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London Underground Subterraneans


Loonboy

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Um... there already is a tunnel under the Thames...

There are loads of tunnels running uner the thames - how do you think the London Underground works????

Though London, like any city at least in this country, has a network of tunnels and catacombs underneath it, they're not unknown or isolated enough to support a race without detection.

No it doesn't. It has disused tube stations, war time shelters (like the one in Stockwell built in the 1940s) and many underground rivers that are now sewers, but it certainly does not have any underground network or catacombs (at least not to the extent of Paris's - there are small underground areas in places like Camden built in the 18th C for ponies and horses used on the railways).

It seems odd you've never heard the stories as a Londoner. Perhaps Londoners, knowing better, dismiss them instead of passing them on.

That doesn't make any sense. So because I live here, the opinions of a stranger who's never been here are more trustworthy? What circular faulty logic.

A race of hairy, sub-human creatures living underneath London?

Try looking above ground.

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Nope, never heard this either.

We have a pretty good idea how London was built up, from a settlement, through Roman occupation, and occupation by Germanic tribes.

I work for an architectural planning office in London, and am surrounded by old maps, history books and plans. And I've never, not once, ever, heard of underground tunnels.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2940958.stm

Get some new maps Emma. :devil::devil:

Dan Dare

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2940958.stm

Get some new maps Emma. :devil::devil:

Dan Dare

We had the Mail Rail as one of our projects!!

When I said "underground tunnels" I obviously meant what the OP meant - miles and miles of ancient tunnels with hairy humanoids living in them.

Of course there are transport tunnels, I get the tube every day!

:rolleyes:

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No it doesn't. It has disused tube stations, war time shelters (like the one in Stockwell built in the 1940s) and many underground rivers that are now sewers, but it certainly does not have any underground network or catacombs (at least not to the extent of Paris's - there are small underground areas in places like Camden built in the 18th C for ponies and horses used on the railways).

And West Norwood Cemetery, if I remember correctly. I think you misunderstood me... I wasn't claiming London had a vast secret network of underground places, but that it does have, like most UK cities, an array of underground facilities of various origin.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Abandoned man-made anything tends to freak me out, subway stations would be terrible seeing as they're underground. I have a few beefs with the story though.

1. Creatures that have adapted for underground life tends to be hairless or nearly so. It just wouldn't make sense for them to grow more hair.

2. Vitamin D deficiencies would weaken and kill the population quickly unless they found some way to get milk. I really don't see how the population could have sustained itself off of what lives/grows down there. Even a cultivated moss or lichen wouldn't hold all the nutrition needed.

And no, it's not plausible that they only come out at night and rob marketplaces. :P

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I hear the words "London Underground" and immediately think of The Clash. I'm a child of the 80's, sue me.

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People do live underground in the cities of the world....there called bums. The ones in NY where I grew up come up for food, liquor, etc. They don't hunch over they just smell bad and stumble a lot.

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how do we test the belief that their r underground subterraneans?

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  • 4 years later...

Three pages and no one mentioned "C.H.U.D." outright yet ? *Tsk* (besides otterclaw's link)

That said, the "London's Lost Cities" episode of "Cities of the Underworld" from the History channel may be relevant to the discussion.

A city as old and large as London is, I'd be surprised if there weren't a few things that aren't on the plans anymore. An new evolutionary sub-type developing there though, not so likely. The whole thing sounds too Lamarckian for one.

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People living in The Underground is stupid.

Aprt from when they did it during the Blitz, of course.

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A colony of people living underground? Nah. There would be little sunlight, which is not healthy. Not to mention how would they get sufficient water and food to survive and breed? Growing things can't be done because crops need sunlight and water. Animals would be hard to raise as they need food, water, and general care in order to survive. For one person it's hard enough. Add fifty people to that equation and you got a problem. And (I'm a little ignorant on the subject so I could be wrong) how do people living in these conditions evolve into another sub-species of humans? In this amount of time?

I can see a couple of homeless people maybe living in it for a period of time, though.

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A forumite wrote a book called "Eerie Britain" that touches upon this.

It's a good solid work, little speculation as to "what" and more the facts/legends leaving you to make your own decision.

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Haha, I absolutely love this topic. It's all nonsense, of course, but it's the kind of nonsense you can really learn to love. Like the alligators in the sewers of New York, wonderful local folklore. A good starting point for this (if you haven't read Nick Redfern's book Keep Out!) is an old Fortean Times article I spent a great deal of time trying to dig up a while ago. It's totally gone from their current site, but I managed to dig up a copy of it via the Wayback Machine.

