Secrets of the Underground

A departing train disappears round the corner at Bank underground station on the Central Line in the heart of London’s financial district. The station opened in 1900. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Michael Lamb goes on the hidden London Tube tour, visiting disused Underground stations few tourists know about.

There's a large, framed route map of the London Underground on my office wall which betrays me as one of those weird, possibly slightly obsessive people who finds the Tube endlessly fascinating.

Back in the day, I travelled the system when it still felt like a hangover from the 1940s. We bumped along on the old Bakerloo Line trains when they had dim incandescent lighting and kooky wool moquette seats. (Proper Tube superfans will know the rolling stock I’m talking about — I’m not that obsessive.)

We rode to the surface on the creaking timber escalators at King’s Cross, which, sadly, would later catch fire [November 18, 1987], causing a terrible tragedy. We minded the gap at Embankment and once even traded a few vegetables for a fare with a bewildered ticket taker at Bethnal Green.

The disused Down Street station of the London Underground. Down Street was opened in 1907 but closed in 1937. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

So the Tube symbolises London as much as Buckingham Palace or Big Ben. And for transport nerds, history buffs and the just plain curious, the next level of fandom is exploring the hidden recesses of the system: the ghost stations, abandoned tunnels and mothballed recesses.

To meet that growing demand and crack open the deep mysteries of the Tube, Transport For London offer its novel "Hidden London" tours.

Now, instead of just the odd maintenance worker getting into these places, you, too, can explore the abandoned Down Street station in Mayfair where Winston Churchill secretly sheltered during the Blitz; or poke through the disused Aldwych station, once the last stop on the Piccadilly Line, now more frequently seen as a film and TV location; or wander the old tunnels at Euston, where the walls are lined with vintage advertising posters, fragments that went unseen for decades.

Platform 1 at Aldwych, London, closed in 1994. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

On a recent flying visit to London, we jumped into one of these experiences, the "Piccadilly Circus: Heart of London" tour. These typically run daily, take about 75 minutes and tickets cost £44 ($NZ90).

Yes, that’s up there in price, but when someone is unchaining a rusty gate and beckoning you into the dusty depths of Piccadilly Circus, it all suddenly seems worth it.

As our guide leads us down into tunnels and lift shafts closed to the public since the 1920s, we pass through unused access tunnels between the platforms and the lifts, lined with distinctive green tiles designed by the original architect, Leslie Green. Curiously, the patterns and colours were originally intended to help passengers who couldn’t read identify their destination and navigate their way through the system.

We stand in giant ventilation shafts, then edge along narrow tunnels and hear tales from World War 2. Back then, Londoners instinctively made their way underground as Hitler’s Blitz bombs rained down on the capital. The government initially pushed back against the sheltering hordes, before rapidly realising resistance was futile. Soon the station was a well-organised mass air-raid shelter, with about 7000 people cramming in every night.

People shelter at Aldwych Station in 1940 when it was used as an air raid shelter. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Art joined the huddled masses hiding from the chaos above, with priceless paintings and artefacts from the Tate Gallery and the London Museum stashed in the inner recesses under utmost secrecy. (How to protect Britain’s art was a vexing question at the time — when one adviser suggested shipping everything to Canada, Winston Churchill thundered "Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall leave this island!".) The works were retrieved in 1946, much to the astonishment of passengers as well as the station staff watching them emerge, who had no idea what treasures were sequestered deep in the passageways.

Down in the bowels, you start to get an idea of how mind-bendingly complicated this subterranean world is, and what a marvel of engineering. Originally completed in 1906, Piccadilly was almost immediately overwhelmed by demand. In 1907, 1.5 million passengers used the station; by 1922 it had grown to 18 million.

As one of the few stations on the network to exist entirely underground, rebuilding the station was a massive undertaking. The famous statue of the Anteros (commonly confused as Eros, thanks to the addition of a cupid’s bow) was moved and a giant access well dug out (that is still there as an emergency staircase to the ticket hall from the Piccadilly Line).

The circulating area of Piccadilly Circus Station, 1929. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

When it reopened in 1928 and £500,000 later, the station was an Edwardian sensation. Even the Russians visited, looking for inspiration to create their new subway system in Moscow.

After an hour wandering the depths, we emerge back into the travertine-lined walls of the main concourse and pause to take in a large wall display, a tribute to Frank Pick, the lauded former chief executive of London Transport.

Pick oversaw the golden age of the Tube, including much of the redesign of Piccadilly Circus and the commissioning of the famous typefaces, signature London Underground roundel and the innovative map design which are such familiar London icons today.

The signature London Underground roundel and colourful wall tiles. These are at Russel Square. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Meanwhile, Piccadilly Circus has entered the lexicon. "It’s like Piccadilly Circus in here" is a phrase many of us have uttered in a crowded situation. And the Tube stop is always busy, serving about 40 million passengers every year.

TFL’s Hidden London tours have been a roaring success too. Last year they were voted "Best Hidden Gem in the World" in the Tiqets awards, which spotlight the best of the lesser-known and niche attractions around the globe.

They have also evolved into a TV documentary series called Secrets of the London Underground (available here on TVNZ+). And for armchair travellers, they’ve even introduced "virtual" tours over Zoom.

Piccadilly Circus station, London, about 1960-1965. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

These include live-streamed behind-the-scenes explorations of Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road stations on the newly opened Elizabeth Line. Plus there’s a related YouTube channel called Hidden London Hangouts (both of the latter created in response to the pandemic, so it had some upsides.)

By the way, I mentioned my framed Tube map earlier and here’s an insider’s tip on how to get one: Transport For London produce special large format maps for the visually impaired, which also happen to double as brilliant wall posters. Just ask at any Tube station office and they’ll give you one — for free.