 30 and it’s always been a mystery to be, every time I walk past it I notice it. Thank you so much.
Thanks Kyle
As someone who used to work down a R3 bunker (underground RADAR bunker) I’m always fascinated by people’s preconceptions and misconceptions about them. Interesting to see a reasonably sensible description of a Cold War complex.
Thanks. Think is I can only go of what I deem to be facts
This is the kind of stuff we all should be watching now, not that tv garbage they are putting out now, people like Martin are much better to watch and listen to. Manchester is quite an interesting place
When I visit my Nan and she’s got the bbc on It makes me realise,they aren’t showing her anything!!
And what they do is waffle.
I was working there from 2004 onwards. I was there for the fire which was bad. Loved every minute working there.
It's amazing at what people walk by everyday and have no idea. Interesting video.
In the mid '70s I was going out with a girl who's mother played in a Bridge School. One of the members of the club was a chap who was a senior engineer with BT, or Post Office Telephones as I think it was called. He took me down there, from, l think, around New York Street. I can't remember much about it except how unremarkable it was. We didn't go far. The analogue 'phone system you mentioned would have been a Strauger (sp?) system. The electro-mechanical nature of that system is why the dial on your phone went back so slowly to the start after you dialled.
Terrific stuff Martin. As a Manchester kid in the 50s I often wondered what some of these strange buildings were. My dad would say 'left over from the war'.
My dad used to work on these tunnels in the eighties and come home and tell stories of an underground Manchester. Blew my mind. Now i know they exist. Ta mate!
Hi Ryan, thanks mate. Yeah blew my mind when I learned about them to 👍
I went down them a few times with my dad in the 90s and he was working weekends. Never really appreciated them at the time being under 10 but looking looking back I wish I'd took it in a bit more
The mechanicle parts in those exchanges were called "selectors".The one connected to your phone was called a "uni selector" that had some electro mechanicle arms with contacts arranged in a semi circle .When you put your finger in "4" and dialled that digit it would send 4 pulses to the selector and move it to the forth contact and so on as you dialled the number.you can imagine the racket going on in a large exchange.I used to build those exchanges in the late sixties.
They were still in use in the 80s - went into the exchange at Withdean in Brighton it was so noisy!
Well done, Martin! Very engaging and obviously well researched. I'm a splicing technician for a huge telco and I never miss an opportunity to lurk around central offices, all of which were built to withstand nuclear attack. I live and work in Pittsburgh, which was a prime target during the Cold War. 98% of the fiber trunk lines and large copper cables (most of which have paper insulation of the conductors and lead sheathing!!) are underground. No tunnels like Manchester though. Cheers + all the best from Pittsburgh USA!
Wes thanks very much for commenting. Great that you found my videos. I'd love to see those buildings you work in, blast proof doors and superstructure, fascinating stuff. Thanks again and best wishes to you in Pittsburgh 👍
was that pun intentional? lol.
When our class ended our school days in 1968, a friend got a job as an engineer for GPO Telephones, and spent some time at Guardian, and we kept in touch for a while
He said that in an emergency they could close down or isolate most domestic telephone lines, and concentrate on those for essential services
He also said that they had a small TV & Radio studio. Again in an emergency if normal broadcasting was disabled they could still broadcast basic information
He added that the tunnels were very handy for avoiding the crowds on Market Street if he wanted to nip out for shopping in his dinner time
There was also a telephone line to the USA, and for a while part of his job each morning was to contact a similar operator in America to check that the connection was still functioning and adjust the volume, static, clarity, and so on. They would talk about their girlfriends, the latest pop music, and anything else that was of interest to a young man, for an hour or two, as they needed the speech while they made any adjustments and corrections
That’s great Geoffrey never knew about the studio 👍
Yep. Same in Liverpool. In the event of a nuclear attack, all call boxes are cut. This was often used as anti-goverment rhetoric by RedWedge in early 1980s to incite anger and bill posted in the boxes throughout the city.
That supports my guess that much of the purpose (and funding) was to keep the hot line open to the USA.
@@st1nk1n The hot-line was not a voice connection but a number of teleprinter circuits. A voice circuit could be activated but it was routed through the then defence telecommunications network.
