Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Issue #2 of the Anglotopia Magazine in April 2016. Since we’re leaving this weekend for London and exploring another station, we thought it’d be a good time to share it!

It’s hard to imagine that in this modern day and age that there would be anywhere in London that’s abandoned, forgotten, and out of use. Until very recently London was home to the most expensive real estate on the planet. But yet there are pockets of London that are abandoned. The London Underground is home to several abandoned Tube Stations. These so-called ‘ghost stations’ went out of service for many different reasons but there are several of them, and occasionally they’re opened up for tours for curious Londonphiles to explore.

Hidden London is a program run by the London Transport Museum that provides the opportunity for enthusiasts to explore the old or abandoned parts of the Tube network that are no longer in use. One would think that something like this would be a bit of a niche interest, but whenever they offer tickets for these tours, they sell out within minutes. It’s something I’ve personally always wanted to do. There’s a certain romance about abandoned Tube stations, forgotten to history, covered in the dust of Londoners past and present. It’s no surprise that many of these are used as ad hoc shooting locations for TV shows and films.

Hidden London is a program run by the London Transport Museum that provides the opportunity for enthusiasts to explore the old or abandoned parts of the Tube network that are no longer in use. One would think that something like this would be a bit of a niche interest, but whenever they offer tickets for these tours, they sell out within minutes. It’s something I’ve personally always wanted to do. There’s a certain romance about abandoned Tube stations, forgotten to history, covered in the dust of Londoners past and present. It’s no surprise that many of these are used as ad hoc shooting locations for TV shows and films.

When a new round of Hidden London tours was announced last fall, I prepared for disappointment; I always managed to miss out on getting tickets. I keep an eye on these things since I am a Tube enthusiast. I knew what time they were being released, and I knew to be at the computer ready to buy. My goal was to tour Down Street station, famous for being a bunker during World War II for Churchill’s wartime government. Sadly, it was sold out before my fingers could move fast enough. I tried the second station on offer and was similarly locked out. I clicked into the third option for tours of Aldwych Station and with luck, it was not sold out – in fact, there were plenty of options available in February 2016 (about five months from when I was booking). I immediately booked a ticket for the tour and couldn’t believe my luck.

Then it hit me; I just bought tickets to a tour that would require me to book an entire trip to Britain from the USA. I take my interest in the Tube very seriously. The months passed, and I booked a trip to London using my hard-earned airline miles. And on Saturday, February 20, I found myself standing in a queue outside Aldwych Abandoned Tube station waiting to get inside. It was all very surreal and exciting.

The first question probably running through your head is why would they ever close a Tube station? The story of Aldwych is not typical of the Underground. When the various Tube lines were built, they were built by competing companies (with a profit motive). Aldwych was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus of the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn that was a relic of the merger of two railway schemes. Over the years, there were many plans to make the station a through station to connect it to the rest of the network, but it remained a dead end of sorts for the Piccadilly line and due to low passenger volume, it was eventually closed in 1994 (the elevators needed to be replaced and the cost of doing so exceeded the profits generated by passengers using the station). The guides joked that the station was now making more money than it ever did doing semi-regular tours.

Our tour began in the entry hallways where the staff explained the history of the station and why it was closed. The guides were a fountain of knowledge on the various decorations and architectural styles. The style of the station very much matches the styles of other Piccadilly line stations. The entry way features lovely green tiles, and over the years the station has also been a testing ground for designs used in future stations.

There were about 20 fellow Tube enthusiasts on the tour – all with high-powered cameras clicking and clacking away. It was such a rare treat to be able to explore the station that there was an air of excitement. It was one of many tours that day, yet the staff never appeared bored or annoyed at all the tourists wanting to poke around their station.

After introductory remarks, it was time to descend to the out of service platforms. Since the Victorian elevators no longer worked, visitors were required to descend 160 or so steps to the platforms. This wasn’t so bad going down and it went by quite quickly. Going back up when the tour was over was quite exhausting, and I felt quite sorry for the heavily pregnant woman in front of me who had to climb back up!

The most interesting aspect of the station’s history was its use as a bomb shelter during both World War I and World War II. Many people don’t realize that the Blitz in World War II was not the first time that Londoners had to shelter from German bombs. World War I also featured several great Zeppelin raids that inflicted mass damage on London. Aldwych proved useful as a shelter not once, but twice (and let’s hope never again).

During World War II, one of the disused platforms was used to store art from the National Gallery. It’s rather an interesting thought to think of the nation’s Turners and Constables chilling out on a disused Tube platform. It turns out, though, that the damp station wasn’t the best place to store valuable paintings, so they shifted to the storage of statues and other works of art that wouldn’t be damaged by water (looking up you can see the calcite deposits leaking from the ceiling – art doesn’t like that!)

