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Incredible tale of British Mole Man who built secret maze of underground TUNNELS beneath his home
Apr 13, 2025
TWO decades on from The Mole Man of Hackney's eviction, his neighbours have recalled how they would wake up at 2am, terrified there was an earthquake because of his bizarre tunnelling.
William Lyttle - who claimed to be a civil engineer, although there is no record of this - was a 6'3 Irish eccentric who lived in a massive house in De Beauvoir Town in London.
He moved into the £1million Victorian property in the mid 1960s and mostly kept to himself, renting out rooms to students who would go on to become artists and authors.
At first, locals had no strong opinions on the man - until he inexplicably began digging a "network of tunnels" beneath their homes.
His unusual hobby led to a furious uproar from his neighbours, who say they would wake up in the middle of the night to their whole house shaking and a deafening "rumbling" like thunder.
What began as a project to create a wine cellar eventually led to half a century of drilling. William, who was 79 when he died, ended up creating tunnels stretching up to 65ft in every direction - as deep at 26ft in some areas.
He even dug into a 450-volt cable under his house which sparked a major power outage for the street.
MYSTERY BEHIND THE TUNNELLING
The Irishman's massive underground maze was discovered in 2006 when a huge sinkhole opened up in the middle of the road - but he said at the time: "I just have a big basement."
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