Hidden London – Euston: The Lost Tunnels

A couple of years ago I signed up for a virtual tour of Euston tube station’s lost tunnels. The tour was fascinating and I resolved to sign up for an in-person tour if and when they reopened. At the weekend I was lucky enough to get my chance.

Leslie Green-designed entrance to Euston station (CCE&HR branch) with its iconic oxblood bricks

We met at Euston Square station and watched a short video about the history of Euston mainline and Underground stations. I won’t repeat the information here as I put much of it in my blog post about the virtual tour, but it was a useful refresher. We then walked over to the old CCE&HR building, now surrounded by railings and facing imminent demolition. Finally we headed towards Euston station, through the barriers and down the escalators to the southbound Northern line platform (Bank branch), from where we headed through a door at the end of the platform to reach the disused tunnels.

Inside the disused tunnels at Euston

After checking out the tunnels we walked into another area where yellow paint was recently discovered – this shade of yellow in an Underground station means the Second World War. These tunnels were marked for use as a shelter during possible air raids for railway staff who weren’t able to get home.

Finally we went into a very secret space above the tracks and got to see the trains pulling into the station – it felt very surreal.

There’s no point in repeating what I said about the virtual tour, so instead, here are some pictures I took of the inside of the station.

Poster for 'Puss In Boots' in the Euston tunnels
Poster for the musical 'West Side Story' in the Euston tunnels

Poster for the film 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' in the Euston tunnels
Poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster for the film 'Spartacus' in the Euston tunnels
Advert poster in the Euston tunnels
Poster for the movie 'Psycho' in the Euston tunnels
Railway poster in the Euston tunnels

Elizabeth line late – London Transport Museum

I’ve wanted to go to a late event at the London Transport Museum for a while, and the Elizabeth line late seemed the perfect time to do so. I’d hoped to take the opportunity to visit the Hidden London exhibition at the same time, but in the end there was far too much going on to spend any time actually looking around the museum!

The window of the London Transport Museum shop

I decided to wear my La Vidriola tube line necklace, which got several compliments. Many other people wore purple to celebrate the Elizabeth line’s signature colour – assorted purple merchandise was also available to buy. Sadly, I never did get hold of a purple balloon hat, as sported by several attendees.

In the centre of the Museum, Zoom Through History had set up a table featuring various board games from the different decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. They also had costumed characters from each decade. In the canteen, there was a pub quiz, and a special bar was also available, selling assorted purple drinks.

I never got round to checking out any of those things, because I went straight to the craft modelling activity, which allowed you to construct your own Elizabeth line station from card, blu-tack, toothpicks and sellotape. I was rather proud of my station, which I named Farringdon’t, and it supported the toy as required in the specification, but when I went to check on it later it had collapsed, so clearly it’s a good thing I didn’t pursue a career as an engineer.

I spent most of my evening at the talks offered by members of staff. Collecting the Elizabeth line saw former Documentary Curator Rosamund Lily West talk about how the Museum documented the story of the Elizabeth line in real time, collecting relevant items that are of significance in its story and construction. I found this fascinating as it involved thinking about what future generations will find significant, and how they will approach learning about the past.

Planning the Elizabeth line was a talk by Chris Nix, the Museum’s Assistant Director of Collections and Engagement (also known for the Hidden London Hangouts on YouTube). He talked about the history of the Elizabeth line, and how plans for it were originally explored over a century ago, along with plans for a number of other routes and railways that never came to fruition.

Finally, Simon Bennett, Head of Learning Legacy at Crossrail, delivered Building the Elizabeth line, talking about the later stages of the line’s construction and how the line became operation. His talk was also fascinating, and I appreciated his honesty about the line’s delayed opening and the issues it faced, as well as the positives.

I had a great time, and I’m not too annoyed that I will have to make a repeat visit to the Museum to see the Hidden London exhibition!

