Abandoned Aldwych London Underground Station.

many of us have traveled along the large labyrinths of tunnels that lay beneath the Streets of London but lesser known as of the Mars of abandoned tunnels that run alongside them and now to shoot part of the network and if you look closely you can discover hints of their existence through the remains of their station buildings which can be found all around London if you know where to look and today we've been lucky enough to be granted access to one of those abandoned underground stations here at the Strand and we're about to go inside then a fairly inconspicuous side street leading off from the Strand can be found the familiar Ox blood red tiled facade of a former underground station its main entrance was situated here on Surrey Street with its smaller side entrance being sighted on the Strand itself it was first constructed it was the southern Terminus of the Great Northern and strand Railway although more stops were planned including extending the line under the Thames to Waterloo but its many proposed plans were rejected for one reason or another resulting in it becoming just an isolated Branch line leading from Holborn station on the Piccadilly line although it's more commonly known as old witch station when it first opened in 1907 it was given the name strand but this led to much confusion as there was already a station of the same name which we now know as charring cross so in 1915 its new name of Aldridge was given once inside the building the classic Leslie green architecture continues and you are met with a time capsule as if time has stood still with its original tiling and ticket office still intact it even retains its Edwardian public toilets a site rarely found on the modern Underground Station today but perhaps its most stunning feature is its original wooden clad lifts of which four were planned only two were ever fully constructed and it was these lifts which eventually led to the station's demise the platforms below are situated some 140 steps down a spiral stairway and through a small Maze of tunnels where platform A and B can eventually be found platform a continued to see trains running right up until its closure in 1994. although the latter which was only ever used as a shuttle service between itself and Holborn was fairly quickly deemed unnecessary and so closed after only 10 years of use [Music] although this didn't completely Mark the end of its use for doing the blitz it became a convenient place to store numerous precious artifacts from the nearby Galleries and museums including the Elgar marbles out of Harm's Way but this wasn't the only additional use the station platform saw for like so many it was closed during the second world war and took on the role of a deep level air raid shelter where it would provide safety for up to 1500 people a night the station eventually reopened in 1946 but little more than 10 years later its passenger numbers were dwindling and its operations were scaled back to only rush hour service but it's provided yet another opportunity to make use of the unique location and during its long hours of closure it was used by TV and film Crews to shoot movies such as the craze and Superman 4. as many disused tunnel walls were also put to use prototyping future London Underground designs such as the iconic vibrant tiles and Piccadilly Circus and many remnants of this additional use can be found all around aldwich was never really given a chance sadly passenger numbers continue to drop and the station was making such a massive loss that when its ancient lifts were eventually deemed so unsafe that Replacements were needed in 1994 the decision was made to close the station completely and it became just one of around 40 issue stations on the network but unlike most of these stations and despite being Prime real estate oldwich still sits almost as it was left when it closed its doors the time capsule in time [Music] of course in true old witch fashion that did not Mark the end for the station for a continued to be put to use for police and fire training numerous movies and film sets being unique that it can in fact facilitate a real tube train if needed and of course being an amazing location for these hidden London tours run by the Transport Museum that was brilliant um obviously like we told you in the first beginning we couldn't recalled voices or anything you didn't allow any actual filming of them or anything else no we still wanted to put something together for our memories um and For Your Entertainment Group that's it so I hope that you found that really interesting um this is one of our bucket list Explorers so we're happy absolutely so as from exploring November shoe we'll see you again thanks for watching [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] if you like this video please subscribe 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Channel: Exploring with Em & Stu

Views: 3,466

Keywords: abandoned, London, underground, station, aldwych, strand, disused, the tube, Piccalilly, platforms, inside, hidden london, tour, secrets of the underground, londonist, geoff Marshall

Id: WkU23LhjeIo

Length: 8min 6sec (486 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 15 2023