From across the pond The Bronx you are doing a great job you got me exploring my own community. There was an old analog telephone building down the block from me that's no longer there. Now you got me wondering if there was tunnel under it branching out. We went through our cold war Boogeyman. I have found lots of abandon fallout in The Bronx in the 70s. Most of them being filled in by now. I did witness a new telecommunication tunnel being built here in the Bronx under one of the river in the early 2000s. The entrance looks similar to what you found. You'll walk by it and never know what it is. Cheer or Yo, that bad man, as we say here in Da Bronx. Bad is good in the street here.
We have friends who live in Throgg's Neck. The wife is Manchester born and bred.
@@nomdeplume798 born-and-bred in Throgs Neck. Swinton Avenue
The television drama from the 1980s Threads, gives an idea how Guardian may have been used, in the ultimate eventuality. I'm not ashamed to say, that film scares the willies out of me!
Hello, Ive never seen that programme is it on TH-cam ?
I think it was at one point. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads
Threads is coming out on Blu ray on 17th December. One to watch with the family on Xmas day seeing as there’s no Doctor Who this year!
@@jordanrowland6269 Oh No Doctor !!! Ok remind me 👍
Threads is truly terrifying but a must watch
The entrance to the shaft you was looking for in Salford, is actually in the basement of Dial house and can also gained through two manholes outside the building into the basement. I have been in it, when I Was a contractor on the building of Dial house in the seventies.It was said at the time, the exchange equipment on each floor cost more than it did to construct the entire entire building.
Wow , one of the few people that have been down there
I worked in dial house as a contractor when they were doing the refurb just before the fire in 2004. I was talking to a couple of sparks who had been working in the tunnels and you could gain access from dial house itself
That’s one place I’d love to get in 😃👍
@@MartinZero The entrance was a small door at the back of the doorkeepers lodge
What caused the fire?
@@simontay4851 electrical fault. Not a surprise the cables were over 50 years old
@@hairyairey although that could also say something about the Sparky's who worked on it?
I'm just subbed for a few days, but allready watch about 20 video's. I find this better and more satisfying to watch, then Discovery channel etc. I'm learning new things, even though I don't even live there. But i love the history over there, especially the industrial history.
You are doing a wonderfull job at bringing small details of history to the public, that might otherwise be gone for ever!
You were right about the other access tunnel it might not look well protected but looks are very deceiving. A few years ago I was working next to the entrance when the range rover pulled up with very serious people. Very important exchange even today.
The whole place is fascinating
Pure class my friend. The content is always riveting, but what really makes these videos is your personality and ability to relay sometimes complex info/data in such a user friendly way. Keep it up Mr 0
Very interesting. In the very early 80s, I started a job in the civil service in a department which looked after Government building in Manchester. At that time, BT hadn't been privatised so we also had P.O. buildings which of course included the Guardian Exchange. I never got the chance to go down there as I was office/admin based but a few of the technical guys (building surveyors and H&V engineers) often had to go down there for checking the structure and for maintenance.
As a former Telecommunications and data cabler, these types of buildings and exchanges, really peak my interest big time!
Nicely done Martin.
Thanks very much
Martin you are a legend mate I am from Manchester and its good to see someone as passionate as me about it keep up the good work mate 👍
Hi Dave thanks very much. You and me both 👌
Your video tells a largely true account of the Guardian complex however there is one point that needs correction. The entrance in Back Geoge St is not protected by a giant steel door behind the shutter door as suggested but by a concret plinth weighing around 450 tons . As maintenance engineers we would have to prove it could be moved over the verticle shaft and seal the tunnel to Guardian. The plinth was on a railtrack and was driven by a few elecric motors . The weight of the plinth would crush clearance shims over a period and the plinth would drag against the shafts' concrete so we had to regularly renew the shims and test for correct operation. To enable the plinth to bed over the shaft the rail would curve downwards slightly at the end of travel and provide a nearly airtight seal
There is an entrance in the yard to the left hand side of the building which provides access to about three flights of stairs leading to a lift. From my recollection there were steel doors at the top and bottom of the stairs and a giant steel door sealing the main tunnel to the exchange at the bottom of the shaft.
Bren
In the 1990's I worked for the BBC and they had a emergency plan which keep broadcasting for pre and post WW3 and what would have been the loss of many broadcast studio facilties in the big cities. The BBC had a small studio in each regional operation centre used by the government also had broadcast studios which would pass on local information to the public.
All the broadcast facilties had generators with fuel tanks to keep them running for several weeks and all the main facilties would have been manned, so each site had beds, food store, bathroom and a kitchen. From what I can remember the plan was to split the BBC in to regions, so that local information can be provided/pass on to the public quickly and that meant the BBC would split its transmitter network so that could run this regional plan.
