00:00Birmingham's catacombs don't sit underground, they're carved into the exposed face of a former sand quarry.
00:08Built in tiers and sealed into the rock, they offered a workaround for unstable ground and overcrowded cemeteries.
00:16But they didn't just house the dead, they became a second resting place for over 600 bodies
00:23quietly moved here after Christchurch was demolished. And among them, the remains of John Baskerville,
00:30a man who spent more time being reburied than most people spend alive.
00:35To explore what these vaults tell us about the city, I met Kevin Thomas.
00:41So this is Warstone Lane Cemetery and you've got these formal two-tier crescent-shaped catacombs.
00:48And some people think they're Georgian because they're crescent, but they're not, they're Victorian.
00:52The cemetery opened in 1848 and it's a fantastic example of Victorian funeral architecture.
01:01The site was originally a sand quarry, never meant for burials, but as churchyards overflowed,
01:08private companies stepped in to sell space to the dead.
01:11Warstone Lane offered a clever fix, build into the quarry wall instead of battling soft, unstable ground.
01:18The result was this amphitheatre of tombs, more functional than grand, but still striking in its design.
01:25Brick lined, tightly packed and sealed shut.
01:28The vaults reflect a time when engineering had to work around geology, not through it.
01:34The Birmingham catacombs are quite often referred to as Birmingham's best-kept secret and that's because they're not visible from the road anymore.
01:42But that's a new thing.
01:44When they were first constructed, they would have been a celebration of life and death.
01:49But since then, the trees have grown, the gravestones have become more dense and can't really see it from the road anymore.
01:56By the end of the 19th century, the site had taken on a new role.
02:02In 1899, over 600 bodies were moved here from the demolished Christchurch on New Street, many of them interred discreetly.
02:11Concerns about decomposition gases led to strict rules.
02:15Vaults had to be sealed with lead and pitch.
02:18And while access is now restricted, the structure still speaks to a time when space, sanitation and symbolism all had to be balanced in brick.
02:28During the Industrial Revolution, people flocked into Birmingham and there weren't the graveyards to accommodate the dead.
02:36And so, a private company set up Warstone Lane Cemetery and the catacombs to accommodate them.
02:42Not only that, Birmingham City Centre was going through a dynamic patch at the time with rebuilding.
02:49And places like Christchurch closed down and they rebuilt over the site and they needed somewhere to move those bodies to.
02:57And this was the perfect location.
03:00Today, the catacombs stand not just as relics, but as part of a changing landscape.
03:06One where history and modern life now share the same ground.
03:10Warstone Lane and the catacombs have become a really important part of the community in the jewellery quarter.
03:18As time goes on, the jewellery quarter is changing from a place of making to a place of living.
03:24And there are very few green spaces here.
03:26Along with St Paul's Square and Key Hill Cemetery, they are the only park-like places in the jewellery quarter.
03:33And they've been used for theatre events, music events.
03:37And if you come down on Saturday morning, you might even find a yoga class going on.
03:42The catacombs about ten years ago were renovated and made safe.
03:46They were in a state of disrepair.
03:49And hopefully that's prepared them for the next hundred years.
03:52The Warstone Lane catacombs aren't a mystery, but they are easy to overlook.
03:57Cut into rock, sealed for good and loaded with stories that rarely get told.
04:03They reveal how the city dealt with space, death and dignity in an age of rapid change.
04:10The practical became the architectural and the forgotten became historical.
04:15Whether you see them as a curiosity, a workaround or a monument to Victorian grit,
04:21they're part of the landscape and part of the story.
04:24You don't need folklore to find depth here.
04:28The facts are enough.
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