diff --git a/desktop/netsurf.c b/desktop/netsurf.c
index 328035ff5..7c7ce9d99 100644
--- a/desktop/netsurf.c
+++ b/desktop/netsurf.c
@@ -217,8 +217,6 @@ nserror netsurf_init(const char *messages, const char *store_path)
 	if (ret != NSERROR_OK)
 		return ret;
 
-	url_init();
-
 	setlocale(LC_ALL, "C");
 
 	/* initialise the fetchers */
diff --git a/test/urldbtest.c b/test/urldbtest.c
index cc657ed11..2b7e8a060 100644
--- a/test/urldbtest.c
+++ b/test/urldbtest.c
@@ -163,7 +163,6 @@ int main(void)
 	char *path_query;
 
 	corestrings_init();
-	url_init();
 
 	h = urldb_add_host("127.0.0.1");
 	if (!h) {
diff --git a/utils/url.c b/utils/url.c
index 92e956b55..b32a7346f 100644
--- a/utils/url.c
+++ b/utils/url.c
@@ -32,35 +32,6 @@
 #include "utils/url.h"
 
 
-regex_t url_re, url_up_re;
-
-/* exported interface documented in utils/url.h */
-nserror url_init(void)
-{
-	nserror ret;
-
-	/* regex from RFC 2396 */
-	ret = regcomp_wrapper(&url_re, "^[[:space:]]*"
-#define URL_RE_SCHEME 2
-			"(([a-zA-Z][-a-zA-Z0-9+.]*):)?"
-#define URL_RE_AUTHORITY 4
-			"(//([^/?#[:space:]]*))?"
-#define URL_RE_PATH 5
-			"([^?#[:space:]]*)"
-#define URL_RE_QUERY 7
-			"(\\?([^#[:space:]]*))?"
-#define URL_RE_FRAGMENT 9
-			"(#([^[:space:]]*))?"
-			"[[:space:]]*$", REG_EXTENDED);
-	if (ret != NSERROR_OK) {
-		return ret;
-	}
-
-	return regcomp_wrapper(&url_up_re,
-			"/([^/]?|[.][^./]|[^./][.]|[^./][^./]|[^/][^/][^/]+)"
-			"/[.][.](/|$)",
-			REG_EXTENDED);
-}
 
 /* exported interface documented in utils/url.h */
 bool url_host_is_ip_address(const char *host)
diff --git a/utils/url.h b/utils/url.h
index d05ac0580..627bb5cb8 100644
--- a/utils/url.h
+++ b/utils/url.h
@@ -34,14 +34,6 @@
 #define FILE_SCHEME_PREFIX_LEN 8
 
 
-/**
- * Initialise URL routines.
- *
- * Compiles regular expressions required by the url_ functions.
- */
-nserror url_init(void);
-
-
 /**
  * Check whether a host string is an IP address.
  *