A white woman with blonde hair wearing a tube map necklace

Hidden London: Kingsway Tram Tunnel

The Kingsway Tram Tunnel

I attended a virtual tour of the Kingsway Tram Tunnel during lockdown, so I was excited to get the chance to attend a real, in-person tour when lockdown eased. I booked the day off work specially, and headed to the entrance ready for the start time.

Entrance to the Kingsway Tram Tunnel

I’ve seen the entrance plenty of times before – a line of tram tracks, heading down into a tunnel, with black railings on either side and lamps marking the beginning of the tunnel. This time, I actually got to go through the gate and see what was hidden in the depths of that tunnel.

The old station

We were shown a map of tram routes in London at the beginning of the 20th century, and it became apparent just how necessary the Kingsway tram tunnel was in order to connect north and south. Originally built between 1906 and 1908, the tramway finally closed in 1952.

The tunnel is dirty and dusty, and there is plenty of equipment lying about left over from when construction workers used the tunnel as a way in to the Crossrail construction site. The original tram tracks and iron ceiling, however, still remain. In the 1920s the tunnel was made bigger to accommodate double-decker trams, and this was mostly done by lowering the floor – which can be seen at various points along the route (at this northern end the roof was raised, and this can still be seen). The hill down to the tunnel is quite steep, and trams used to speed up at this part, slowing down when they got to the bottom. Alcoves are situated at several points along the tracks, allowing workers to safely hide as the trams were going by.

The tunnel

The central point of the tour was the platform itself, with staircases (now closed off above ground) marking the entrance and exit points for travellers. I’ve seen black and white photos of passengers waiting for trams, and it was eerie to be in that very same place, decades later.

roundel

A TfL roundel can be seen on the wall, labelled ‘Union Street’, but this is not original – it is left over from when the tunnel was used as a filming location and stood in for an Underground station. Much of the equipment and other assorted items down here are from Camden Council, who use it for storage – but the poster display rack is probably original.

Our guides regaled us with stories about the trams and the people who used them, including tales from those who remember travelling on the original trams, and those who travelled alongside them – such as cyclists who got their bikes stuck in the tram tracks and were told off by angry drivers! It was fascinating to hear these stories and imagine what it would have been like to travel on these trams all those years ago.

London Transport Museum Depot Open Weekend – Underground Uncovered

Museum Depot

It’s been a long time since I’ve visited the London Transport Museum‘s Acton depot, so I decided to go along to their ‘Underground Uncovered’ event in September. As on my previous visit, there was plenty to see – buses, trams, and Underground cars including one of the District Line carriages that I travelled on frequently before they replaced them a few years ago.

An old District Line train

During my visit I attended a talk, The Development of the Underground Logo and Roundel, with Nick Gill. This was fascinating and I learned a lot – not least that the roundel was nearly superseded by a different logo at one point, but the new one did not catch on, to say the least.

Lego Underground map

There were also some new things to see: notably a Lego map of the Underground, and – most excitingly – the miniature railway! I got to have a ride on this, and it was great fun.

The Acton depot is open on several weekends throughout the year – check out the museum website for details.

Hidden London: York Road (Digital Tour)

york road station

I’ve passed York Road station before – it’s a red brick Leslie Green building not far from King’s Cross – so was glad to have the opportunity to see inside on a Hidden London online tour.

Located between King’s Cross and Caledonian Road on the Piccadilly Line (formerly the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway), the station, on the corner of York Road (now York Way) and Bingfield Street, opened in 1906. However, it was never heavily used, and closed in 1932 when the northern extension to the Piccadilly Line – Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove – opened.

The station featured lifts, which – uniquely to this station and a couple of others – took passengers directly to the platforms. Because of this, the tracks curved outwards around the platform. The station contains a small signalling cabin, which remained in use until 1964, many years after the station had closed. I don’t envy the poor workers who had to sit there all alone!

The station platforms no longer exist, but the site is used as an emergency exit, so lights do still exist on one of the pathways out. It’s possible to view the station from the train – why not have a look next time you’re travelling north from King’s Cross?

