Where better to go during the hottest period of the year than a nice cool underground tunnel filled with water and spiders.
The history around it's use as a secure records store is pretty hard to find, as presumably the council wanted to keep it's purpose and contents on the quiet as the records and documents and stuff stored inside was sensitive and valuable. Originally though the tunnel was constructed as part of a short-lived branch of the Clifton Extension Railway, now known as the Severn Beach Line, which terminated at the old Hotwells Station. The branch was closed and dismantled in 1922 to make way for the A4/Portway Road, which left two tunnels on the old branch line disused. The longer of the two, at 160 metres in length, was repurposed as an air raid shelter and later in the 1970s/80s Bristol Gun Club turned it into a shooting range. The shorter tunnel, at 65 metres, became the secure records store in around 1940. In the 1980s the council moved to a new building and it's around this time the records store became redundant - it's contents were transferred to the new location and it was closed.
The rooms themselves are split into two levels, most of them are empty save for either metal or very rotten wooden racking, however the upper levels at the very end contain a number of beautiful rusty trunks which stored deeds and other important documents for the most important and influential people in the city. Some names were recognisable - Fry (chocolates) and Wills (tobacco) - and some boxes dated way back into the mid 1800s.
Overall a very enjoyable, nicely cooled place to see.
Thanks for looking
The history around it's use as a secure records store is pretty hard to find, as presumably the council wanted to keep it's purpose and contents on the quiet as the records and documents and stuff stored inside was sensitive and valuable. Originally though the tunnel was constructed as part of a short-lived branch of the Clifton Extension Railway, now known as the Severn Beach Line, which terminated at the old Hotwells Station. The branch was closed and dismantled in 1922 to make way for the A4/Portway Road, which left two tunnels on the old branch line disused. The longer of the two, at 160 metres in length, was repurposed as an air raid shelter and later in the 1970s/80s Bristol Gun Club turned it into a shooting range. The shorter tunnel, at 65 metres, became the secure records store in around 1940. In the 1980s the council moved to a new building and it's around this time the records store became redundant - it's contents were transferred to the new location and it was closed.
The rooms themselves are split into two levels, most of them are empty save for either metal or very rotten wooden racking, however the upper levels at the very end contain a number of beautiful rusty trunks which stored deeds and other important documents for the most important and influential people in the city. Some names were recognisable - Fry (chocolates) and Wills (tobacco) - and some boxes dated way back into the mid 1800s.
Overall a very enjoyable, nicely cooled place to see.
Thanks for looking
