The Imberbus is coming…

A classic RoutemasterOne of the Routemasters serving Imber

I read about Imberbus Day on the Londonist website a while ago and was fascinated. This year, I decided that it was time to finally make the trip, partly because I know I definitely wouldn’t be able to go next year as a good friend is getting married that day! I’m so glad I finally made the effort, as it was a brilliant day out.

About Imber

The village of Imber, on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, is what is known as a ‘lost’ village. The entire civilian population of the village was evicted in 1943 (with 47 days’ notice) so that American troops could use the area to prepare for the invasion of Europe during World War II. Despite being promised that they would be able to return to their homes once the war was over, the villagers were never allowed back, and the Ministry of Defence still controls the area.

The village existed in Saxon times, documented to have been present in 967, and is also recorded in the Domesday Book, with a population of around fifty. The church of St Giles dates back to the 12th century and has wall paintings from the 15th century. The population peaked in 1851, with 440 residents recorded in the census of that year, and had declined to around 150 by the time the remaining residents were evicted.

St Giles' ChurchSt Giles’ Church

Most of the buildings are now derelict or were demolished by the Army, with the church being the only building to remain in a decent condition. A pub called the Bell Inn, the manor house, Imber Court, some farm cottages and some ‘council house’ type blocks also survive. Many of the ‘buildings’ that stand there today are fakes created by the Army for training purposes.

I read about Imber in Neil Spring’s novel The Lost Village, featuring famous twentieth-century ghost hunter Harry Price. This book made me want to visit this historic village even more.

How did Imberbus Day come about?

In 2009, a group of bus industry professionals managed to get permission to run a vintage bus service to Imber from Warminster in Wiltshire. Imber is only open to the public on a handful of dates each year, and only one of those is approved for a bus service, so the annual Imberbus Day takes place in August. The event has become increasingly popular, and the bus service now extends to other parts of Wiltshire. Most of the buses used are traditional Routemasters, but there are a handful of newer ones plus a few more unusual single-decker buses.

On the top deck of the RoutemasterOn the top deck of the Routemaster

My day at Imber

I had originally been planning to take the train to Warminster and catch the bus from there, which seems to be the usual thing to do. However, on investigation I found a National Express coach service running directly to Imber and back from London Victoria. I decided to book myself onto this, as it was cheaper than the train, and after speaking to various people once I got to Imber I was SO glad that I did. Apparently the queue to catch the bus at Warminster was huge and people were waiting there for hours (on what was quite a hot day, too) so I definitely did the right thing.

Empty houses in ImberEmpty houses in Imber

Imber was incredibly busy but the atmosphere was lovely. The first thing I did was to queue up for a while to enter the church, which contains a display all about the history of Imber. It was quite a poignant experience, especially considering the graveyard surrounding the church, the residents of which can only receive mourners on designated days throughout the year.

I’ve recently taken up geocaching and I took the opportunity to try and tick off the two Imber-related caches listed on the app. I achieved one of them, which involved answering a question and sending a photo to prove I had made it to the location. I had less luck with the other, which involved finding clues in the church and the graveyard and calculating the coordinates based on the answers. I had trouble working out the final result and, by the time I’d finally got the answer (or thought I had) it was too late to go in search of the cache. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to come back to Imber then!

Inside St Giles' ChurchInside the church

I walked around the main street for a bit, reading the signs that stated where particular buildings used to be located. You aren’t allowed to leave the path for safety reasons, and the buildings are mostly hollowed out and fake, in any case. All in all, it’s a surreal experience.

Eventually I decided to leave Imber via one of the beautiful old Routemasters. This is where making the trip by myself came in handy, as I was able to grab the very last seat on the upper deck, buying my ticket from the conductor just like in the Olden Days. I chatted to a lovely woman on the way to Market Lavington, enjoying the views over Salisbury Plain. I disembarked at Market Lavington in order to visit the small museum there, and also enjoyed a cup of tea and a scone at the cafe.

Market Lavington MuseumMarket Lavington Museum

I got back on the bus to head back towards Imber. It was hugely busy at Gore Cross interchange (and rather surreal to see so many London buses ambling over the hills) but eventually I managed to catch the bus back to Imber and get on the coach to take me back to London.

I had a really lovely time exploring Imber and the surrounding area. I don’t think I actually managed to see all of Imber, and I certainly didn’t get to see every stop on the bus route. I guess this just means I will have to go back in the future!

Hidden London – Charing Cross: Access All Areas

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Underground at Charing Cross, waiting to go through the barriers

The tube is one of my obsessions, and I’ve already toured the closed Aldwych/Strand station, so I was thrilled to have the chance to tour the disused Jubilee Line platforms of Charing Cross station. The tours, organised by the London Transport Museum and Hidden London, sold out almost as soon as they went on sale. We were told to meet by the barriers in Charing Cross underground station – this was unusually quiet for a Sunday, perhaps because the main line station was closed.

