Victoria Tunnel Tours — Attraction in Newcastle upon Tyne

If you're looking for something very different to do in the city then this is a great choice, and not weather dependent. I did the two hour tour which takes you upto the emergency exit at the top of Crawhill Road. There has to be a second exit (Health & Safety) and you can see where you were by walking up there afterwards and finding the yellow "square manhole cover" on the side of the pavement. There are two histories to be told here. On the way up the Tunnel we learnt about the time when it was used as an air raid shelter during the 2nd World War, and what life was like here during that time. One person who had previously suffered from shell shock spent the whole of the war here. Blast walls were added to the original tunnel for protection during the war years. On the way back down the Tunnel we learnt about what led to the construction of the tunnel, how it was constructed, and some of the mishaps that beset the tunnel during its operation. The tunnel was cleverly designed to move coal from the mine on the town moor to the waiting ships on the Tyne using a gravity system of Wagon transport. Our two guides were excellent and very entertaining. Definately recommend this tour if you're looking for...

We had an excellent tour by guide John B on Monday 26th July. We have been on holidays in NewCastle Upon Tyne and booked the tunnel tour for Monday. We had our tour time at 12pm and were 30 minutes late, we had a call form the office to check if we are ok , when I mentioned sorry we were lost as we are from Bedford came for the tunnel tour. Our guide was so kind he came back to give a quick tour of the tunnel to make kids happy (he was returned to the office after waiting for us at the booked time for the tour). We had our 7 years old twins with us who were too excited for the tunnel tour. I must admit John has been an excellent guide with a great sense of humour and so many stories, history related to Victoria tunnel. Kids were so excited to have the helmets with their own torches and listening to stories from John and making different noises while passing the tunnel, this made them so excited. Over all a great tour , special thanks to our guide John who made it...

Booked a one hour tour of the Victorian Tunnels. Wasn’t exactly sure what to expect, but I did guess that it would be dark, narrow and slightly claustrophobic. The volunteer guide went by the name of Pete and what a fun guy he was. In truth I wasn’t expecting a lot of the tour because, well it’s a tunnel. The tour felt like it only lasted 5 minutes because Pete gave such a great narrative of the history of the tunnels and the many stories great stories to tell about things that happened in the tunnels throughout it’s life. The stories and history warns't just confined to the tunnels who. There stuff about life for the people of Newcastle during the times of the tunnels. The coal miners, the people who worked o the tunnels and the less affluent times.

Best of all, the lights went out in the tunnels as part of the tour and it made me really appreciate just what a wonderful modern we live in outside of...