It’s full of mysteries (Credit: Getty Images)

It isn’t just really expensive and subject to delays. There’s more to the London Underground system that meets the eye.

It is is one of the oldest and biggest metro systems in the world, with lots of quirks and even its own commuter etiquette. So naturally it’s become a place of intrigue, mystery and secrets.

To this day, we are still discovering new or lost things about it, including ghost stations such as Southwark Park earlier this year.

Here are nine other secrets and little known things about our beloved London Underground.


1) There are 40 estimated disused stations

That’s TfL’s estimation anyway. Some were closed due to low passenger numbers, some because lines were being re-routed, and others have just disappeared without a trace.



2) TfL is trying to turn some of them into bars

Imagine drinking your favourite martini in a place that used to be an Underground station. TfL is hoping to make this a reality.

They announced their intention earlier this year to start turning disused stations into attractions such as theatres, shops, restaurants and bars.

The plans are currently facing a legal challenge from the director of the Old London Underground Company, Ajit Chambers.

The Central London Railway locomotive was how it all started

Ajit Chambers has spent spent £460,000 over the past six years on a project to turn ghost stations in bars and restaurants, and claims he was unfairly removed from the procurement process in regard to Down Street Tube station.

A spokesperson from TfL said of the progress of the project: ‘Although Mr Chambers may be disappointed with our decision, we have held an open and fair procurement process.

‘We will now enter into negotiations with our preferred bidder and hope to make an announcement shortly about the new commercial future of Down Street disused station.’

3) Aldwych station has been used in films and music videos

There’s an actual department dedicated to filming on the London Underground as filmmakers want to use the Tube as a location so often.

From 2008-2013, it generated over £1.5 million in revenue for Transport for London.

Aldwych station is a popular location. It officially closed in 1994, but it has become a common scene for filming.

Watched Atonement or Sherlock? The Tube station featured was Aldwych. It’s also been in a few music videos including Prodigy’s 1997 song Firestarter.

But Aldwych isn’t the only station to make it to the big screen – Charing Cross was also used in Skyfall.

4) Many Tube stations are haunted

Or, well, rumoured to be. Someone even made a map of the most haunted Tube stations around Halloween.

Some stations have indeed been sites of death and tragedy. It is said that piercing screams have been heard around Bethnal Green station where 173 people were crushed in death in 1943 during a panic to get into the station after a bomb-siren had gone off.

5) Winston Churchill used one as a war bunker

It’s now partly a mini mart (Photo: Mike Quinn/Wikimedia)

Down Street, one of the ghost stations that TfL wants to turn into an entertainment venue, was a station on the Piccadilly Line that was closed in 1932 due to lack of use and proximity to other stations such as Green Park and Hyde Park Corner.



Winston Churchill and his war cabinet however made use of it during the Second World War during raids.

You can still see it now, though part of the outside has been made into a shop.

6) If you stay on the Northern Line at Kennington, you’ll end up looping round to the Northbound platform

If you travel Southbound on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line, you probably know that you’re forced to get off and change platforms if you want to go any further south.

But what happens if you just…stay…on the train?

On the Northbound platform, it seems. The Kennington Loop means you’ll be taken all the way round to a platform heading back up North on the same branch.

Don’t believe us? This guy actually did it for your own entertainment.

7) The yellow lines – they’re not just to keep you from the edge of platform

Look carefully and you’ll be able to see where the doors from the incoming tube will be as the paint will have worn away from passengers walking on it to board a train.

One useful hack, particularly for older stations, if you want to make sure you’re first on the train.

8) There are two houses on Leinster Gardens that are dummies

Looks so real, doesn’t it? (Photo: Duncan/Flickr)

On the outside they look like two quite nice houses in Bayswater. But 23 and 24 Lenister Gardens are just facades.

And the significance of this, we hear you ask? It relates back to the early days of the London Underground when steam locomotives were used.

This was a section of the Circle and District Lines exposed to the surface so the tunnels were kept free of smoke. The fronts were built to hide it from residents so it wouldn’t look unsightly.


The location was used in an episode of Sherlock in 2014.

From the other side, the ‘house’ looks a lot different:

9) Less than 50 per cent of it is underground

Yep, you’ve read that right. It’s on TfL’s website and everything.

Only 45 per cent of the network is actually tunnels. Which makes sense really if you think about it since some stations are well above ground. Amersham, for example, is 147 metres above sea level.

The one deepest below the street? That’s Hampstead on the Northern line. You’re 58.5 metres below the street by the time you board a train.

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