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This walled-up entrance was once the way to the Jubilee line

We were issued with wristbands and taken through the barrier and down the escalator. Once we had reached the bottom, a door in the unassuming wall directly in front of us was opened and we were ushered through to find another escalator, this time switched off, so that we had to walk down it. At the bottom were the platforms, decorated with film posters left over from the Underground Film Club‘s recent residency.

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Hidden London poster

The Jubilee line was first opened in 1979, two years after the Queen’s Silver Jubilee which lent its name to the line as well as the silver/grey colour of the line on the tube map. Known prior to its construction as the Fleet line, after the tributary of the Thames that also gave its name to Fleet Street, it took over what was formerly the Bakerloo line between Stanmore and Baker Street, continuing on to Charing Cross, a station with a chequered history, having originally been two separate stations that were united only when the Jubilee line platforms opened.

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Poster showing the stations along the Jubilee line when it first opened

For twenty years the Jubilee line served Charing Cross, alongside the Bakerloo and Northern lines. However, in 1999 the Jubilee line was extended: the line was rerouted from Green Park to Westminster, carrying on south of the river to the Docklands area and the O2 (then the Millennium Dome), curving back up and terminating at Stratford. The Green Park-Charing Cross section of the line has been closed to regular tube trains ever since, though it is still used as a sidings and in certain circumstances trains can be sent down here to help avoid congestion – one of my friends was once on a train that was temporarily rerouted down here, and when she told me about it I was VERY jealous.

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One of the platforms

Our knowledgeable and informative volunteer guides told us all about the station, its history, and how it is used today. It is often used for testing new features.

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The yellow wall signifies that there is an exit on the opposite side

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For the first time in this station, the name of the station was positioned lower on the wall so it could be read from the train

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In case of emergency, shining a light on these yellow panels makes them glow green, so that they stand out in the darkness

The station is sometimes used for storage.

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You wouldn’t get this in a normal station – it is used for moving things off and on trains

The station has a distinctive look that you can recognise if you see it on screen – so long as you know what to look for.

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The open ceiling signifies air vents.

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We were shown a series of short film clips featuring Skyfall (2011/12), Paddington (2013) and the TV show 24 (2014), filmed on these platforms. As I had learned at Aldwych station, historical TV programmes and films tend to be filmed in that station, whereas more modern shows tend to be shot here at Charing Cross.

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This is the escalator that Bond slid down in Skyfall: thankfully with the spikes at the bottom removed!

After we had explored the platforms we were divided into two groups and taken to see more hidden parts of the station.

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In the film Creep (2004) a creature comes out of this very hole.

My group visited a construction tunnel first – entering via the door that Daniel Craig pops out of in Skyfall, blending in seamlessly with the hordes of commuters.

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It was dark and rather disgusting in the tunnel – but still incredibly exciting

When the Jubilee line was first being built, constructors couldn’t dig directly beneath Charing Cross station, as this would have been too disruptive for traffic. Instead, they sunk a hole next to the National Gallery – where the Sainsbury Wing is located now – and tunnelled along from there.

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We were walking under Trafalgar Square at this point

An older part of the tunnel is now entirely blocked up, in a location directly beneath the Fourth Plinth.

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The tunnellers used the same methods as the original Underground workers did back in the nineteenth century.

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Posters comparing the construction of Underground tunnels, almost a century apart

Once out of the tunnel, we changed places with the other group, causing passing tube-travellers to look somewhat bemused as we emerged from one door in the wall only to enter another one shortly afterwards.

We had to don hard hats for this part of the journey.

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This is the cooling system for parts of Charing Cross station. I had no idea, waiting for a train, that there was all this space above my head.

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From here we could LOOK DIRECTLY ONTO THE PLATFORM AND THE TRAINS.

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Train is gone…

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Train has arrived

I had hoped that somebody on the platform would look up and get a shock, but sadly it was not to be. However, the guy in front of me later managed to frighten a tourist by waving to her from the passage.

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We went off down the passage in the other direction to see where the cooling system begins. It’s possible to see it from outside the station, if you know where to look. It was raining outside and we could feel the rain on our faces.

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That was the end of the tour. We were taken back to the top of the escalators to make our own way home.

I had an AMAZING time and would definitely recommend the tour to anyone who might be interested. It is sold out at the moment but there may be more tours announced in the future, so I’d recommend signing up to the London Transport Museum’s mailing list to be the first to find out about any future dates. The guides hinted that there would be more exciting tours to look forward to – I’m hoping for Down Street but I’ll have to wait and see!

Hidden London – Aldwych: The End of the Line

I am a massive geek when it comes to the Tube and I am trying to visit every station on the London Underground map. The London Transport Museum has an events page which I check regularly and I was thrilled to see that they were opening up Aldwych Station, closed since 1994, for tours. I didn’t have to go alone – a couple of my friends were interested in visiting too. We queued up outside the station entrance last Friday night – a bit different from our usual end-of-week shenanigans.

