A property, reminiscent of the house made famous by the 1960s TV series Thunderbirds, is being offered for auction this month.
Like the Thunderbirds’ secret Tracy Island HQ, the site on Long Lane in Tilehurst, Berkshire features an “extensive” network of tunnels and underground rooms. While it does not have the space-age monorail system featured in the TV show, there is a hand-built underground railway.
The subterranean network below the site descends through four levels, reaching more than 15m (49ft) below ground.
It was created during two decades by the property’s previous owner, the late Tony Deane, who was a civil engineer with a passion for tunnelling.
The site comprises garden land, a swimming pool and a workshop at the back of the garden.
Richard Worrall, auctioneer and consultant at BTG Eddisons Property Auctions, said: “To say it’s a workshop is doing it down a little bit, it’s constructed better than 95% of houses, to be honest.”
Planning consent was granted by West Berkshire Council in December 2024 for a 5,000 sq ft (464.5 sq m) 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.
“It represents a really unique opportunity for somebody to either develop it or to live there and enjoy it”, says Worrall.
The site is accessed via a secure gated driveway and includes a 2,500 sq ft (232.2 sq m) workshop arranged over three floors, parking, gardens, a swimming pool and changing rooms.
The complex hidden beneath the workshop contains more than 1,300 sq ft (120.7 sq m) of underground space, including tunnels and storage rooms, as well as two secret doors, one formed by a 1.5-tonne sliding concrete wall.
“It was, I think, a marvellous piece of vision and passion and great British eccentricity really – he had the skill set to do it,” said Worrall.
