Hidden London: Aldwych Station

hidden london Nov 4, 2018

I have posted in the past about Hidden London Charing Cross Station and Hidden London Down Street Station tours and it was great fun. I had the opportunity to do the Aldwych Station tour recently and wanted to share my experience.

Hidden London provided a fun tour of stations and 'hidden' areas of London. It was amazing to see how much is hidden behind all those doors and unassuming walls, Down Street was a great example of this.

Aldwych Station - The History

Aldwych is a closed station on the Underground, located near King's College London in Central London. Aldwych was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, the street on which it is located, and was the end-point of the Piccadilly line from Holborn. The station was served mostly by a shuttle train (not the ones in the photos below), which was used to shuttle a low number of passengers. The Station was considered for closure several times, with as few as 300 people using the line each week. With major changes meaning a reduction in services during weekday peak hours from 1962 and resulted in its closure in 1994; when the cost of replacing the lifts was considered too high for the income generated from ticket sales.

Disused parts of the station and the running tunnels were used during both world wars to shelter artworks from London's public galleries and museums from bombing. The station id now used as a filming location and has appeared as itself and as other London Underground stations in a number of films.