The London Underground is a creaking wonder that can quickly shuttle you around England’s capital — but, for some, it can be a claustrophobic, stress-inducing experience. All those rush-hour crowds. Those cramped carriages.
Those thronging corridors. The noise. The messages beseeching you to “mind the gap”, or to stand behind the yellow line, or that the Victoria line, they’re sorry to say, is delayed.
But today, the Underground is far more serene. Or at least it is where we are, creeping through an abandoned area of one of the city’s busiest tube stations. As well as showcasing travel-related exhibits at its galleries and depots, the London Transport Museum offers “Hidden London” tours which take the public into tucked-away subterranean spaces that are usually out of bounds.
Tours are offered at various stations, including Aldwych (Strand), Holborn, Moorgate, Baker Street and Clapham South, each with its own secret passages and fascinating histories. Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion. Today we’re doing the Charing Cross: Access All Areas tour, which unveils a part of the station that has been stuck in something of a silent time warp for the best part of 25 years.
Leaving behind the dozens of other people hurrying off to catch Northern and Bakerloo line tube trains elsewhere in this station, we follow guides Tommy and Emily past a metal door and into an eerily tranquil space. Before us, switched-off escalato.