Reading Workshop Found to Rest Atop Four-Level Railway Dug by Hand Over Two Decades

TILEHURST, READING, ENGLAND — An unassuming family property in the leafy Tilehurst district of Reading conceals a hand-built underground railway, a network of tunnels and hidden rooms, according to the Daily Star. The property is soon to be offered at auction.

The subterranean works descend through four levels to more than 15 metres below ground, the report states, and contain upward of 1,300 square feet of space, including tunnels and storage rooms. Two secret doors guard the complex, one of them a sliding concrete wall said to weigh 1.5 tonnes.

The system was designed and built by the previous owner, Tony Deane, a civil engineer with a passion for tunnelling. He is reported to have done the work in the 1980s and '90s, assisted by his six children. Richard Worrall, auctioneer at BTG Eddisons Property Auctions, said the chalk was dug through manually and hauled away in buckets and wheelbarrows. Mr Deane also built a railway through the tunnels and a four-layer, one-tonne goods lift to bring the spoil to the surface.

The family's underground ambitions, the article says, began in the 1960s with changing rooms beside the swimming pool. Their entrance was concealed behind a 23-foot rocket, which remains in place. The existence of the works is understood to have remained largely unknown outside the family, neighbours included.

Mr Worrall called the property "utterly amazing" and, in his view, unique. He suggested uses ranging from secure storage to a fallout shelter or a "prepper's paradise". The site also has planning consent, granted in December 2024, for a five-bedroom house on the pool site and a three-bedroom conversion of the workshop. The guide price is £300,000 to £325,000, with the livestream auction set for October 28 and 29.