Shell Grotto: England's mysterious underground seashell chamber

https://boingboing.net/2025/09/05/shell-grotto-englands-mysterious-underground-seashell-chamber.html

37•the-mitr•3mo ago

Comments

chris_armstrong•3mo ago

This is probably the highlight of a visit to an otherwise unremarkable English seaside town. The chambers are very old (even by English standards) and so unlike anything else medieval that is still around.

madaxe_again•3mo ago

18th century is not “very old, even by English standards”, it’s practically modern - these are almost certainly Georgian follies.

chris_armstrong•3mo ago

It was discovered in the 1800s, the shell grotto is much much older and probably built over a very long period of time

noir_lord•3mo ago

Doesn't seem like it tbh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Grotto,_Margate#Origins

> A member of the Kent Archaeological Society analyzed the grotto and concluded in 2006 that it was likely a mediaeval denehole, a small chalk mine, reworked and decorated in the 17th or 18th century.

There are multiple buildings in my village older than that (and the core of the church is centuries older).

chris_armstrong•3mo ago

I stand corrected - there’s so little known about it that it’s probably some strange labor of love from recent centuries

_benedict•3mo ago

I remember there being sufficient documentary evidence in the entrance/shop/museum bit to conclude it was most likely created by the very people who “discovered” it, to serve as a tourist attraction.

dfc•3mo ago

I havent been to boingboing in probably 15 years. Its weird to have nostalgia triggered by something so different from what it used to be.

klondike_klive•3mo ago

It used to be one of my favourite sites for weird DIY stuff. At some point in the mid 2010s I guess ad revenue tanked and social media killed their business model, and it made sense to cash in on their underground zine-y brand to hawk affiliate links, sponsored content, e-courses and clickbait. Sad but understandable. Around the same time I found the same vibe in other disparate places: The Cracked podcast (I still enjoy Jason Pargin's stuff) listening to Mark Frauenfelder's Cool Tools podcast, which is now called Recommendo, which carries on the affiliate link stuff and scratches that gadget itch. And the DIY and tinkering vibe is a huge part of HN.

ifh-hn•3mo ago

This has to be the 5th time recently this grotto has been posted to hn.

ballpug•3mo ago

Is perhaps contingent on the Bram Stoker "Dracula," which is a series of letters that either the captain of a ship ties his hands to the mast, or leaves a letter prior to landing on the coast, where black dog howls on the disfigured countryside.

ballpug•3mo ago

Point is to consider prose in Stoker's series as the tertiary correspondence.

throwaw111our45•3mo ago

I got a worn copy for $4.50 this afternoon.

jvvw•3mo ago

There are actually quite a lot of these in the UK - I remember many years ago meeting a lady who had visited them all and written a book about them!

zeristor•3mo ago

There’s Scott’s Grotto in Ware, one of the largest, close to London in Hertfordshire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott%27s_Grotto

The V&A has a huge Four-Poster bed named The Great Bed of Ware, that seems to be a rare survivor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bed_of_Ware

Large enough for four couples apparently, one assumes that was down to cold winters.

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Shell Grotto: England's mysterious underground seashell chamber

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