Tunnels at the Old Manor Hospital

At community talks and workshops we often get asked about the tunnels that ran under the Old Manor Hospital – they have become stuff of local legend and quest for urban explorers. We’ve heard many stories about their purpose, that include: they run from the train station so patients could keep privacy whilst being transferred to the psychiatric unit; to keeping male and female patients apart going to the chapel. But this still remains unclear. What we do know is that the tunnels in the photographs we have in our archives show a maze of hot water and heating pipes that run between the two areas of the hospital site under the road.

These black and white photographs were digitally scanned from slide images; you can see the approach down a slope through the glazed walkway structure into the tunnels. The walls finished with white ceramic tiles laid in a brick bond pattern. They likely date from the early 1990s when the site was being closed down, boarded up and prepared to be sold off.

Find out more on our Old Manor Hospital page, including other images of the hospital, a video and leaflets. Read about an article written by William Gilbert in 1864 when the site was known as Fisherton Asylum.