Victorian Swampy challenges the planners

A subterranean labyrinth excavated by a nineteenth century forerunner of Swampy, the road protester, is under threat from a planned housing development.

The extraordinary network of tunnels beneath the streets of central Liverpool was created by Joseph Williamson, an eccentric philanthropist.

A tobacco baron with a bizarre fetish for tunnelling, he spent 35 years hollowing out immense underground caverns and earning the nickname "The Mole of Edge Hill".

One elaborately-created underground banqueting hall is 80ft long and 40ft high, containing entrances to 25 tunnels, some of which extend for miles beneath the city. Now the Mole, like Swampy, is at war with developers, albeit posthumously.

Liverpool City Council has approved plans to build 21 student homes on a site immediately above the main entrances to the labyrinth.

The decision has bewildered local historians, who had hoped to turn the area into a shrine to Williamson's tunnel mania.

The purpose of the burrowing has never been established. Williamson's obituary in the Liverpool Mercury in 1840 concluded: "No earthly use can be assigned for these catacombs."

But now local people believe that the tunnels, cut from solid rock and supported by brick arches, lead to a brighter future of new jobs and tourist revenue.

Some 200 people, who attended a meeting last week of the newly-formed Friends of Williamson's Tunnels group, argue that the labyrinth could become a major attraction.

It would be a fitting legacy for the underground honeycomb, whose excavation between 1806 and 1840 provided well-paidwork during the slump after the Napoleonic wars.

So grateful were the local families, many of whom were also Williamson's tenants, that they often referred to the eccentric as "The King of Edge Hill."

Williamson's constituency is once again in need of help. The once leafy district now has associations with a different underworld, where Liverpool's armed gangs settle their scores and police unearth caches of illegally- held automatic weapons. Williamson's once splendid home in Mason Street is now a derelict garage.

Not that he was ostentatious. He lived like a troglodyte at the rear of his house, sleeping in a cavern and using a cellar as his living room.

His burly figure was a familiar sight on the streets of Liverpool in a battered beaver hat, patched brown coat, corduroy breeches and hobnail boots. Nevertheless,the Prince of Wales, on a visit to the city, described him as "the only gentleman in Liverpool".

Williamson had come from humble origins as the son of a poor Warrington farmer who came to Liverpool at the age of 11 to seek his fortune.

He found work with a tobacco company, which he took charge of years later after marrying the daughter of the boss. The tobacco trade brought him great riches which he invested in his excavations. Historians estimate that the network of tunnels cost Williamson pounds 100,000, equivalent to pounds 25m today.

Local archivist Dave Head said: "The site is worth far more as a tourist attraction than as student accommodation."

But Carol Young, one of the architects planning the student development, said that a rafted design would protect the tunnels from damage. "The fears are unfounded," she said.

. . . while the real one digs in

The environmental protester "Swampy", whose underground sit-in defied bailiffs during the A30 by-pass protests in south Devon, yesterday pledged to help build a bigger network of tunnels to try to block an airport's second runway.

Campaigners claim that the pounds 172 million scheme for Manchester Airport, approved by John Gummer, the Secretary of State for the Environment, is unnecessary and will blight the countryside.

As Swampy, alias Daniel Hooper, 23, arrived at the site near Mobberley, Cheshire, he said: "This is pollution for profit and I am determined to stop it.

``I will be here for as long as it takes."

He said protesters were planning to tunnel under the water table to foil attempts to evict them. Work clearing the site is expected to start in the spring.

Police have warned the campaigners that their tunnels are potentially lethal because of seeping methane gas.