The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #163442   Message #4036707
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
29-Feb-20 - 08:59 AM
Thread Name: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
You don't have to go far, some of you, to check out this lost bit of history: Long-Forgotten Secret Passageway Discovered In A Wall At U.K. Parliament

Within the wood paneling of a hallway in the British House of Commons, there was a small brass keyhole.

Members of Parliament and staff walked past the tiny hole each day. The rare person who noticed the hole took it for an electrical cabinet.

Enter a team of historians planning the much-needed restoration of the Palace of Westminster, which is home to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The oldest part of the estate, Westminster Hall, dates to 1099 and is still in use.

The team was at the Historic England Archive poring over some 10,000 uncatalogued documents relating to the palace when they found something interesting: plans for a doorway in the cloister behind Westminster Hall.

Back at the palace, they found that tiny keyhole in the wood paneling — just where the plan suggested it would be. They had a key made so they could open the door – and they discovered a secret passageway 360 years old. . . .


If you can't read the rest of the story from outside the US let me know and I'll paste it in later.