The sound programme links between the studio's and transmitters would have used BT facilties such as Guardian and if facilties such as Guardian were off line for some reason, the BBC transmitters had the abilty to receive other transmitters in the BBC's network and re-transmit that signal onwards (Called RBS - Rebroadcast Standby in the BBC).
My memory is poor here, but at certain times of the day the BBC would do a national programme which would be done from a BBC facility near Evesham which was also the location of the BBC's engineer training offices called Wood Norton Hall.
Interesting stuff John. All this stuff is very fascinating. I will pass this on to my friend Lewis he will love this
@@MartinZero Wood Norton Hall has it's own protected bunker too
And absolutely no plan for an EM pulse that takes out all telecommunications!
The BBC had a studio in each of the Regional Seats of Government - ex RAF nuclear bunkers that were repurposed to control/inform the population after an attack.
@@st1nk1n yeah the one in drakelow was amazing when it first closed but quickly rotted away
These Manchester UK videos are great. Watching them makes me want to visit Manchester. We have a Manchester here in New England, but it's not half as old or interesting.
the most informative video on the tunnels ive found! great video
Thanks Thomas
Should have chucked a high vis on and climbed down one of the shafts. No one questions a vest
Yeah if you look the part and are confident you can walk past anyone.
@@coyote5735 My late father taught me that decades ago. It got me a long way. No, nothing illegal!
Indeed. I have several high viz vests from various utility companies (all aquired legally!) and hard hats for same. Lets me take pictures of infrastructure without getting the cops called!
Although I did have one lady scream at me when I was wearing an Electricity jacket that the power company were all crooks and her prepayment meter stole money from her! LOL
Great video. My Dad used to work for BT and had the keys to that car park in China Town; we used to park there because it was free! The lift that goes down is completely mechanical, I think diesel powered so it wouldn't be affected by the EMP from a nuclear weapon. As someone else has said here, my Dad said there was a secret entrance in a cleaner's cupboard in some offices somewhere.
Brilliant Andrew. What a parking place !!!
Got to make it look like it's active so nobody bulldoze is it
Fascinating video! Some of those tunnels remind me of the passenger tunnel between platforms on the London Underground.
Yeah very similar
There is a small nuclear bunker under Beaconsfield Registry office right at the back of the building, not used for yrs, I think it's used to store old docs I got a glimpse of it about 5yrs ago but it was intended for the local judge and some council officials. There must be hundreds of these bunkers dotted around the country. I was working in a bunker in Oxford back in the '90s to do with the ROC I was told it was a hub to collect blast and fallout data from remote observer stations. It was partially above ground it had been recently upgraded all-new HVAC plant, generator etc it was shut down shortly afterwards. Gone now, flats on the site for a Uni if my memory serves me right.
An anecdotal story I worked with a bloke a good few yrs ago and he was on a military base lifting manhole covers looking for something and he lifted one cover to see a two-lane road with white lines down the middle he quickly put the lid back and fecked off... made me laugh because from his reaction it was something he wasn't supposed to see.
Man I love your content, bloody fascinating and very detailed!
that was awesome and very interesting. the sticker at the endish proving you right also. very cool
I remember my Dad talking about this as a kid. (I'm now 69) he was a brickie and worked on Dial House. I think he may have worked on the tunnels as well. Never took much notice of him at the time. But in later years I got into urban exploring, well reading about it and found it fascinating. Great video really enjoyed it, thanks for you time and effort in doing it.
4625Khz is the home of 'The Buzzer' or ZhUOZ as its also known. I love the cold war stuff. I love your video of the Manchester Exchange, it shares lieange with the Anchor Exchange in Birmingham. Your video gives a lot more interesting facts than stuff I have read on the internet :) Thanks for sharing! :) love it :)
Guardian as an exchange was still in use well into the 1980’s. post office telephones and then BT used it as a private network . As telephone operators we used it to connect to other exchange operator’s around the country.it was particularly useful when the public network was congested. You could call another operator in the place you need to call, this would bypass the public network and the remote operator would connect you to the local number. There was another exchange called Manchester pioneer which I believe was adjacent to guardian
My city of around 200,000 people in the US has a bunch of U-shaped vent pipes emerging from the ground at several public places around the city. A baseball diamond, a popular park, a shopping mall, etc. There is no underground structure known to the public but there is a small military base and a military landing strip in the city. Ever since I realized how many of those identical and inexplicable vent pipes there are, I've wondered if there is a secret military presence underground.
funny how all governments are the same. no matter what country, they all think the same.
nuclear war is not like WWII. it is not like rioting or a very bad storm. it is complete devastation
so, they built the telephone exchange for who?
we can assume government leaders will survive in bunkers, but who would they call? what would they have to talk about?
i doubt anyone in Hiroshima or Nagasaki needed to make a phone call after the bombs went off.
