Victorian London Underworld

If you are in my group (I bet you know who you are) read this at your own risk because it might ruin stuff for you.







Now, I am Storytelling a mixed group of characters in a game set in Victorian London. We don't have specific year (later half of the era if it matters) and we are not being historically accurate. We have two Sin-Eaters in the group, and so I figured I should involve the upcoming plot with travelling into the Underworld, or at least have it as an option.

What I am mostly concerning about now is how the Upper Reaches appear in that area of that era. Geist mentions subway tunnels in modern New York but I don't think it would work for our setting. So far, I have figured that it might include dim candlelights and the smell of smog (with possible thick smog in some areas) but other than that I'm blank. Any ideas?

Also, does travel in the Underworld have any special effect on the other denizens of the World of Darkness? More precisely, we have two Changelings, a Vampire and a Mage in addition to the two Sin-Eaters previously mentioned. I don't think there was anything about that in Geist, but I might have missed it or they might add it in Book of the Dead. Anyone given that any thought? Obviously, if there will be any river-crossing, anyone with no Psyche rating must pay some sort of price, but other than that.

Thanks.

You might be overlooking some really cool history for decorating your London Underworld.

London built underground tunnels for the coal locomotives, and there were (not a few) accidents where the trains were trapped in these tunnels, asphyxiating the passengers, killing hundreds of people. Again, the wash of black coal smoke pouring into a tunnel, filled with the choking, gasping echos of the dying and dead.

Smuggler tunnels, and tunnels used by the Castles and Lords, for escape, .... didn't always work for escape.. Smugglers and other hard-eyed types can be found in these dark areas, drinking rum, playing cards and playing with a wench they may have brought down from the world of the living.

Some London Underground Books

The Ley Tunnels

And, let's not forget the Black Plague days of yore, where mass graves are dug deep and wide, with hundreds of bodies piled in, covered with lime. These were called Plague Pits.

Also the reports of hundreds of people being burried alive during these times, so many that it was common to have graves with bells installed, the rope in the coffin so that if the person woke up, they could pull the string, ring the bell and let someone know they were not dead... that's got to be worth a description or two of ghosts, encased in the walls of tunnels, ringing bells, trying to get someone to believe that they are not dead, and to please dig them out of the wall.

The Victoria tunnels at Newcastle upon Tyne, for example, completed as long ago as 1842, and used for transporting coal from the collieries to the river Tyne, had been closed in 1860 and remained so until 1939. 12 m deep in places, the tunnels, stretching in parts beneath the city of Newcastle, were converted to air raid shelters with a capacity for 9,000 people. Furthermore, tunnels linked to landing stages built on the River Irwell in Manchester at the end of the 19th century were also used as air-raid shelters.

The large medieval labyrinth of tunnels beneath Dover Castle had been built originally as part of the defensive system of the approaches to England, extended over the centuries and further excavated and reinforced during World Wars I and II, until it was capable of accommodating large parts of the secret defence systems protecting the British Isles. On 26 May 1940 it became the headquarters under Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay of “Operation Dynamo”, from where the rescue and evacuation of up to 338,000 troops from France was directed.

In southeast London, residents made use of the Chislehurst Caves beneath Chislehurst, a 22-mile long network of underground caves which have existed since the Middle Ages for the minings of chalk and flint

If you want to move a little forward in your era you can bring in the Bomb shelters

For example, in WWII many people died, buried alive in underground bomb shelters, which could be seen in your underworld, the denizens ... or could be heard as echos from the past. Explosions could happen right next to the characters, screams and dust washing over them as they enter a room.

... but don't over look the rivers... lots of dead floating down the rivers into the underground sewer systems...

There is a book I just ran across on Google books called Secret London which might be of interest to you as well.

The section under the Content menu called Subterranean City is most interesting.

Thanks for the pointers, I will definitely put them to good use.

It is not that I am trying to overlook London's underground history, but not being native to London or England does give me a problem with where to look (or I blame that reason anyway).

But yeah, thanks a lot and I'll definitely look deeper into these :)

Wow, very good compilation of sources, thank you very much!

I'm running a Victorian Age campaign myself and this is all incredibly valuable.

I just thought I would add more material for the whole "real life underworld" stuff.

Nice addition, Malkavian. Thanks :)

Just thought it might be of use, given the subject matter, plus the fact it was something I used in my own game. (I ran of the assumption that Williamson was a Sin Eater himself and built his own gateway to the underworld)

Malkavian:

Williamson was a Sin Eater himself

Joseph Williamson... a Sin-Eater... nice. One of my favorite personalities. Did you work any of the antics of Williamson into Sin-Eater activity (Such as his setting all of his wife's birds loose, as required to unbalance souls enough to shuffle them off)? or did you just go with the base line and leave it at that?

That really is cool... I might have to steal that from you some day.

Don't worry, it won't be plagiarism, I'm a professional... it will be outright theft.

glennhefley:

Malkavian:

Williamson was a Sin Eater himself

Joseph Williamson... a Sin-Eater... nice. One of my favorite personalities. Did you work any of the antics of Williamson into Sin-Eater activity (Such as his setting all of his wife's birds loose, as required to unbalance souls enough to shuffle them off)? or did you just go with the base line and leave it at that?

glennhefley:

Some London Underground Books

The Ley Tunnels

Thanks for sharing these glennhefly, these are good resources.

No worries... the others are good too.

I was just thinkng that there are several major cities in the world with extensive underground areas. Chicago, Seattle, LA, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong, Tokyo.. it would be pretty cool to put together, at the very least a list of resources (links) to places on the Internet with information and images on the major ones, if not create an info res for them.

Think I might do that on scarn.com here soon. I love researching stuff like that... I always find cool storylines.