Mapped: The whole of underground Manchester
March 14, 2016 2 Comments
I’ve always been fascinated by the hidden tunnels and chambers beneath our streets and Manchester has more than its fair share. I bought the book Underground Manchester a few years ago and thought it pretty comprehensively covered this secret world most of us know nothing about. However, a recent article in the Manchester Evening News shows that the city has many more stories to tell.
Mancunian enthusiast Mark Crossfield has spent the last few years putting together Hidden Manchester – a site dedicated to his love of the Manchester Underground. The MEN article contains a few good examples, but I thoroughly recommend a look at the site as it is packed with information.
Cartographically, it is not very exciting – just a push-pin overlay on a satellite basemap – but all the features have popup information with links for further reading. There isn’t any attribution on the basemap (I think it’s Google) and it doesn’t seem to be possible to switch to a vector map instead of imagery or turn on a street labelling layer either, but this map is definitely more about content than presentation. The sources page is full of interesting links and is probably worth the price of admission alone. There is certainly enough here to keep me quiet for some time.
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Thanks for the kind comments! 🙂 I’ve fixed the attribution now—it’s Open Street Map powered by the Mapbox API. I’ve also added the ability to switch to a vector layer and added lots of forgotten rivers, brooks, and gutters. Just about to try to address the fact that few people find the pages with further information but pleased to hear you enjoyed reading more! FYI there is a new book out about Subterranean Stockport, with plenty of details about water tunnels and the like.