Have you ever found yourself looking out the window of your Tube carriage wondering about the secrets of the network? 🚇 Led by experienced guides, London Transport Museum’s ‘Hidden London’ tours are what you’re after! The tours share stories of secret sites and disused stations right across the capital.
Read on to get a flavour of what’s on offer this season! 🕵️
Aldwych: The end of the line 🚇
Aldwych Station was opened to the public in 1907. It wasn’t fully used to its original purposes and closed in 1994. Despite this, Aldwych is a station with an interesting past. It provided shelter during the Blitz and was later used for a variety of film and TV shoots. These have included Darkest Hour (2017), Sherlock (2014) and Atonement (2007). 🎥
Baker Street: The World’s First Underground
Explore 160-year-old Baker Street, one of the world’s first underground station. You’ll hear what the very first Victorian passengers thought of underground travel, and you’ll explore secret parts of the station including original platforms, disused lift shafts and corridors that lay hidden in plain sight – some of which last accessed by the public over 75 years ago in 1945.
Charing Cross: Access All Areas 🎥
Walk under Trafalgar Square as you explore exclusive areas of Charing Cross station that are not accessible to the public. This tour will take you to disused parts of the station, including the Jubilee line platforms that were closed in 1999 but which you may recognise from many famous movies and TV productions since, including Skyfall (2012), Paddington Bear (2013), and TV’s Killing Eve (2019) and A Spy Among Friends (2022).
Clapham South: Subterranean shelter ⬇️
Journey 180 steps underground to explore one of London’s eight deep-level shelters. First opened to the public in 1944, there’s over a mile of passageways waiting to be explored. There’s also incredible stories to be discovered!
Down Street: Churchill’s secret station 🤫
Explore disused underground station Down Street, one of London’s most intriguing spaces, hidden between the Piccadilly line tracks in Mayfair, which was the Railway Executive Committee’s top-secret headquarters in the Second World War.
You’ll hear declassified war secrets and intrigues and the stories of those who lived and worked there – including Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who secretly took refuge there at the height of the Blitz.
Euston: The lost tunnels
Discover a myriad of dark passageways that were once regularly used by Londoners. 👀
You’ll have the chance to see the vintage advertising poster fragments date back over 50 years. On the tour you’ll also find out more about the newest innovations to this Tube and Network Rail station that currently serves over 42 million passengers each year.
Moorgate: Metropolitan Maze
On this tour you will relive the early days of the Tube’s construction when the first tunnels were dug, and discover Moorgate’s original glass tiles, abandoned tracks and even a complete Greathead shield from 1904 still in situ (the only one of its kind on the London Underground Network).
Piccadilly Circus: The Heart of London
Discover the secret side of Piccadilly Circus, London’s busiest station throughout the roaring twenties and the flagship of Frank Pick’s Underground. Behind secret doors you’ll see deserted passageways, original Edwardian design features and lift shafts, and you will learn about the successive layers of renovations that were undertaken to adjust to Londoners’ needs over the last century.
Get tickets 🎟️
Hidden London tours tickets are released throughout the year and sell out quickly!
Make sure you keep up to date with future ticket releases. Or sign up to the Transport Museum’s Hidden London newsletter for the latest! 📧