Reckoning that I needed a taste of all this sewer exploration stuff (it’s kind of hard to get the taste out of your mouth though – maybe I’ll try only half a pint next time) I decided to visit this little beauty
The Ouseburn valley was improved by those great visionaries of Newcastle Council who decided to get rid of an unproductive valley with grass, trees and cows, fill it in with toxic waste, and in the goodness of time build the City Stadium on top. Down under, the Ouseburn runs for 650m in a very large elliptical culvert, 9m wide by 6m high. Actually it runs well below the floor of it in normal conditions. Building work started in 1907 and was completed in 1911 at a cost of £23,000.
It was used as air raid shelter in WW2 and was probably the one shelter in the country where noone bothered about the smell from the Elsans. It could seat up to 3000 people and had its own sick bay, would have had great acoustics too. A bit more social and dry (so long as you don’t fall through the holes in the floor) than the leaky Victoria Tunnel less than a mile away.
The Ouseburn valley was improved by those great visionaries of Newcastle Council who decided to get rid of an unproductive valley with grass, trees and cows, fill it in with toxic waste, and in the goodness of time build the City Stadium on top. Down under, the Ouseburn runs for 650m in a very large elliptical culvert, 9m wide by 6m high. Actually it runs well below the floor of it in normal conditions. Building work started in 1907 and was completed in 1911 at a cost of £23,000.
It was used as air raid shelter in WW2 and was probably the one shelter in the country where noone bothered about the smell from the Elsans. It could seat up to 3000 people and had its own sick bay, would have had great acoustics too. A bit more social and dry (so long as you don’t fall through the holes in the floor) than the leaky Victoria Tunnel less than a mile away.