Now, here's the more macabre part, that might have inspired Death Line. In an interview with the aforementioned author of Keep Out, a former London police officer by the name of Frank Wiley claims to have investigated a series of bizarre murders in the Underground. Now, of course, I've been able to find approximately no evidence to corroborate his story, but hey, it's an urban legend of the purest sort. Wiley said that between 1967 and 1969, seven bodies were found horribly mutilated deep within the tunnels. Now, that of course says one thing: suicide. But no, these bodies were mauled in more ways than a subway train could account for. Throats were torn open, guts ripped out, and limbs removed (possibly gnawed off). Even better, in 1968 a pair of workmen in a section of tunnel on the Bakerloo Line supposedly saw a wild-eyed, hairy man in the tunnels, wearing filthy rags. One of the workers stepped up and challenged the creature with a large wrench, at which point it fled. The two men, of course, took off in the opposite direction. To put an even stranger twist on things, the orders to cover up the investigation supposedly came down directly from the Home Office.

As for ancient tunnels? Well, London is honeycombed with ruins, that much is true. During the construction of the Underground, several mass graves full of plague victims were accidentally discovered. Several Roman ruins have also been found, albeit no tunnels. London was of course sacked several times, both by Boudica's Iceni and the Saxons, not to mention plagues, fires and other assorted disasters. So any tunnels that might have existed are probably long gone, unfortunately. And even if a group of ancient people fled underground at some point, the Romans, Saxons and Iceni were relatively sophisticated civilizations, unlikely to either stay underground for long, or devolve into cannibals.

Edited by Ravinoff
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As for ancient tunnels? Well, London is honeycombed with ruins, that much is true. During the construction of the Underground, several mass graves full of plague victims were accidentally discovered. Several Roman ruins have also been found, albeit no tunnels. London was of course sacked several times, both by Boudica's Iceni and the Saxons, not to mention plagues, fires and other assorted disasters. So any tunnels that might have existed are probably long gone, unfortunately. And even if a group of ancient people fled underground at some point, the Romans, Saxons and Iceni were relatively sophisticated civilizations, unlikely to either stay underground for long, or devolve into cannibals.

I don't think the Anglo-Saxons ever sacked London.

Boudicca - the Queen of the Iceni tribe which lived in what is now Norfolk - sacked the Roman city of Londinium in the year 60 (Londinium was founded by the Romans just 17 years previously) - but, then, the Romans did murder her husband Prasutagus and rape her two daughters Heanua and Lannosea, so you can't blame the tall red-head for being a little bit angry. Londinium was abandoned to Boudicca's army, who completely burnt and demolished the city to the ground. The few Londoners who did not flee the city were slaughtered. Bouddica's army impaled Roman women on spikes, cut off their breasts and sewed them into their mouths to, accoring to Tacitus, "the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste.

Even to this day, just a few feet below the surface in the area of London where Londinium was (it occupied an area only the size of Hyde Park and was situated in what is now central London from where the Tower of London is now in Tower Hamlets a mile west to Ludgate in the City of London, where St Paul's Cathedral is) there is a thick layer of red ash -the evidence of the burning - and debris such as coins and pottery.

Edited by TheLastLazyGun
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Aprt from when they did it during the Blitz, of course.

Well, no - they slept underground, in the tube stations - different thing to living underground.

Interesting(ish) fact - Jerry Springer was born on the platform of Highgate tube station during the blitz.

I don't think the Anglo-Saxons ever sacked London.

No - think they arrived after London had been abandoned by the Romans.

I can see a couple of homeless people maybe living in it for a period of time, though.

Not in London as there simply isn't the room (unless you go to the Thames-side sewer outlets, but they flood periodically). Its happened in New York tho - check out the documentary Dark Days.

Edited by Emma_Acid
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Interesting(ish) fact - Jerry Springer was born on the platform of Highgate tube station during the blitz

Yeah. Jerry Springer is English-born.

His parents were German Jews who escaped from Germany (although the area is now in Poland) to Britain to escape the Nazis. He grew up at Chandos Road in East Finchley but emigrated to New York in 1949 with his parents when he was five. His maternal grandmother Marie Kallmann, who was left behind, died in the gas trucks of Chelmno extermination camp. His paternal grandmother, Selma Springer, died at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Edited by TheLastLazyGun
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  • 9 months later...

I don`t really see this as being possible...certainly not for long periods of time...the water table beneath London has never been very far beneath out feet and pumps are in use virtually the whole time to rid many tunnels etc of this...in recent years the water table has risen too...London`s Underground system is regularly flooded too...but maybe the "subterraneans" have evolved to have gills...who knows,eh ?

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I don`t really see this as being possible...certainly not for long periods of time...the water table beneath London has never been very far beneath out feet and pumps are in use virtually the whole time to rid many tunnels etc of this...in recent years the water table has risen too...London`s Underground system is regularly flooded too...but maybe the "subterraneans" have evolved to have gills...who knows,eh ?

Even better! Giant mutated otters! Or... could it be... hyrax? :P

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Well, no - they slept underground, in the tube stations - different thing to living underground.

Interesting(ish) fact - Jerry Springer was born on the platform of Highgate tube station during the blitz.

No - think they arrived after London had been abandoned by the Romans.

Not in London as there simply isn't the room (unless you go to the Thames-side sewer outlets, but they flood periodically). Its happened in New York tho - check out the documentary Dark Days.

Surely you could go into the tunnels where the tubes run, there's ample room down there between the tracks.

Also this

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