Hidden London: Euston (Digital Tour)

The now-disused, Leslie Green-designed entrance to Euston Underground (CCE&HR branch)

When thinking of Euston station, I suspect most people would think of the ugly 60s building that, amid much controversy, replaced the famous arch which marked the entrance to the railway station. However, in a virtual tour entitled ‘Euston: The Lost Tunnels’ I learned that there is much more going on beneath this station. There are no less than two disused stations in amongst the tracks and tunnels of Euston as it is now; some of these tunnels have not been used by passengers for over a century.

The mainline station opened in 1837, linking passengers in the Midlands to London. Companies operating the city’s tube lines wanted to take advantage of the passenger traffic from the station, and in the early 1900s the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) and the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) had both been permitted to build stations near, albeit not directly on, the mainline terminus. They were allowed to construct a shared underground ticket hall below ground, which linked up their two stations on either side of the main station – the only such ticket hall which still survives.

The C&SLR, London’s first deep level tube line, opened in 1890 and extended to Euston in 1907. The station building was designed by Sidney Smith and the façade was green and white, Doulton’s glazed Carraraware. Today, the building no longer stands but the C&SLR is now the Bank branch of the Northern line. Like many stations on this line, the C&SLR at Euston had an island platform, but this has now been modified (this is why some platforms at Euston seem massive).

Later the same year, the CCE&HR opened its station, a typical Leslie Green design with oxblood-red tiles, with a green and cream design inside. However, passengers largely preferred the joint ticket office below ground and both station buildings had relatively low usage. By 1914, both companies were part of the Underground Electric Railways of London (UERL), aka the Underground Group, and the individual station buildings were closed.

The 1960s rebuild of the mainline station prompted a redesign and expansion of the Underground ticket hall, and the construction of the Victoria line that same decade also led to changes. The station was remodelled and rationalised, the ventilation system was upgraded, and many tunnels were closed off to passengers, remaining in use as ventilation shafts and storage areas, and acting as time capsules, with old advertising displays and movie posters fixing the tunnels in time.

With the construction of HS2, the CCE&HR station building pictured above is due to be demolished, but the disused tunnels will remain – something I’m extremely glad about.

Hidden London: Aldwych (Digital Tour)

The frontage of Aldwych/Strand station
Image: Wikimedia Commons

I’ve already done the real-life Hidden London tour of Aldwych – in fact, it was the first tour I ever went on, several years ago. However, these digital tours often show you things you could never see on an in-person tour, so I signed up anyway.

Aldwych was always a bit of an odd station: as I mentioned in my previous post on the Holborn Kingsway digital tour, it was a station on its own at the end of a branch line, only reachable by shuttle from Holborn. Even the name caused confusion: it was originally known as Strand, but changed its name to Aldwych when Charing Cross Strand station was to be renamed just Strand. It was never heavily used – plans to extend this branch of the line to Waterloo never came to fruition – and ended up closing in 1994, not before being used as storage space for valuable artworks and an air raid shelter during both World Wars.

Since closure Aldwych has frequently been used for filming, its old-fashioned appearance perfectly serving films and TV shows set in the past (the old Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross, being a bit more modern, are typically used for present-day settings). Films that have used the station include Atonement (2007), The Edge of Love (2008), and Darkest Hour (2017). Aldwych was also the location for The Prodigy’s music video for Firestarter. It is a lovely station to visit, both in-person and online, as it has so many original features including lifts, tiles and ticket booths.

See my post on my in-person visit to Aldwych here.

Hidden London: Holborn Kingsway (Digital Tour)

Holborn Station today
Image: Wikimedia Commons

I signed up to the Hidden London digital tour of Holborn Kingsway because I thought it looked pretty interesting, and I wasn’t wrong. Even though I’ve been to Holborn station plenty of times, this talk covered the Kingsway area in general, and was fascinating.

