There are 2 ways to access Aldwych station:
Where the line splits to Aldwych is only 400m from Holborn station. There’s approximately two minutes of clear air between trains. So you jump off the station at Holborn and run like mad down the line (Harder than you think trying to avoid the middle rail carrying 630volts) There’s not enough room to press yourself to the edges either, those trains are a tight fit. 400m in 2 minutes should normally be quite easy, but twist your ankle now and your dead. If you do make it but get caught, you can be held for up to 42 days without charge while they rant terror laws at you…
Or you can ring them up and ask for a mooch…
Aldwych is probably the best known closed station on the London Underground. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus and only station on the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn that was a relic of the merger of two railway schemes.
It had always suffered low passenger numbers (peaked at 450 passengers per day), and the services were cut to peak times, on weekdays only, right up until 1994. In 1994 the lifts needed replacing at a cost of £150k, which just wasn’t worth it for 450 people a day.
Inside one of the lozenge shaped lifts:
Controls:
Old phone numbers on the side of a phone box in the Entrance lobby:
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. Most famously it housed the silverware from Buckingham palace, as well as the Elgin marbles. These would have been separated from the general population by a safe door with an armed guard.
Photo taken during the Blitz in 1940
Ironically the posters / signs which look the oldest are generally the newest! But there are still a fair few original posters from the 70’s:
Fake posters:
Quite a lot has been filmed down here, among my favourites being: Superman 4, The Krays, 28 Weeks Later, and of course this:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw[/ame]
Recent ‘Station Closed’ poster for filming purposes. Although interestingly you can see the original “strand” sign behind:
New Aldwych sign, for filming: The ‘tiles’ are actually just printed onto MDF.
Another new sign, most of these had been ‘aged’ but this one was looking very new:
There’s a train permanently moored on this platform. It’s an actual Northern line car from 1972. It is in working order, and can be driven up and down this stretch of track for filming:
Inside the cab
To Holborn
Aldwych has been used to trial a lot of underground related product / try new ideas etc. This now happens on the disused platforms at Holborn - ironically the platform for trains to Aldwych, which has been rather quiet since 1994… Here are a few designs used at other stations:
Another ‘Strand’ sign destroyed by testing tile adhesives:
Thanks to TfL for letting me have a mooch and thank you for looking:
Where the line splits to Aldwych is only 400m from Holborn station. There’s approximately two minutes of clear air between trains. So you jump off the station at Holborn and run like mad down the line (Harder than you think trying to avoid the middle rail carrying 630volts) There’s not enough room to press yourself to the edges either, those trains are a tight fit. 400m in 2 minutes should normally be quite easy, but twist your ankle now and your dead. If you do make it but get caught, you can be held for up to 42 days without charge while they rant terror laws at you…
Or you can ring them up and ask for a mooch…
Aldwych is probably the best known closed station on the London Underground. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus and only station on the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn that was a relic of the merger of two railway schemes.
It had always suffered low passenger numbers (peaked at 450 passengers per day), and the services were cut to peak times, on weekdays only, right up until 1994. In 1994 the lifts needed replacing at a cost of £150k, which just wasn’t worth it for 450 people a day.
Inside one of the lozenge shaped lifts:
Controls:
Old phone numbers on the side of a phone box in the Entrance lobby:
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. Most famously it housed the silverware from Buckingham palace, as well as the Elgin marbles. These would have been separated from the general population by a safe door with an armed guard.
Photo taken during the Blitz in 1940
Ironically the posters / signs which look the oldest are generally the newest! But there are still a fair few original posters from the 70’s:
Fake posters:
Quite a lot has been filmed down here, among my favourites being: Superman 4, The Krays, 28 Weeks Later, and of course this:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw[/ame]
Recent ‘Station Closed’ poster for filming purposes. Although interestingly you can see the original “strand” sign behind:
New Aldwych sign, for filming: The ‘tiles’ are actually just printed onto MDF.
Another new sign, most of these had been ‘aged’ but this one was looking very new:
There’s a train permanently moored on this platform. It’s an actual Northern line car from 1972. It is in working order, and can be driven up and down this stretch of track for filming:
Inside the cab
To Holborn
Aldwych has been used to trial a lot of underground related product / try new ideas etc. This now happens on the disused platforms at Holborn - ironically the platform for trains to Aldwych, which has been rather quiet since 1994… Here are a few designs used at other stations:
Another ‘Strand’ sign destroyed by testing tile adhesives:
Thanks to TfL for letting me have a mooch and thank you for looking:
