After years of excavation and clearing, and months of pandemic-induced delays, the El Deposito Underground Reservoir is now finally open to the public! Visitors can walk back in time through a portion of the Spanish-era tunnels just sitting underneath the sprawling public park in San Juan City.
A 150-meter stretch of one of the massive chambers has been cleared out of mud and debris and was formally opened to the public on Bonifacio Day, Nov. 30, 2021.
While I’ve visited the Museo El Deposito Waterworks museum that stands on top of the reservoir before, I’ve been eagerly waiting to see the step foot in the actual tunnels under the Pinaglabanan Memorial Shrine, so we made sure to visit the site by bikes on the week it opened.
El Deposito Underground Reservoir
In case you’re not familiar with the historical site, El Deposito is an underground water reservoir built by the Spanish authorities in 1880. It was originally built as part of the Carriedo Waterworks under the supervision of Genaro Palacios, a Spanish engineer and architect who used the Marikina River as the El Deposito’s water source.
At one time, the reservoir had a capacity of 15 million gallons and provided residents of Manila and surrounding areas with their water supply before it was abandoned.
Visitors can now walk through a portion of the tunnel on an elevated and dinly lit walkway. It’s a short stretch to the end and some corridors are still enclosed as of our visit. It would be cool if people could actually explore the other corridors on foot in the future.
TRIVIA: The official music video for Lunod by Ben&Ben directed by Jerrold Tarog was filmed here.
And yes, to those who are asking about the "Lunod" music video, It was taken here in the El Deposito underground reservoir!
— Museo El Deposito (@MuseoElDeposito) November 27, 2021
Thank you @BenAndBenMusic and Director @JerroldTarog for featuring our site!
Watch the music video here;https://t.co/xa9MNPk9X9#MakeItHistoric pic.twitter.com/5b6claa3pP
Museo El Deposito
To get a better appreciation for the site, it’s best to start your tour with the Museo El Deposito, a modern new museum that stands right right next to the entrance to the reservoir. The museum, which opened in 2019, gives visitors an overview of the old Spanish-era waterworks system and how it used to work.
The sparklingly clean two-story museum features 3 galleries, with some hi-tech displays, and a virtual reality room to present bits of the country’s civil-engineering history.
The diorama of the Pinaglabanan Shrine there shows just how expansive the tunnels are beneath.
The museum also contains a display of some of the items excavated from the tunnels during its rehabilitation phase, including 1950’s cologne bottles of Old Spice, army helmets used in the 1940s, and old bottles of Cosmos sarsaparilla, established in 1945, among others.
Museo ng Katipunan
While you’re in the area, you can also visit the Museo ng Katipunan, a history museum dedicated to the Katipunan and Filipino revolution also situated within the grounds of the Pinaglabanan Shrine.
The Museo ng Katipunan features artifacts which relate to the Philippine Revolution and the Katipunan. The museum includes documents such as cedulas, oaths, membership forms, as well as medals, anting-anting and weapons used by the Katipunan.
Before the pandemic, you could easily just walk in to visit these museums, but due to current pandemic restrictions, online bookings are required to visit as of Dec. 2021. We visited on a Friday afternoon around 3:00 pm, as there’s a cut-off for letting guests in.
- Museum Hours: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm from Tuesday to Sunday
- Visitors must wear face masks during visits and practice social distancing
- Don’t forget to bring your vaccination cards
- Avoid physical contact with other guests and keep a a safe distance of 1 meter or more
- Only 5 persons are allowed per tour inside the museum
- Some interactive exhibits like the Virtual Reality experience are currently not available
- Book visits online here. They recommend booking tours at least 2 days before intended date of visit. My booking was confirmed via email.
Museo El Deposito, Underground Reservoir & Museo ng Katipunan, Pinaglabanan Shrine, 1500 Pinaglaban, San Juan, Metro Manila
P.S. There’s no bike parking outside the museum, but the staff on duty was very welcoming and told us we could just park our bikes nearby where he could see it. Hopefully, more museums will install bike parking on their grounds. Bring bike locks.
El Depósito Brewery
After visiting the museum and underground reservoir, a great place to cap your ride is El Depósito Brewery, a craft brewery in San Juan, about a kilometer away through P. Guevarra Street. The local, small batch neighborhood-focused craft brewery aims to be a neighborhood brewpub where locals and visitors alike can come together to share quality beer.
El Depósito Brewery is a friendly neighborhood watering hole that takes inspiration from the old underground water reservoir that once provided enough water supply to the residents of Manila and its surrounding areas.
When it comes to crat beer spots in the metro, El Depósito Brewery is one of the more open-air and bike-friendly establishments. This has become one of our favorite craft beer spots for casual beer rides since we first visited in June 2021, and it seems to have become very popular with the cycling crowd especially during weekends.
El Depósito Brewery doesn’t serve food, but you can order food from Flossom Kitchen & Cafe right next door. I recommend the Pink Truffle Fries and pizza.
You can bring tumblers and order beer to go as well from the brewery. If you want to get their beers on tap at home without heading out, visit the Beer2Go online delivery service.
Aside from Greenhills Mall, the restaurants in the Wilson and P. Guevarra area in San Juan City are interesting destinations for urban explorers and bikers. It’s so much easier to get around now that there are bike lanes in major streets like Ortigas Avenue. Some of the streets are a bit tight or one-way, so it’s much easier and pleasant getting here by bike than by car.
El Depósito Brewery. 187 N Averilla, San Juan, 1500 Metro Manila