Family dwelling up for public sale conceals ‘totally wonderful’ secret beneath floorboards
A bizarre UK family home is hiding a wild secret beneath its floorboards as the house comes coupled with staggering subterranean infrastructure
The home is hiding one massive secret (Image: Cover Images)
An unassuming family home about to go on the market conceals an “utterly amazing” secret beneath its floorboards.
The site in Reading features a hand-built underground railway and an extensive network of secret tunnels and hidden rooms. The remarkable subterranean infrastructure, which descends through four levels, was created over two decades by a civil engineer and his family, reaching more than 15 metres below ground.
Hidden beneath a workshop in the leafy residential Tilehurst area, the complex contains more than 1,300 sq ft of underground space, including tunnels and storage rooms, as well as two secret doors, one formed by a 1.5-tonne sliding concrete wall.
The underground system was designed and built by the property’s previous owner, Tony Deane, a civil engineer with a passion for tunnelling.
The subterranean infrastructure was created over two decades(Image: Cover Images)
Construction took place during the 1980s and ’90s, with Mr Deane carrying out the work himself, assisted by his six children.
Richard Worrall, auctioneer and consultant at BTG Eddisons Property Auctions, which will feature the unique property in its livestream auction on October 28 and 29 has pulled back the lid on the house.
Worrall stated: “Most of these tunnels were dug through chalk, which is naturally self-supporting, while, in some places, where required, structural concrete was used and cast by hand.
“Incredibly, absolutely everything was excavated manually, with the chalk moved using buckets and wheelbarrows.
“Mr Deane also constructed a railway through the tunnels to transport the excavated chalk, as well as building a four-layer, one-tonne goods lift to carry it to ground level.”
The Deane family’s subterranean projects began even earlier, in the 1960s, with the construction of underground changing rooms next to the property’s swimming pool.
The entrance was hidden behind a 23ft-high rocket, which is still in place today.
The project was started in the 1980s(Image: Cover Images)
Despite the scale of the project, its existence is understood to have remained largely unknown outside the family, including to neighbours in the surrounding residential area.
Richard Worrall said: “In all my years as an auctioneer, I’ve never seen anything like this before – it’s utterly amazing and, I think, unique. “What a feat to create this as a family project and as a hobby.”
(Image: Cover Images)
The site, on Long Lane in Tilehurst, is accessed via a secure gated driveway and includes a 2,500 sq ft workshop arranged over three floors, parking, gardens, a large swimming pool and changing rooms.
Planning consent was granted by West Berkshire Council in December 2024 for a 5,000 sq ft, five-bedroom, two-storey house to be built on the site of the swimming pool, while conversion of the workshop has consent for conversion to a three-bedroom house.
Mr Worrall added: “The underground space is obviously a game changer to say the least and we believe it could offer an imaginative buyer a range of potential uses, anything from secure storage, a fallout shelter or an EMP-resistant data centre to a prepper’s paradise.”
The house has a guide price of £300,000 to £325,000 (Image: Cover Images)
The property has a guide price of £300,000 to £325,000 and will be included in BTG Eddisons Property Auctions’ live stream auction on October 28 and 29.
