The house under which the notorious “Hackney Mole Man” dug an extensive network of tunnels and caves in a decades long subterranean campaign is to be auctioned next month, it has been announced.

The building in east London’s Hackney area is expected to fetch around £750,000.

Planning permission to knock the house down and replace it with two town houses – with basements – has been granted.

Those basements are perhaps unlikely to house 33 tons of debris, including the three cars and a boat found under the house in Mole Man William Lyttle’s day.

Lyttle died at the age of 79 two years ago, leaving a £408,000 bill as a result of his 40 years of digging, during which he constructed extensive tunnels under the streets of up to 60 feet in length.

He was evicted from the house in 2006 “for his own safety”.

Since then, it has been surrounded by high fences and most of the tunnels have been filled in. The building originally went on sale last year for around £500,000 but no deal was completed.

Sean King, CEO of the estate agent Move with Us, said: “Putting the property up for auction is the best option to achieve the maximum property price, coupled with the fact that the site has restricted viewing access and is unsafe.

“Owing to the previous high interest from buyers, we expect lots of interest in the sale.