London Transport Museum tours

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While the Tube is part of life for many Londoners and tourists, there’s more to it than meets the eye. Between the familiar stops are several disused stations; others, that are still in use today, have a fascinating past that the throngs of commuters don’t get to see. It is these aspects that are explored through the London Transport Museum’s Hidden London tours. They include Clapham South’s role as a shelter in World War II, and Aldwych, which closed to passengers 30 years ago.

Dover Street: Alight here for Green Park is its newest tour. The walk takes place over 80 minutes and takes you through former passageways, lift landings and huge ventilation shafts, with knowledgeable guides recounting the station’s history.

Opened in 1906, Dover Street station was built to serve the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway – what is now the Piccadilly Line. It was a popular spot. The exterior would have originally been in the characteristic Leslie Green design of oxblood red tiles and featuring arched windows. But in 1933, it had a makeover, its entrance was relocated next to the Ritz at Green Park, escalators replaced the lifts: it became Green Park station.

It’s certainly atmospheric as your wander the sooty warren of passages and glimpse the vintage signage ‘To The Trains’. You can peer on passengers through overhead grills and watch a Tube train whizz by underneath. At one point, you head down steep stairs shrouded by a metal tunnel – you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re on a sci-fi dystopian film-set.

The tales of how it became a wartime HQ for the London Transport Executive Board are fascinating. The conversion into offices and living quarters cost a pretty penny at the time, with the chairman, Lord Ashfield, demanding his luxuries including a skirting board and wallpapered bedroom.  Just imagining how these workers would be down there on shift for several days brought out the claustrophobe in me.

The cavernous ventilation shafts are quite incredible, the last one on the tour particularly so as you gaze up through the vast steel ribcage with the light from above ground visible.

I’ve lived in London for many years, and taken countless rides on its Tube. To see it from this perspective is extraordinary.

Tickets cost £45 for an adult. Profits from Hidden London tickets help the London Transport Museum charity to continue conserving and sharing London’s transport and design heritage. Tour is not suitable for those aged 9 and under.

As well as the tour, the ticket price includes half price one-day entry to London Transport Museum (within a month of your tour date), and 10% discount at the shop.