"General, Manchester has been flattened, everyone is dead, everything is on fire, high levels of radiation, but the phones are working."
You make a very good point MrYfrank14 👌
absolute quality, I like your outlook and sense of humour
@@ravingking Thank you 😀
nuclear energy.. and bombs are fkn fear porn.. all the elites are in the same satanic club.
@@alanclark2416 Address please? Phone number ? Do they accept charge cards? fly By Points? Liquor license? buffet? all info greatly appreciated. Look me up at my Gettysburg address
I worked as an operator at Manchester Peterloo telephone exchange in the early 60's. My Dad worked in the tunnels beneath the exchange in the 50's and 60's
My Mother used to work down there. It wasn't until the wall of secrecy was lifted, in the 80's I think, that she spoke about it. All we knew from her was that she worked at Piccadilly. Later she said that her access point was a secret lift in the Piccadilly Plaza hotel. There is also a miniature rail system underground in Manchester to handle mail services.
What a load of bullshit...get outta here.
Unfortunately stripped except 2 generators which remain
Brilliant Martin, for me an education and enjoyable to watch.
Incredible ,Your video makes me wonder just how many more places like this exist throughout GB unknown to us. Another great video, Thanks Martin, really interesting stuff.
Thanks Keith
I never realised that there was such a series of tunnels under Manchester like these, Martin. You did well to find the other entrances at Salford and Ardwick, apart from the main one in the city centre. There must have been masses of hard sandstone rock excavated and then taken away to form these, and all on the quiet too. Great video, and many thanks.
Another really interesting video Martin, thanks. It incredible to find out about these things I must have walked above many times when I've worked in Manchester. I used to go out exploring Manchester and Stockport in my afternoon breaks as I worked for the Library Theatre Company in the basement of the Central Library. Back then it was before a lot of the recent redevelopment had happened.
I love the way so many people share their own knowledge and stories in the comments... Brilliant!
Fantastic video! I'd love to see more like this about secrets of Manchester hidden in plain view
Hi, Thank you very much really pleased you liked the video. If you look at my other vids you may find something. Plus I will be making more. Thanks again 👍🏼😃
Another brilliant video Martin. I feel a visit to Manchester coming on
The tunnel entrances in Salford and Ardwick were changed at some point. When I walked to see them about 25+ years back, they were both rather scruffy looking small brick buildings with louvred vents and doors. Both a similar size to the one now in Salford. You could hear the air handling plants moving air though them. Both of these were demolished and the entrances that you see more were formed. I think there are some pics of the original entrances online still. I also think this was in response to the fact that someone from Salford broke in to the Salford tunnel one night. I can't remember the time frame.
My understanding is that the entrance to the tunnels from within the Back George Street building is a horizontal 16ton slab that retracts. This was to be used for the purpose of sealing the entrance against bombs. As you said it was not fit for purpose by the time construction was complete. I was also lead to believe that the main entrance to this building was from the other side. If you go to the other side, from memory, there used to be a black garage type split opening door which was bricked over some years back..
I would love to go in there
My late father was responsible for bridges and tunnels for what then was Manchester Corporation. He visited Guardian several times. Also in the late 40’s I can remember that there were normal colliery style head sticks where the brick shaft is now. The things which turn and click are Strowger selectors !
Excellent video - one of the best I have seen on the topic. Well done, a solid report
Thanks Richard
Only just come across this Martin. Fascinating would love to no the extent of highly secret subterranean activity that’s gone on over the yrs and how much is still in use or been abandoned
Another amazing video Martin. Loved the music too!
Fascinating. The world beneath our feet. Another Brill video
Great video. I did the Free Walking Tour Manchester and they explained about the tunnel. I worked with an electrical engineer who told me he went down there years ago and they came out in the lobby of an office building.
