Hidden London: Discovering the Forgotten Underground

by David Bownes, Chris Nix, Siddy Holloway

An exploration of the abandoned tributaries of London’s vast and vital transportation network through breathtaking images and unexpected stories

Hidden London is a lavishly illustrated history of disused and repurposed London Underground spaces. It provides the first narrative of a previously secret and barely understood aspect of London’s history. Behind locked doors and lost entrances lies a secret world of abandoned stations, redundant passageways, empty elevator shafts, and cavernous ventilation ducts. The Tube is an ever-expanding network that has left in its wake hidden places and spaces. Hidden London opens up the lost worlds of London’s Underground and offers a fascinating analysis of why Underground spaces—including the deep-level shelter at Clapham South, the closed Aldwych station, the lost tunnels of Euston—have fallen into disuse and how they have been repurposed. With access to previously unseen archives, architectural drawings, and images, the authors create an authoritative account of London’s hidden Underground story. This surprising and at times myth-breaking narrative interweaves spectacular, newly commissioned photography of disused stations and Underground structures today.

Genres: History, London, Nonfiction, Travel, Photography, Transport

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2019

About the author

David Bownes was formerly head of collections at the London Transport Museum and assistant director (collections) at the National Army Museum.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated by the London Underground & over the years have read many books on the subject. This was a delightful birthday present I recently received & it was superb. It details the many disused & repurposed London Underground spaces & contains a wealth of outstanding photographs.
One of the most interesting sections was on the first disused tube station at King William Street. This station closed in 1900 & there are some wonderful articles reprinted from journalists who visited the place in 1930.
Hidden London is an extremely welcome addition to my collection of books on the London Underground.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is super-nerdy of me to give this book a five star rating but I have a thing for subterranea and certainly the tunnels and underworlds of big cities, especially London. Anyone who thinks like me or likes railways and transport (which is less my thing) will love this book.

They will love it for its photographs which are to a very high standard, the book's design and the well written short histories of lost parts of the London underground transport empire. Published by Yale University Press, my quibbles over a typo and some minor editorial lapses may be passed over.

The book is really a popular summation of the recent work of the London Transport Museum which may be classed as archaeological, historical and sometimes selectively conservationist although the budgetary implications of full conservation would be too great for the creaking system to bear.

The method is to take an Underground location as the type of a theme, tell its tale and add details and material from other similar locations. It is definitely not a narrative history of the London Underground but rather a series of localised narratives that give us a rounded picture of the whole.

If you read the book through, you will be able to put the bits of a puzzle into a jigsaw and have a better of idea of London's development than you might from other more plodding and academic chronological surveys. There are ten primary locations and themes covered.

The first disused underground station is that at King William Street where ambition exceeded experience in engineering and which opened in 1890, only to close in 1900. As in all cases, the authors then tell the story of the subsequent use the tunnels were put to and their state today.

The book moves on to the Picadilly Circus complex, Down Street and its role as the wartime railway executive's headquarters and the first of two overground stories with an account of the modernist 55 Broadway headquarters of the underground system built in 1929.

We then have the deep level shelter at Clapham South (whose post-war history is as fascinating as its wartime origins and use), the secret Cold War control bunker at the unopened North End station and the second overground story of inherited mainstream railway stations in Buckinghamshire.

Finally, there is an account of the speculative capitalism around Highgate High Level which allows the telling of the story of the NIMBY-led creation of Hampstead Garden Suburb and a return to the centre of London for the stories of the Strand complex and that under Euston.

There are larger themes that run through all these stories. In the early years we have rampant entrepreneurial capitalism speculatively putting risk capital into lines to move workers and incidentally or deliberately creating opportunities for even more profitable property speculation.

There is the worthy public service corporatism of the interwar period, the first inklings of the military-industrial complex, the introduction of rational planning, paternalism and modernisation but always with an eye to the welfare of workers and people - and budgetary responsibility.

Then we have the hinge of British recent history - the war - where the underground had a double function of protecting the people from air warfare and ensuring that the state administration and war effort could run unhindered by turning tunnels into administrative and control assets.

After these three periods, exciting in their different ways, the story is more fragmented, bits of Cold War history, cut-backs in some areas, new lines in others, a working system constantly adapting to a city that took quite a long time to recover before its boom times later in the century.

It is sobering to note that the Government gave up on deep shelter strategies for the population almost immediately after the first nuclear bombs were demonstrated because no place inside London would be safe from their effects. Worth noting in the age of sabre-rattling over Ukraine.

The history of the London underground is only a part of the history of London - a history that started only with the world's first underground railway in 1863 (the Metropolitan line) - but it is an important part. The very existence of the London Transport Museum is testament to that.

Throughout, the illustrations are a pleasure in themselves, whether pictures of decay that evoke the world of the horror film 'Death Line', photographs, charts, posters or plans. Abandoned tunnels litter the London beneath its inhabitants, some I have walked in abandoned within my memory.

Nearly all are still in some sort of use, even if temporary in many cases - for ventilation, storage, as film sets or as service corridors. Others really are ghosts to which access is difficult - in the case of Highgate banned in part not because of the military-industrial complex but to protect rare bats.

All in all, well produced (despite the very small if disappointing editorial lack of attention once or twice), informative, pleasurable and perfect for both subterranea, transport and London history nerds.

[Dísa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book and would make a great gift for any London history enthusiast. It's very well made and has heaps of greta pictures but additionally great information with a well researched academic background. I found it very helpful and well written, it manages to get a lot of information across without boring the reader. It is helpfully split into short chapters, allowing one to dip in and out of the world of Hidden London at leisure. I am particularly keen on having the reference list at the end of every chapter as opposed to at the end of the book. That way you can immediately research something interesting you come across, in depth.

[Dan Cooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember how I heard about this book, I probably just saw it on Amazon, but who wouldn't be interested in reading about abandoned places deep under the ground? Well if you are then you will probably find this book great. Lots of history into why certain tunnels and stations became abandoned or repurposed with lots of photos. Its just a shame that as they became abandoned a lot of the internals to the stations and platforms were ripped out, so now they are pretty empty with at most tiling or other small reminders of their history remaining. Still I really want to do one of the tours now to see some of these places for myself.

[Simon Collis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. I'm fascinated by closed underground stations, ever since I saw the closed platform five to Aldwych at Holborn (and later learned that Aldwych used to be my parents' local tube station), so this book is a goldmine for me.

There's a huge number of pictures - many I've not seen before - and new details. Having read a lot on the subject I didn't hunk I'd learn much - and that assumption was wrong, as there was something new every page.

If the subject interests you, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to do one of the tours of the disused Tube stations and this book features some fantastic photographs of what to expect. There is quite a bit of text to accompany pictures of the history of the railways, Tube lines and other facts. A really informative and high quality book.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that would appeal to lovers of trains, history, or London. I loved the photos and background stories of the disused Tube stations.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and very well done book. The text is informative and readable, while the pictures are often beautiful and really add a lot.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book, some great photos and diagrams of lost underground stations and deep shelters

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into some of Londons abandoned stations and tunnels, with interesting snippets of history thrown in for good measure

[Alexandria Blaelock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange and interesting history of disused London Underground stations. Relatively short read with lots of wonderful pictures.