It was built between 1839 and 1842 to transport coal from Leazes Main Colliery in Spital Tongues, to riverside staithes (jetties), ready for loading onto boats for export.

The colliery closed in January 1860 and the tunnel was abandoned until the start of the Second World War, when it was converted for use as an air-raid shelter.

Porter and Latimer, the colliery owners, employed a local engineer, William E. Gilhespie,[1] to construct an underground wagonway.

[2] An overground wagonway following much the same route was mooted, but the Freemen of Newcastle would not give permission for tracks to be laid across the Town Moor.

Building works were carried out by the firm of David Nixon, a builder of Prudhoe Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.

[3] Some 200 workers were employed in the construction of the tunnel and Thomas Fordyce in his Local Records for 8 January 1842 reported: The workmen, to the number of two hundred, were regaled with a substantial supper and strong ale, supplied by Mrs. Dixon, the worthy hostess of the Unicorn Inn, Bigg-market, Newcastle.

A crowd of spectators including the sheriff and important merchants gathered on the quayside and at 1 pm cannons were fired as a train of eight wagons appeared out of the tunnel.

As Britain prepared for war in 1939, the public were instructed to practise "Air Raid Precautions" to protect themselves from bombs dropped by the German Luftwaffe.

In Newcastle, the city engineer developed plans to convert the Victoria Tunnel into a communal air raid shelter that could hold 9,000 people.

It still exists under Claremont Road, and runs past the Hancock Museum, then close to the Civic Centre and St Mary's Place.

From here it travels under Northumbria University City Campus, the Central Motorway and Shieldfield to St Dominic's Church on the corner of Crawhall Road and New Bridge Street.

A sound and light installation, commissioned from artist Adinda van 't Klooster, focuses on the themes of war, fear, and nuclear weapons, using the codenames of British military research projects as a backdrop.