Ratman Tunnel

[thegimp]

Hey, I'm from Southend and am new to this site. JUst wanted to pop in and creepy and tell you about this creepy place here. Well, creepy and dangerous actually.
So yeah, it's just a series of tunnels that run near the Mayor's house and go under a busy road.
But me and a lot of my friends have always known it as "The Rat-Man's Tunnel".
It's all because of this urban legend, I first heard it when I was a boy in primary school and maybe some of you have heard it too.

So yeah, basically like, this homeless man lived under the tunnels. He had nowhere else to go and I think he was crippled. And during a particularly cold winter, a group of kids came up to him and beat him half to death.
Bleeding and really cold, he died after hours of suffering. To make it even worse, a load of rats began eating him!
He was screaming that one day he'd get even, babbling like a nutter.
And somehow he got his wish. His spectral form haunts the tunnels now and appears at night. He now looks just like those rats who were chewing off his fingers, but bigger, meaner and a whole lot more dangerous.

What do you think of all this? My friends and I would dare each other to go under there and shout "RATMAN!"
But it's a nasty, dank and smelly place.
I always took it with a pinch of salt. But to be frank, if something bad were to have happened under there I wouldn't be shocked.

[thefitz]

I really can't believe that I'm reading this. Thank you Gimpy, you kind of jogged my memory about something interesting that happened to me under there.
When I was a little girl I used to live in Southend-on-Sea, a seaside town in England. This was before my family moved to Basildon.
And I had a lot of friends here, a lot of boys who lived near me, and they were typically into gross and crazy stuff – as boys of a certain age often are.
We all went to the same school and I heard them talking about the Ratman story. What
I heard was that someone important had a bastard son. A deformed, malevolent child who they would do anything to hide.
My friends said that he had been walled up in the tunnel and was only let out at night, appearing through secret doors. And that he had become cannibalistic, so if you were under there at night he would jump out and try to kill you.
Even back then, I was a bit too smart for my own good.
Whenever they were talking about it I would step in and correct them. No, there are no such things as Rat-Men. No, they don’t lock deformed people in tunnels. No, we don’t have any cannibalistic monsters in Southend.
I had to laugh at them and their crazy story, it really was ridiculous.
Well, as life moved on I regrettably lost contact with these friends. I was out of town and they had probably moved on too. And I forgot that stupid little yarn I heard them telling in the playground.

But that was until the summer of 2004. We would always see my grandmother (RIP) on her birthday, which meant going to Southend. Usually this was for less than a day. But this time we stayed a little longer, I had a chance to go out and have a drink with some mates and generally have a good time in the place I grew up.
When we filed out of the pub it was dark and time to go home, I was walking alone and rather than cross a busy road and, in my inebriated state, get splattered I decided to go under the tunnel.
In the day time it’s not a very pleasant place, as you can probably imagine, it’s filled with graffiti and seems to smell of urine and old kebabs.
But at night it’s downright creepy, I may have been somewhat tipsy but I still had the wherewithal to know that this place was dangerous. There’s just something fishy about it.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t walk very briskly. My stomach was playing up and I proceeded to leave a ghastly beige pile of vomit against a wall.

And that’s when I heard it.
There was no one else coming, I would have heard their footsteps, no cars above either. But I heard a sound behind me, in the darkness. It was a mix between a gurgle and a hiss.
Honestly, it sounded like an angry, rabid baby.
No, I was imagining it. That’s what I told myself.
But then it came again. A hideous snarl that sounded almost human in its delivery. I didn’t know what that was, I just knew I wanted to leave.
So, with puke still dripping from my chin I hightailed it out of there. And to this day I still remember that night and how utterly terrified I felt. How it seemed like the bottom of my stomach had given way. How it felt like I was being watched, being sized up.
Now, I no longer laugh at that story or those who believe it.
Don’t go under there at night

[Lauraakafoxy]

Hi guys

Thank you both for your input - this is very interesting !!

I hadn't heard this story before.
Where exactly are these tunnels?
Do they run under Priory Park by any chance?
If so i know where there were some entrances but they had been blocked off and the buildings where these entrances were, are now flattened - the site of the old plastic moulding factory.
Im assuming these could be the tunnels you are talking about but wasn't aware that anyone could still get into them?

Would love to hear more from you.

Laura

[thegimp]

No, not near Priory Park. Near the Mayors house. You know, there's a big bridge and there are like three tunnels.
Near Sutton Road I think.
look, i found this picture of the are i'm talking about:



Do you recognise it?
but i didn't know about the plastic factor or old tunnels there. maybe it all started there?

[Lauraakafoxy]

Ahh yes.
This is the underpass.
Very interesting !!!
The tunnels i meant are underground and used to connect the priory to other places but i dont know of a way into them anymore which is a shame.

This would be a good place to check out but id be a bit concerned about the local thugs. Which would probably be enough to put me off going down there at night with my camera - would end up being mugged or worse.

Would much rather deal with nasty spirits than some of the people in Southend lol

Maybe i will pop down there at some point in a group of people and see if we feel anything at all, then i shall post our findings on here.

[thegimp]

i also heard, while looking on certain sites and forums, that this whole urban legend thing has also been spread through posters. personalized posters stuck around Southend.
is this true???

[thefitz]

Posters? Has anyone told you any specifics about what they look like?

[thegimp]

sorry for late reply
but the posters apparently are small and have a bit of talk about the story and a drawing of the rat-man thing

[thefitz]

Things like this? I parked my car near the old BNQ building and found this thing on my windscreen. A bit crumpled but you can still make out some of what it says:

*DELETED*

Honestly, I couldn't believe that I found something like this. Especially as I've been discussing it here.
So I guess the posters are real