So a warm welcome to my fellow Guardian readers – feel free to subscribe by email or leave a comment if you like the place. And regular Mancubist readers, check out the other sites to be blogrolled here.

Meanwhile, back to the usual Manchester miscellany: someone on urban exporation website 28dayslater.co.uk has done a recce of what they call ‘Manchester Underground’ – a series of air raid shelters under the city, accord to this poster:

There are 17 shelters in all and most of them have sub sections A. B. C etc… these are joined by one long corridor… there are numerous blocked up exits and stair wells… but the most jaw dropping feature was the toilets, the whole place was maze of small wonders…

Check out the rest of these excellent photos here.

I’m not sure whether these are the same tunnels, but I’ve been reading about the Guardian telephone exchange:

These Cold War tunnels were built in 1954/5 by Polish immigrants who couldn’t speak English. At least one Pole died and his ghost is rumoured to haunt the place, which is closed to the public.

Here’s the recreation room, complete with piano and pool table:

The £4m structure was paid for by NATO – i.e. America – and running costs have since been covered by the Post Office and British Telecommunications, who have occupied it. Here’s some more information from George Coney’s excellent site:

“It is 112 feet (34m) below ground and cost £4 million to construct. The main tunnel, one thousand feet long and twenty-five feet wide (300m by 7m), lies below buildings in Back George Street, linking up to an anonymous and unmarked surface building containing the entrance lifts and ventilator shafts.”

The main entrance is between Princess Street and Dickinson Street in the city centre, and can be passed on both George Street and Saint James Street. Other entrances are situated at Telephone Buildings on York Street, in Ardwick (Lockton Close) and in Salford (Islington Street).

Of course, something this big couldn’t pass Mancunians by entirely and a few Flickr users have spotted the entrances and a planning application notice to expand the George Street site. HugoVK also took a decent shot of the main entrance.

Some bloggers have mentioned it too, including Stephen Riley, who suspects tunnels connect the CIS tower to a nuclear bunker under Piccadilly Gardens.

In March 2004 the tunnels were hit by a fire, causing a telephone outage for several days. Of course, the vague conspiracists were out in force:

“Funny how these lines run through a so-called secret tunnel network own by the government. Trust me, this is a botched attempt by the government to launch an information blackout in Manchester. The reason for this we can only guess but in my opinion it can’t be because something good is going to happen” – The Mole, MEN site

I’ve just walked past 55 George Street, between Portland Street and the defunct Odeon cinema, and the building’s barbed-wire-covered fence is now covered in AMEC signs.

“Voluntary recruiting both for the army and the navy in the early days was splendid and won the special encomiums of the Prime Minister.

“The days of training were quickly followed by the supreme test of active service. The Manchesters, the local public school battalions, and the Lancashire Fusiliers won deathless fame on many glorious fields. In the discharge of their duties they paid heavy toll. Thousands sleep in foreign soil, and very deep they sleep. Those who came back were modestly conscious that they had done their duty. They made no higher claim than that. There is no higher claim. May the nation prove ready to do its duty by them. And may the call which was made upon them never be made again on any nation.”