The Sewer Lair (or Turtle Lair) is the home of the Turtles, located in an abandoned subway station beneath Chinatown, New York City. It is the most frequent aspect of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The lair has been seen many times over several episodes.
Layout[]
The lair is furnished with a kitchen, living room with TV, bedrooms for the turtles and Master Splinter, a dojo for practicing ninjutsu. It also has a workshop for Donnie and a meditation room for Master Splinter. It is wired for electricity to power the lights and many video games the turtles have collected as well as Donnie's power tools. Despite being located in such a place as a sewer, the lair appears comfortable enough that visitors like April and Casey don't seem put off by it.
History[]
1987 TV series[]
The Turtle Lair, by the Turtles sometimes referred to as "Sewer Sweet Sewer", was featured in almost every episode of 1987 TV series, except for the Vacation in Europe sideseason.
It was first found by Splinter when he still was Hamato Yoshi, living in the sewers of New York City.
2003 TV Series[]
In this series, Splinter and the four Turtles lived in the first lair for the fifteen years after their mutation. Compared to the later Y'Lyntian outpost and reservoir pumping station, the first lair was a more typical fictional sewer, with a large central space that served as a training hall, living room and bedroom for the four Turtles.
They were forced to leave this lair in the first episode of the series, Things Change, when a small army of Mousers broke through the walls and attacked them. During the battle, the Mousers chewed through the support pillars that kept the ceiling intact, causing a cave-in that separated Splinter from the Turtles. With their home no longer structurally sound, the Turtles and Splinter moved to the Y'Lyntian Outpost, a.k.a. their second lair. In A Better Mousetrap, Leonardo and Raphael were sent back to reclaim what personal possessions survived the cave-in.
However, this ruined first lair eventually gained a new occupant: the mutant crocodile Leatherhead, who was building a transmat device. During a battle with Baxter Stockman, an explosion caused the already-unstable ceiling to cave in completely, permanently destroying what was left of the old lair.
Splinter and the Turtle moved in to the second lair. This new lair was much larger and more comfortable than their old one, with a bedroom for each of the brothers, an area for Donatello's lab, a large living area with an entertainment system, and an outlet into the ocean. It also had a mysterious, hidden elevator that led to the upper world, which none of the Turtles initially could explain.
The structure was eventually revealed to be of Y'Lyntian origin, perhaps as some kind of outpost of the Underground City.
When The Turtles' second lair was destroyed by Karai and the Foot Clan in an act to avenge the Utrom Shredder's exile, Leonardo came across the Reservoir Station and made it their new lair.
2012 TV Series[]
Fifteen years before "Rise of the Turtles, Part 1", Hamato Yoshi and his four new pet turtles mutated, and Yoshi sought refuge underground, squatting secretly in an abandoned subway relay station, connected to a sewer and an abandoned subway tunnel. Yoshi improvised a home there, and raised the four mutant turtles as his own adopted sons and Ninjutsu students, who would call Yoshi by his new name "Splinter". Sometime after their mutation, the family recovered a non-mutant tortoise who became Raph's pet turtle Spike. For 15 years, the family farmed their own algae and worms as food. Splinter's four turtle sons spent virtually all their time in the lair until their 15th mutation day, when Splinter allowed them to visit the surface for the first time in their mutant lives.
The lair has been seen in almost all episodes. The main room of the subway relay station has been fashioned into the lair's common area. In addition to a common area, there is also a kitchen, a dojo for practicing Ninjutsu, several bedrooms and Donnie's lab. The common area and dojo each have skylights that shine down natural light during the day. The lair is also wired with electricity and plumbed for running water. In the common area, there is a "moat" of water that surrounds the dojo on three sides; this moat connects with New York City's sewers, though the moat itself appears to be clear, relatively clean water.
The lair was discovered by the Kraang in "The Invasion, Part 1" near the end of Season 2, and upon this discovery they finally launched the full Kraang invasion of Earth, starting with the opening of Kraang portals directly inside the lair. The common area, kitchen, dojo and Shellraiser were severely damaged during the fighting. The rest of the lair was structurally intact, but it was no longer secret and safe to live in. In The Invasion, Part 2, April and the Turtles (without Leonardo who had recently been gravely injured) briefly returned to the lair's ruins to collect a few precious personal belongings and Ice Cream Kitty before abandoning their home, unsure that they could ever return.
While the family was away, the Kraang booby-trapped the lair with a security drone that would shoot any living creature its scanner detects. The turtles quickly discovered this when they briefly returned to the lair in Return to New York to search for the missing Splinter. As such, when the turtles finally recovered Splinter, they temporarily hid inside the abandoned Antonio's Pizza-Rama store.
After the Kraang were defeated and expelled in Battle for New York, Part 2, Splinter and the turtles reclaimed the lair in Casey Jones VS. The Underworld, repairing the damage left over from the invasion. By Clash of the Mutanimals, Donnie had repaired the Shellraiser as well.
2018 TV Series[]
There is a large atrium in the center of the lair with three different floors, and multiple tunnels branching off of the walls. On the bottom floor, there is the garage and four bedrooms, each for Splinter's four sons. On the middle floor is the arcade, kitchen, living room, and Splinter's bedroom. On the top floor is Donnie's lab and the bathroom.
The lair was destroyed in "Shreddy or Not".