Fascinating! Thank you Martin 👍🏻
Bit late to this party, loving the videos you have produced, but the fact none of the 165 comments (so far) on this one mention your Mr Benn on the mantelpiece... WTF , judging by your musical tastes hobbies and attitudes you're a brother from another mother, keep it up pal xx
Alan what can I say. You appreciate Mr Ben !!! Amazing. Never too late to join the party you are most welcome and thanks very much 😃👌
Knew about Guardian and it’s purpose, also knew there was a shaft somewhere in there a it is but didn’t know about the Salford shafts. Always laugh at all the urban myths. Heard you can’t visit due to the amount of B.T. Cabling.
Great video once again Tony
Many years ago (early 1970s) when working as a PO telephone engineer, I had to go down the Salford entrance to replace a telephone that had become damaged by water ingress, located at the bottom of the shaft, which was used for 'emergencies'. Back then, the entrance was just an 'innocuous' little brick structure with a heavy steel door, (without the steel fence) built to one side of an office car park.
When they built the Dial House extension, the first thing they built was a concrete shaft about 20' in diameter, (reported to be 150 feet deep!) that would connect to the underground system. There is another 'exchange' besides Guardian, not too far away from Dial House, but I'm not sure that I can tell you under where it is - I had to sign the Official Secrets Act way back in 1969. There's a lot more down there than you think !!
Martin, another fascinating insight into Manchester. Catching up on back catalogue on a damp day in Weardale
Cheers Tim
The artesian well was for drinking water and was capped off years ago. The only thing pumped into the sewers when Guardian was operational was sewage.
Great video Martin. It's amazing what's right underneath us all these years which we don't know about.
Great vid.. my father worked for the post office as a telephone engineer in Manchester throughout the 50s till late 80s he’s 90 years old now I will ask him about any buildings he worked at ..
I do know he had his photo wiring up a building of importance as it was in the Manchester evening news 1960s he also said he was on the team that wired up the post office tower in London ..
All them years wiring them up and we at home never had a telephone !
(He said it was so they couldn’t call him out at stupid hours lol ) which makes sense. Keep up the great vids
Part of the network that included the Kingsway exchange in London and the Anchor exchange in Birmingham. System now carries many of the BT main trunk lines.
Yes correct. I'd like to look at the above ground evidence for those two as well 👍
What was the cover story for building those tunnels? Sewer upgrades? Subway tunnels? Makes one wonder about the sewer upgrades and crossrail in London atm. Or would they be more guarded than that?
There is very little point in trying to protect against nuclear bast now since the bombs are so accurate and powerful that everything would be vaporised - even deep down in protected bunkers. There are very few bunkers in the UK now. They could only hope to protect against a small nuclear near miss or a conventional attack.
One of the best Videos about Guardian
The United States had another approach to a nuclear-resistant telephone network: the AT&T Long Lines network. It consisted of a network of towers housing huge microwave horns, forming a line-of-sight network spanning the entire country. The equipment at the base of many towers was housed in concrete bunkers that were blast resistant to a nuclear bomb as close as 5 miles. The network was not only a backup network, however, as it was used for long distance telephone calls, television broadcasts, and data transfer throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, until it was deactivated in the 90s. However, many of the towers still stand, and occasionally you can see them with the microwave horns still attached. If you ever see an odd looking tower with huge horns on it while travelling America, you have seen an AT&T Long Lines tower.
Most of the UK military lines destined for the USA headed north through the main cities to Mormond Hill in Scotland. From there they were transmitted across the Atlantic.
We were driving around and i spotted a Tower I later looked it up on Google Earth and had no idea what it was but got a bigger picture of it. A year later I looked it up again and somebody had filled in more information on it. it was kind of cool to find out that I drove by long lines Tower.
@@imark7777777 Yeah, they are pretty neat! I always would see a big odd looking tower on the way to Oklahoma City when I would travel there a couple times a year, and this year I finally decided to figure out what it was. The one that I always see is particularly interesting as it still has the microwave horns intact. It's in Gainesville, Texas, and is on Tower Hill road. (what a fitting name!) There's a pretty interesting website about the towers (long-lines.net) that I would recommend giving a visit if you're interested in the history of the system.
What a great story so well put together brilliant.
Fascinating history, love how you explained it and all the footage. I’ve subscribed to see more. I like some urban explorer channels but a lot of them don’t have a scooby what they are looking at and do zero research, just sensationalise everything. Cheers Andy UK
Thank you Andy
Great video, Martin, very interesting
There's a talking version of the guardian exchange tunnel on hogshawrabbit channel on TH-cam a 50min and shorter 10min version from 1994
The Anchor Exchange in Birmingham would be another good place for you to go to!
