Paris is well known for its catacombs, but it is far from the only metropolis under which entire cities exist. Many residents of Scottish Edinburgh once lived under the bridges and streets of the city.
Who Needed an Underground City
The original reason for the appearance of the underground city near Edinburgh is most likely associated with the construction of the Floden Wall, in 1513. The wall completely surrounded the city. This meant that new buildings had to be built either outside the wall, which was unsafe, or the city's basements and storage rooms under the houses had to be converted into housing.
In the 1700s, construction of bridges began in Edinburgh, and as these bridges crossed roads and hills, dry spaces formed beneath them, which became a haven for those who could not afford expensive housing. Whole "cities" were formed under such bridges. There were hundreds of isolated rooms that were not visible from the bridges the rich walked over.
At first, the premises under the city bridges were used to contain prisoners and other unwanted individuals. Later, merchants began to use them. They set up cheap shops here, there were no windows, only a narrow passage.
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Robert Louis Stevenson described these locations in his book Edinburgh: Painterly Notes (1878).
In the 19th century, the city's population grew greatly, with the addition of Irish people who fled from their native and country in which hunger raged. Lacking money, they moved underground. An Edinburgh doctor at the time said that he found a family of 4 living in a crypt or a cave under a large apartment … They rented their shabby dark dwellings to as many people as possible.
At the dawn of the 20th century, fire, destruction and construction outside the Flodden Wall ended the growth of underground Edinburgh. As new buildings and roads were erected, many of the ruins of underground houses were buried under the asphalt layer, but not forgotten. Abandoned dungeons are overgrown with myths and legends. many claimed that the crypts and shops were full of ghosts.
In the 1970s, an entire underground lane, Marlin's Wynd, was discovered under Tron Kirk. There were once fruit and book merchants' shops here. It is interesting that it has survived almost in its original form.
Today, these streets of underground Edinburgh are guided tours.