As Rolling Stone reports, the abandoned Jergins Tunnel in Downtown Long Beach, California will be turned into a bona fide speakeasy based on the recent Lana Del Rey album Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.
This is based on the announcement by L.A. city and business leaders that the Hard Rock Hotel will be arriving at the coastal downtown in 2027 at the vacant site of the former Jergins Trust Building on the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue. Mayor Rex Richardson announced that as part of the project, the Jergins Tunnel would be repurposed into a speakeasy with music that “ties into our local vibe.”
In the late ’60s, the tunnel was sealed off and closed to the public, but was once a subway that provided access to the beach where food and souvenir vendors lined the walls. In her interview with Rolling Stone, Del Rey previously posed of Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd: “Would it be a worrisome concept to be boxed out and sealed up with all these beautiful things inside with no one able to gain access except maybe family?”
“That was a question I had because that’s a very plausible thing that could happen with the music, with how pointed people’s perceptions of my music can be,” she explained.