When I was a kid my dad used to talk about working at Guardian with the GPO. He also mentioned a telegraph pole he said was one of the tallest in the country, all so how it was a pain to climb.
Why was it so tall? Usually they're a standard height, tall enough for the highest trucks to fit under.
It’s entirely possible it was one of the ones in the middle of the railway shunting yard at Red Bank, bottom of Cheetham Hill Rd. I know those were known as 60foots …. and as an apprentice in the 60’S I had to climb one. Good view though. Lol Why they were 60ft, no idea.
There is a telephone exchange building at the Ardwick End, or so I believe. Remember it from the 70's and it's still there.
I did some work for BT in the Kingsway tunnels in central London about 10 years ago and what you've described is near identical to what I saw down there - loads of old analogue exchange equipment, and facilities for a lot of staff including a bar and full size snooker tables!
I worked in the London, Manchester and Dover tunnel systems for about 5 years. Amazing place to take a wander.
My dad was included in this grand plan to keep the "system" going after nuclear attack......when I asked him about his own personal response to a nuclear attack......he said " bugger being underground while my family dies.....I'd be on the roof taking it like a man"
Never saw a bar or pool tables but did find plenty of mice and rats.
I only went down the tunnel once but there was certainly a bar and pool table at the time
What year did you go down there? I started there just before the fire and was there for about 2 yrs after. We was working for an asbestos removal company contracted out to Amec. All we did was environmental clean everything. It was basically just storage and cables running everywhere down there. One of my jobs was to switch the lights off down there after each shift, but they do say to do something that scares you once a day every day. That always did. Lol
7:20 - Yes this is the Dial House shaft, but it has been capped and now serves only as a ventilation duct (note louvered panels in side walls) feeding 2x 300mm metal pipes (no idea why they built the steps up to the top surface!!)
Doesn't the the top have a manhole cover for emergency/ maintenance access?
Given a thermonuclear attack on Manchester in the 50's, with the megaton bombs the Soviets had, 150 - 200 feet underground would not be enough. The crater would be deeper, the electromagnetic pulse would fry any electronics and even if not, the pressure wave of several mega pascals would have probably crushed everything. Even if the infrastructure survived, doubtful if people would. Cool video Martin!
Thanks very much
Again a cool video also the music in it is very kraftwerk sounds so vintage synth
I no someone that has been in the Salford shaft,,he said it’s amazing,,when you go in the Salford shaft you go down a little ladder in to a room then there is loads of other ladders till you come on to a old looking tunnel with street signs,,,he said it looks a bit like a Victorian street,,he said it’s about 100 ft down
Hi, yeah apparently it is very deep. I would love to go down there 👌
Martin Zero me to
Very cool Martin, this is exactly the kind of thing that I love knowing more about. I like how you use maps to show where stuff is as well. Great work man!
Thanks James
@6:29 I used to walk past this ever day going into Salford Uni down Chapel Street and had no idea that was an entrance into the tunnels.
I'm loving the t-shirt Martin .... 😎 Good to see another fan
Absolutely great information brilliant video Martin. Thanks john Rooney
Thanks John glad you liked
Another good one martin i have heard the buzzer transmision on my prc 320 clansman hf radio
Fascinating isnt it
Brilliant little documentary and very informative - nice one Martin!
I worked there for 1 year of so 2004 while the uplift works were being carried out. During this time almost all of the old telephone operational stuff left from the 50s was removed. Still an old tennis court marked out though.
BT arent keen for this to be public knowledge. Though this video is available still after a year later.
Thanks for the info. There is a chapter in a book about it by Keith Warrender so I dont get the secrecy still surrounding it. Everyone knows about it
@@MartinZero some very intresting video uploads. Your local historical knowledge is astounding and enteraining to watch
The rumours were at thr time that BT would shut down websites exposing information about the Guardian.
With thier recent financial difficulties and streamling yeah and a book about it . Seems unlikely
I would love it if you came to Birmingham and did one of these about Anchor Exchange. I would give you a hand on the photos and information I have gained over the years too.