Kingsway runs from Holborn to the Strand, and was transformed at the turn of the twentieth century by the London County Council (LCC), from Victorian slums to a modern thoroughfare with modern transport infrastructure built in. The Underground station was well-used from the start and remains so today, starting off as a Piccadilly line station and expanding in 1930 to fit the Central line too; the branch line to Aldwych (a now-disused station which you can visit on virtual and, in non-Covid times, in-person tours) was not, and eventually closed. However, the talk mainly focused on the tramway.

The Kingsway Tram Subway ran beneath Kingsway allowing trams to travel between the Victoria Embankment to Southampton Row easily, linking the tramways of north and south London. It was built using a cut-and-cover method, like the early Underground lines. Originally designed for single-decker trams, it was later upgraded to fit double-decker trams, and reopened in 1931. Owing to dwindling usage, trams were eventually discontinued in central London, with the final trams running through the Kingsway Tram Subway in 1952. The subway still exists, however, and the photos of waiting passengers side-by-side with modern pictures of the empty and derelict space were really evocative.

Hidden London: Brompton Road (Digital Tour)

Brompton Road tube station facade
Image: Wikimedia Commons

My second Hidden London virtual tour after King William Street was Brompton Road. It’s another station that could never be visited on an in-person tour (as it can only be accessed via the driver’s cab of a Piccadilly line train), so I was happy to have the chance to attend this one.

Brompton Road was opened on 15 December 1906 on what is now the Piccadilly line, and was then the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway. The façade was the typical Leslie Green design, familiar to many Tube users, with its striking oxblood tiles, although little evidence of this frontage remains today (the main entrance was demolished in 1972). Located, as the name suggests, on Brompton Road, it closed in 1934 owing to low passenger numbers; most people used Knightsbridge or South Kensington which were located on either side, and there weren’t that many potential passengers to begin with considering the area was fairly affluent and most people here preferred their own forms of transport. Even before the 1930s trains often skipped this stop, and the station inspired the name of a 1928 play, Passing Brompton Road.

In 1938, the station enjoyed a new lease of life when it was bought by the War Department and converted into the headquarters and command centre of the 1st Anti-Aircraft division of the Territorial Army (responsible for protecting London from aerial attack during the Second World War). Still visible is a map of London, varnished onto one wall, to show where anti-aircraft guns should be deployed. The Ministry of Defence later used it as a training facility for new cadets, and in 2013 the surface buildings were sold off. While little remains above ground, however, there is plenty to see below ground, including some spectacular tiling on the original platforms, and remnants of its past as a wartime headquarters.

The London Transport Museum has details of the virtual tours you can take – they are well worth it.

Hidden London: King William Street (Digital Tour)

Plaque marking the site of King William Street Station
Image: Wikimedia Commons

I’ve been on several Hidden London real-life tours, but naturally these have had to be cancelled because of Covid. Not to worry, because the enterprising team at the London Transport Museum have put on some virtual events instead, many covering brand new sites, and visiting areas the general public would never be allowed in.

The very first virtual, or digital, tour I joined was King William Street, which was the world’s first deep Tube station and also has the dubious honour of being the first station to be disused. Opened on 18 December 1890, it formed part of the City and South London Railway which began at Stockwell and carried passengers into the City, but difficulties with the curve and the gradient surrounding the area meant that the line was eventually rerouted and the station closed at around the turn of the century.

Interestingly, the line was originally planned to use cable cars, but this idea was scrapped as unworkable and electric locomotives were used instead.

The station was used as an air raid shelter during World War II and later for archival storage before once again falling into disuse. Excitingly, the station is enjoying something of a new lease of life, as it is the access route for the Bank extension and upgrade project.

This station could never be included on in-person tours so I was glad to have had the chance to attend this virtual one. It was fascinating to see pictures from the station’s heyday and the tunnels and staircases that still exist underground – some with original tiling, others with 1940s posters and remnants of the yellow paint often used during the war. A plaque marking the station is still visible near the site, and I intend to check it out once London opens up again.