Hidden Holborn

Holborn is the only London Underground station with two hidden closed platforms, unnoticed by passing travelers.

Looking down the illuminated tunnel to Aldwych
Branch line to Aldwych

In 2015, we embarked on our first ‘Hidden London’ tour, exploring the former Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross. It was fascinating to see these platforms, now hidden from public use, preserved in a time warp. It felt surreal to stand just beyond a ventilation grille, watching passengers and trains in the active station while feeling both like a spy and an archaeologist. The knowledgeable guides, who shared the rich history of London’s underground, made the experience even more engaging.

Since then, we’ve followed up with tours of other disused stations, such as Aldwych and Down Street, as well as behind-the-scenes visits to LU headquarters at 55 Broadway and unused parts of stations like Euston, Piccadilly Circus, Moorgate, Highgate, and Shepherd’s Bush. During the lockdown, we even took a virtual tour of the former tram tunnels under Kingsway.

During one of these tours, we learned that, at the end of the nineteenth century, London County Council initiated a redevelopment scheme in the Aldwych and Kingsway areas. This project aimed to clear slums, stimulate development, and create broad boulevards, which ultimately led to significant changes in the area. As part of this redevelopment, the Great Northern Railway management extended their planned railway to the Strand, naming it the Great Northern & Strand Railway. However, construction was delayed due to insufficient funds. When the plans finally materialised, Holborn station opened on 15 December 1906 on the Great Northern, Piccadilly, and Brompton Railway. The extension to the Strand came later and was eventually constructed as a branch line rather than a terminating station on what is now known as the Piccadilly Line.

Earlier this year, the London Transport Museum advertised a Hidden London tour of Holborn station, and I eagerly signed up. Today, we met a group of fellow enthusiasts around 10 am outside the station. It seemed everyone in our group had previously been on one of the ‘Hidden’ tours.

During the Aldwych tour, we learned that the branch line closed on 30 September 1994 due to the estimated £7 million upgrade costs, which would have supported just 450 trips a day. As the system was considered to be in managed decline, the expense couldn’t be justified. This closure left two platforms unused, and we had the opportunity to explore them.

A poster featuring a list of Piccadilly Line stations from before World War 2
Pre-war Wayfinding on the Piccadilly Line

One of the platforms remains recognisable, featuring the sole remaining ‘Holborn (Kingsway)’ roundel attached to the wall. Like other disused platforms we’ve visited, it occasionally serves as a mock-up for experimental equipment and signage. After its closure, it was also used as a filming location, notably for the music video of the 80s classic “New Song” by Howard Jones.

We also learned about an experiment involving water pipes to cool the underground and saw test signage showing a ‘St Paul’s’ platform edge sign above the familiar Holborn roundel. Pre-war Piccadilly Line wayfinding signs were also on display, and we peered down the still-lit line to Aldwych. Sadly, the station’s ‘bird’s nest’ control room, once used for early CCTV tests, is no longer there.

A cloakroom sign on a wooden door. The rooms here were added when the platform closed.
The rooms here were added when the platform closed

The other platform had closed much earlier, as the branch line was underused from the start. Through a flood defence door installed during the war, we saw the crossover lines where trains could be directed down one of two tunnels towards the Strand. Much of this platform had been filled in, and one of the tunnels was repurposed as wartime art storage and never returned to service. The filled-in track bed was used as accommodation and shelter during the Blitz but is now a concrete walkway. A corridor of rooms, once used as a cloakroom and later by a model railway group, remains empty and unused. It’s always fascinating to see how much under-utilised space lies beneath London.

As I wandered through these hidden spaces, I couldn’t help but wonder if a branch line from Strand might have gained popularity as tube usage surged in the current millennium. Could it have been viable with an extension beyond Strand to Waterloo and the south?

There are still unfunded plans for station improvements and a new entrance to ease congestion. Of course, the station has seen upgrades before. It was connected to the Central Line on 25 September 1933, the day after the British Museum station closed. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely there will be a Hidden London tour of that station, as the above-ground facilities have apparently been demolished.

Aliens Eat London Commuters

It stunned me that I could walk onto a platform on the Northern Line at Charing Cross station and find it deserted.

rush hour
rush hour

I posted this picture over on Flickr tonight, as it stunned me that I could walk onto a platform on the Northern Line at Charing Cross station and find it deserted. All the best movies had alien invaders clearing the streets while our lonesome hero wandered the empty streets and echoing buildings. It was very strange indeed, and a great relief when somebody else made it to the platform and stood waiting the few minutes for the next train.

I’ve spent the day in central London training some customers on our software products and so have been on my feet all day, talking. I find it quite hard to be engaging for six hours or so, and it can be very disconcerting when I see the participants’ interest wane. I imagine it’s a great relief for everyone when we make it to the end of the day. I was glad to head off for a meal with friends – which is why I was taking the train!

London Life Underground

It’s a rant about the tube. Summer brings its own special brand of problems for London’s sub-terrain commuters: hot, sweaty and stuck in tunnels on the way to the office does not make for a contented work force.

The great struggle to and from work in London is over as another strike by London Underground staff finishes and the tube returns to its normal, over-crowded, hot, sticky self. I don’t think there can be a person in this City who does not believe that the Underground is under funded and appears, at times, not too far from breaking point. Summer brings its own special brand of problems for London’s sub-terrain commuters: hot, sweaty and stuck in tunnels on the way to the office does not make for a contented work force. When will Tony Blair, Ken Livingston and Bob Crow stop using the Underground as a great big political football and start doing something to ease the plight of those who try and use London’s public transport on a regular basis? I, along with most people who have chosen to live, work or visit London, am fed up with the self-serving posturing of the politicians and union leaders. I can’t say if I think the strike was wrong or not but I do know that the very fact that none of the parties involved are currently at a negotiating table resolving all issues and developing long-term strategies for coping with increasing commuter volumes stinks worse than the armpits of that harassed member of the public I will be squashed against tomorrow morning. Please somebody, for the sake of those of us who voted for you and pay for you, sort out the mess. [current tube status]