Secret corridors, hidden rooms, and trapdoors are the stuff of adventure and romance. Egyptian pyramids riddled with underground chambers and booby traps. An English country house with a priest hole and a trick bookcase. A speakeasy with a sliding panel that leads to a brothel and a gambling parlor. Who wouldn’t want to go exploring?!
And where would Gothic storytelling be without the secret passage in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto? Or the hidden door to the attic in Jane Eyre that’s protecting an epic secret?
If your childhood was shaped by reading the enchanting adventures in The Secret Garden and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or by solving the mystery of The Hidden Staircase with Nancy Drew, this show is for you.
In this episode, we discuss an amazing book heist from an ancient French monastery, debate if Ben Franklin was a werewolf hunter, get lost in the Mansion on O Street, and daydream about living in the New York Public Library. Then we recommend great books that lured us into magical portals, dangerous tunnels, secret passages, and other hidden spaces that prove irresistible.
Read the full transcript of Secret Passages: Down the Rabbit Hole.
During the opening of the show, we mentioned secret passages we’ve visited:
The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, USA: official website and Atlas Obscura.
Strahov Monastery Library in Prague, Czechia: official website, our first visit, and behind-the-scenes tour.
Hospital in the Rock Nuclear Bunker Museum in Budapest, Hungary: official website and Atlas Obscura.
Milk & Honey Speakeasy in New York, New York, USA on Wikipedia. Sadly, both the New York and London locations are now closed.
There are so many fun roundups of secret passages, hidden chambers, and other mysterious spaces. Here are a bunch to entertain you.
This is the best one, if you want to keep your trip down the rabbit hole brief: 10 Eccentric Homes With Hidden Passageways.
The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco has an infamous secret passage that may have been used by Marilyn Monroe!
In 16th-century England, Wales, and Ireland, country houses often had priest holes: hallways and secret rooms where Catholic priests could hide if Protestants came hunting for them. Amusing Planet has photos and blueprints — and here are the top 5 priest holes in Britain.
As promised, here are instructions so you can build a secret door bookcase (!). Here’s a peek inside the secret room a woman built behind the bookcase in her apartment.
Are you happy we live in a world where HiddenDoorStore.com exists?! Or how about HiddenPassageway.com?! The latter has an AMAZING video on its homepage — please treat yourself to it. Sneak peek:
Ronald Knox was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. He wrote, among other things, the Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction.
The monastery at Mont Sainte-Odile was built in the 7th century and is found in the Vosges mountains above the small town of Saverne in France. Here’s everything you need to know if you want to visit. This is a fantastic audio story about the book theft Mel described in our podcast. Here’s The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, and Ancient Origins on the theft.
Statement 1: After Benjamin Franklin died, they found 15 bodies in a secret room hidden under his house. Smithsonian Magazine weighs in on why Ben Franklin’s basement was filled with skeletons.
Statement 2: There’s a Museum of Hidden Passages in Washington, DC. Here’s the official website and the Wikipedia page for The Mansion on O Street. You can reserve a room on Booking.com! And get the scoop on tours right here.
Deanna Raybourn is the author of the Veronica Speedwell series and the upcoming Killers of a Certain Age; Deanna’s website. LitHub has a great interview (and podcast) with the author.
Alix E. Harrow is the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January; Alix’s website. Here’s a print interview with the author, and a podcast interview on Fictitious Podcast.
Before Tunnel 29 was a fantastic book, it was a BBC podcast; listen here, and here’s a boatload of interviews with its creator and writer Helena Merriman.
The documentary The Tunnel from 1962 is available in its entirety on YouTube.
Yes, there is sexy fanfic about her character Missouri Kite. If you haven’t read The Kingdoms yet, beware: There are spoilers to be found at that link.
The mystery of Eilean Mór…
Iran: Revolution, Poetry, Storytelling, and Spices, Dave talked about the ancient underground city of Nushabad during Two Truths and a Lie.
Turkey: It’s Turkish Delight on a Moonlit Night , Dave talked about the Derinkuyu Underground City during Two Truths and a Lie.
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