The most famous tenants during World War II were the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum. The Marbles were originally from the Parthenon in Greece and Britain’s possession of them is controversial. Despite this, Britain has cared for them well and stored them for protection when needed. The guides told us how they had to be winched down with a crane through the elevator shaft. When they were removed after the war, they decided this was too dangerous to repeat so they took them out by train to a neighbouring station where they could be more easily removed. The other platforms were used to house people sheltering from bombs during the London Blitz (which took place at the end of 1940) and the V1 and V2 raids later in the war.

I was most interested in the station’s use as a shelter during World War II. The station was not particularly deep, so the residents of the shelter would still have had the terrifying experience of hearing bombs dropping all around them as it was in the center of London. Conditions for those in the shelter were not great – people would have to queue for hours for a place and sometimes they did not get them. Racks of beds were provided for people to sleep, the platforms were closed, so hammocks were strung across the tracks. Facilities were very basic at first – a bucket sufficed as a toilet at the beginning (though this changed later on).

The British with their Blitz spirit would make the most of the situation; children would play together. Sometimes concerts were held from the station and broadcast to the rest of the country as a propaganda move to show that Britain was not afraid. Simply acting like nothing was amiss was crucial to maintain good morale as Britain faced its most existential threat.

At one point during the war, more than 100,000 people were sheltering in Tube stations all over the network. At first, the British government did not want people to do this – but as there were no adequate deep level bomb shelters, they relented and began to allow the stations to be used as long as it didn’t interfere with London’s wartime transport needs.

While the facilities were basic at the beginning, by 1941, there was a first aid post, proper latrines (instead of the bucket), a canteen that wasn’t subject to rationing, (which meant all the hot yummy food you could eat) a library, and other entertainments. It was all about making a home away from home to make the situation bearable.

Londoners made the best of their time in the shelter – there was plenty to do when you weren’t sleeping, though that’s what most people did (in between copious amounts of tea). As the war progressed and the Blitz officially ended, use of the station as a shelter tapered off. It went up again during the V1 and V2 raids in the latter part of the war. The public shelter closed when the war ended in May 1945.

As the station is in a disused condition, it is very much as it was in the 1940s as the station has not had updates familiar to later Tube stations. This gives you a unique look at how life would have been like during its use as a bomb shelter during the wars. The tour was good enough to highlight this and even had recordings of people who remembered their experiences sheltering in the Tube.

After the war, passenger service was not restored until 1946. And even then, passenger numbers were very low – it was never a widely used station because not many people lived in the neighborhood it served. There were no major tourist attractions nearby and many workers used other Tube stations (some of which were quicker to walk to than to take a train to). So after the war, the station became a testing bed for future Tube station designs (examples of which you can see on the tour).

Since the station was essentially a dead end on the Piccadilly line, it was not widely used when it was re-opened. It was kept open for convenience sake, but by the early 1990s, it was clear that keeping the station open was a waste of public money. So, the station was locked up and the passengers were told to go to neighboring stations. Since the station was closed, it has had a second life as a shooting location for film and TV.

If you’re a fan of British TV and film, this station will look very familiar to you. Whenever a TV show or film crew needs a Tube station, they’ll usually hire Aldwych. There’s even a full-scale Tube train gathering dust at one of the platforms suitable for filming use. What films have used the station? “Atonement,” “V for Vendetta,” “28 Weeks Later”, and “The Imitation Game” amongst others were filmed in the station. There are artifacts from the filming all around the station (there are many posters and advertisements that don’t belong there but were left by careless film crews). The hit TV shows “Sherlock” and “Mr Selfridge” have also made use of the station many times. The station is also used as a training facility for the Tube’s emergency services.

You get a rather eerie feeling walking through the silent and dimly lit corridors of the disused station. You can feel the ghosts of London’s past as you explore the empty station. There’s a very lovely smell – a combination of grime and dust that could only be in a place that was touched by many layers of peoples lives through history. It’s a terrifying prospect to imagine being sheltered there during World War II and it makes one grateful that such a thing is not necessary anymore.

Overall, I was very pleased with the Hidden London tour. The staff were friendly, knowledgeable, and a bit funny as well. The London Transport Museum will continue to run Hidden London tours throughout the year. It’s best to sign up on its website to find out when the tours will be. I definitely want to try and explore some of the other disused stations, such as the one at Down Street where Churchill’s government holed up during German air raids. There’s also a deep level shelter in Clapham open occasionally that was used during the war and also for refugees after the war. The guides assured us that Aldwych would be on future tours so you can have the same opportunity to explore London’s history as I did.