Victoria Arches, Manchester - March 2012

Somewhere that I've been wanting to visit for a while, finally managed to get in after a few recent failures and I wasn't disappointed. Whilst there's not a great deal of things to see inside it's a pretty awesome place to look around.

The Victoria Arches were a series of arches built in the embankment of the River Irwell in Manchester. They served as business premises, landing stages for Steam packet riverboats and as World War II air-raid shelters. They were accessed from wooden staircases which descended from Victoria Street.

Regular flooding of the river resulted in the closure of the steam-packet services in the early 20th century, following which the arches were used for general storage. In World War II they were converted into air raid shelters. The arches are now bricked up and inaccessible; the staircases were removed in the latter part of the 20th century.

Inside one of the arches. A safe, sadly with no money inside. Old ductwork still remaining from it's use as an air raid shelter. Steps. Long corridor. Part was later used a public toilet, this being the gents. Tiling and mirrors still remain. It's quite obvious that no expense was spared on these toilets. I'm not entirely sure how they stopped the public wandering around the disused parts. Another of the arches. Collapsed ductwork.