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The station, on the corner of the Strand and Surrey Street, was named Strand when it first opened in 1907 but renamed Aldwych in 1915 when another station (which later became Charing Cross) was given the name of Strand. The Aldwych name was printed on a canopy extending from the front of the station, which was removed when it closed: this is why the station façade bears the name Strand.

The station was doomed from the beginning: when the Piccadilly Line was created by the merger of two separate projects, Aldwych was left as a single station on a short branch south from Holborn. Though it had two tunnels, only one was generally operated as a shuttle service; it was rarely crowded even during rush hour, and from 1917 was closed every Sunday. The second tunnel was bricked up during the First World War and used as secure storage for National Gallery paintings.

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The light use of the station was such that in 1922 the booking office was closed and tickets were sold from booths inside the lifts. In 1958 the line was used only during rush hour, and in 1994 the station was closed to the public for good, owing to the prospect of replacing the ageing lifts: London Underground felt that the cost could not be justified. An extension of the line to Waterloo station was proposed on several occasions but was rejected each time owing to complicated political reasons. I feel this is a shame as if this had gone ahead I’m sure it would have been well-used.

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I was fascinated to learn about the history of the station during the tour. We began by meeting in the booking office, where one of our guides gave us some background information and pointed out some features of note. The ticket office itself was built in the 1980s as part of the upgrade to the ticketing system, however other ticket booths were original ones and much of the tiling and flooring dates from 1907 when the station was built. The wash basin in the ladies’ bathroom is also, apparently, an original one, and I was impressed by the Art Nouveau designs above the lifts.

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After the short talk we were given a little time to look around and take photographs, a procedure which was repeated at each point on the tour. After this it was time to make our way downstairs. Long-time users of the London Underground will probably be familiar with the seemingly never-ending spiral staircases built into stations such as Covent Garden and Goodge Street. This staircase was similar but it didn’t seem to take nearly as long to reach the bottom, perhaps because I was excited about the tour!

Our second stop was by the lifts. Six lift shafts were – inexplicably, according to our guide – installed, but only two lifts were ever actually built. You can look through the railings at the dark, deep lift shafts: I found this rather spooky.

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Next, we visited one of the platforms. This platform was in use as a shuttle service up until the closure of the station in 1994. A working Tube train still exists on the line. This platform is frequently used for filming, owing to its old-fashioned look and feel. The original tiles still exist, though have in some areas been painted over. Movies set in the mid-20th century are those most commonly filmed here, such as Atonement (2007) and The Edge of Love (2008). Contemporary films tend to use the old Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross, as they were closed more recently and therefore have a more modern appearance. Our guide told us that the posters on the wall, as well as the picture of the Tube map, were not original and were actually put up for filming.

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The station was used as a shelter during World War II and played host to a large number of people. The poor facilities gradually became replaced with chemical toilets and metal bunks, and a canteen, first aid post and a library were installed. Entertainment was put on for the benefit of the shelterers and church services were even held on Sundays.

Our final stop was at the other platform, which was bricked up and used as storage during World War I. It was used for the same purpose during the Second World War, when the Victoria and Albert and the British Museum moved many valuable artefacts down here, including the Elgin Marbles. The tiling on this platform is unfinished, suggesting that heavy use of the station was not anticipated even when it was first built. The original track, including wooden sleepers, is still in place here. Filming has taken place on this platform too, and some of the posters were put up for this purpose. Others, however, were placed here to test out new forms of paste before using them on the rest of the Tube: as our guide pointed out, since some of the posters have been here since the 1970s, the paste must have been effective!

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Sausage rolls with your shoes, anyone?

This platform has also been used to test designs for other London Underground platforms, including the new Victoria Line in the 1960s, and the refurbishment of Piccadilly Circus in the 1980s. However, the original Strand station name can still be seen on the tiling behind the posters.

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Standing in front of the original ‘STRAND’ sign

After the tour, we headed back upstairs and were given mulled wine and the chance to hear the TfL Choir in action. They sang classic music hall songs including ‘Daisy Bell’ (1892) and ‘Let’s All Go Down the Strand’ (1904) as well as several Christmas carols.

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I had a brilliant time on the tour and I’m really glad I went. I feel it was worth paying the extra £5 for an evening tour (the daytime tours cost £20, the evening tours £25) for the mulled wine and the concert. Further visits to the station should be posted on the London Transport Museum’s events page, which I recommend keeping an eye on.

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Thanks to the tour guides, many of whom are volunteers, for their knowledge and enthusiasm. I would like to credit the Aldwych: The Secret Station booklet handed out at the end of the tour for providing me with extra snippets of information which I used in this post.