In the early 1840s, work began on creating a railway tunnel to forge a link between Canal Street Station - now known as Waverley Station, with the north of Edinburgh.
This involved driving a substantial tunnel from Canonmills, which ran underneath Scotland Street, Dublin Street, and St Andrew Square. Costing over £100,000, the tunnel was officially opened on May 17, 1847.
Passenger trains travelled between Waverley and Granton, hauled by a steel rope and winding engine - required due to the sharp incline.
READ MORE - S Club 7's Hannah Spearritt 'forced out of home with children and left homeless'
Despite the great difficulty of construction and high costs, the kilometre-long Scotland Street Tunnel was abandoned after just 21 years of service. The North British Railway company had opened a more efficient route that served the northern areas of Edinburgh.
A few decades after the tunnel was shut down, the Scottish Mushroom Company set up shop. With one track retained, while the other was used for growing, 800 mushroom beds sat in the underpass - each 12ft by 3ft.
The output of mushrooms often reached 500lbs in a single day, and with produce available during all seasons of the year it was a profitable endeavour. This fungi factory continued until 1929, when the company became bankrupt after a parasite infection.
The Scotland Street Tunnel found a new purpose during the Second World War, when the city needed suitable hubs in the event of an air raid attack. Capable of housing up to 3,000 people, the tunnel became Edinburgh’s largest and ‘most safe’ bomb shelter.
At a depth of 50ft below the street in some places, it was considered an ideal spot for an emergency safety centre. Bunkers were installed, with access to fresh water as well as lighting and drainage systems.
After the war, the tunnel has gone mostly unused - though it played host to a series of radiation experiments by the University of Edinburgh in the late 1940s. In the 60s, Cochrane Garages stored up to 150 vehicles in the tunnel.
Sign up to our Edinburgh Live nostalgia newsletters for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox
This soon came to an end when a group of youths broke into the space, and started a fire that caused severe damage. Since then, the tunnel has seen very little action.
In 1983, the southern entrance to the underpass was demolished to make way for the construction of the Waverley Market - crushing any hopes of a new life for the Scotland Street Tunnel.
The northern portal into the tunnel is visible today, fenced off to the public, at George V Park. Nearby, the much shorter Rodney Street Tunnel was opened in 2008 as a pedestrian and cycle path.
Sign up to Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox
While talks have been had of transforming the derelict space into an underground car park, nothing has come to fruition yet. The one thousand yard long tunnel has become one of Edinburgh’s largely-forgotten relics from the past.
We might never get a chance to see the tunnel - and most likely it will never return to its rail days, but Robert Louis Stevenson’s description of it in his travel book Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes paints quite a picture.
He writes: “The Scotland Street Station, the sight of the train shooting out of its dark maw with two guards upon the brake, the thought of its length and the many ponderous edifices and thoroughfares above, were certainly things of paramount impressiveness to a young mind.”
READ NEXT:
Mortified mum says she 'can't go back' to personal trainer after picture blunder
Man pays £600 for extra driveway to stop school run parents blocking his house
We tried Edinburgh’s latest pizza spot and have some crucial advice
Scottish mum says terrified daughter was filmed being beaten up on a school bus
We compared Edinburgh's 'best burger' to Gordon Ramsay's newest offering