Wow what a blast from the past . It would be great to get down there and have a mooch about
We would love to
@@MartinZero it mad to see how far your channel has grown. And the way you produce your videos now is 1st class. You could have your own tv show . It’s great seeing yourself and @DaftMonkey fast growing on here 👍🏻
Great video Martin, thank you 👍
Thanks very much David 👌
What can I say mate, well worth the wait! By far your best put together video yet, loved the intro. Some interesting stuff I didn't lnow too. I've got one about the backbone network involving Heaton Park that's been on my to do list for the best part of 2 years if you fancy joining me.
Hey !! Thank you. Glad you liked the intro too. Yeah I should of mentioned more about the network. Lets do it 👍
I would like to see a vid on Heaton park. I read a magazine years ago and it said there was some kind of hospital under the park with a tunnel leading the the Manchester town hall. There is a ventilation shaft of some sort in the park, about the size of a phone box. Might be for the metro link tunnel, would like to find out more. Love the vids👍
Thanks Ned. Ive never heard of that, sounds quite amazing. Ive spent a lot of time in Heaton Park. The former frontage of the old Town Hall is there.
Many thanks, Martin (for this and for the other Urbex/Rly explorations - they've become addictive now). I did a couple of tours, incl. by Keith Warrender and I was spellbound. One tour paused at Parsonage Gardens - turns out that this could've become a 2nd Whitehall, potentially. WWII contingency plans had naturally included a scenario whereby Gerry invades and occupies southern England - hence THIS spot was 'prepared as a back-up' and would've become the alternative seat of government.
You've outdone yourself here mate. Editing is utterly magnificient. heck i hate history and i STILL watched this
Ha, Hello my friend, thank you for your compliment. Its history but its that sort of x files stuff we all like lol Did you like my eye shots ?
Good stuff Martin. 👏
I used to go to the dentist off George St and aways wondered what that fearsome razor wire fence was all about. But being a little kid I couldn't see over it. Just a brick blockhouse to be seen.
Its a very strange building
Back in (I think) the late 80’s I worked in Manchester BT PR and organised an ‘Digital Communications’ event hosted by the then chairman of BT, Iain Vallance for a number of corporate business people. The guests arrived at the George St entrance (wondering what the hell they were coming to) then taken down in the lift for a walk through tour of the old equipment rooms before coming up into BT York Street where the main business event and presentation of the new digital exchanges took place. The concept was sort of old -> new, sort of thing. Seemed like a good idea, at the time LOL.
Going back somewhat further, as a child in the 50’s I remember my father taking me to the big toy shop next to Lewis’s (can’t remember the name) and pointing out the winding gear of the ‘coal mine’ just off Piccadilly Gardens. Everyone of course thought it was a coal mine (however bizarre one in the middle of the city would have been) but of course it was the secret shaft where all the tunnelling spoil was taken out (at night) and which was deposited on the banks of a river in South Manchester to later become a golf course (IIRC).
Hi Martin you are correct on this I use to be the lift engineer which still operates one of the shafts it’s absolutely brilliant how you access the lift I couldn’t believe it at first and I remember the orange bunker door before going down steep stairs to an open steel platform with a lift straight in front down about 150 feet to the bottom 👍
we have this system in springfield illinois, there is no record of it, but i know its there because i was in it and saw the rows of computers and what they do, its operational to this day, it also has giant battery power back up system, the main entrance is a old abandoned brick building, it looks like nothing as you drive past it. and yes 150 feet deep. i took the secret elevator down, it was a very long ride,
Wow sounds great !!!
Nice video. I did look at the other older videos from 1996 and not that much to see however the video quality is poor so I wish you would try and investigate if you can get access, talk to local technicians etc. In the other videos it looks like they gained access to the tunnel system through dial house in the basement, that is also probably the current access they use as I suspect the telephone exchange is in use even though everything is digital now. I would love to see update video with a tour of the place if that is possible. Great video.
I do keep asking around Dennis but it’s a difficult place to get access to
@@MartinZero Oh, well at least you keep trying that is what counts. Someday you will gain access :)
wow amazing! i used to live next to dial house and would look at the water coming out of the pipe all the time wondering what was going on, why was so much water going to waste, now i know! And now i know what the main entrance actually is! always saw this and wondered again, what is this building!? i'm amazed.
7:23 this looks very much like a ROC bunker entrance with the raised plinth housing air vents and the outlet pipes for a manual sump pump at the bottom of the vertical ladder.
I heard the telephone exchange was separate from the bunker. Just as they finished the bunker, the Hydrogen Bomb was invented, rendering it practically useless. I'd love to see what's down there tho', legally of course.