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Ghost Stations of the London Underground
PinchDuck writes "Check out this site to get a tour of London Underground stations that have been abandoned during the century+ history of the commuter system. You can apparently still get to some of them! (though not by taking the Tube, obviously). I wish I had found this site 2 weeks ago, when I went to London, but now my geeky explorations must wait until my next visit (having just flown back in to Detroit today)."
There are a lot of sites out there with some info on the tunnels:
http://www.thetube.com/content/metro/01/0110/31/
http://www.londonrailways.net/ghost.htm
The BBC has a great article here.
Most older cities have a lot of steam tunnels and abandoned stations like these. Does anyone out there have some interesting exploration stories to share?
ProjectZ have undertaken some "unofficial" visits to some of these stations. Specifically Wood Lane underground station, and the abandoned part of Holborn Station and the adjoining world war two bunker. There are also some other interesting urban explorations on this site.
Another site that has similar information about places you're not supposed to go is www.infiltration.org. Ah, running around steam tunnels back when I was an undergrad....
http://triggur.org/silo/site.html
World's weirdest site--exploring an abandoned missile silo.
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You need not feel bad that you're going back to Detroit. It has no lack of abandoned structures. Check this out for a start: http://www.forgottendetroit.com/. Also try the Urban Exploration Ring for the website about your area!
It's off topic, but since you mentioned it, Detroit is also full of abandoned places to explore.
Check it out.
If abandoned subway stations are your thing, you can find plenty of them right here in New York City.
One of them is even a national historic monument.
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For those of you not familiar with the TTC, it's the transit system in Toronto.
:)
As for the station refered to in the parent, it was called Lower Bay (or Bay Lower) station, and was shutdown after 6 months of use. It's now used mainly as a film set, and for training I believe. Since little to no maintenance is performed on it, it's easy to pass it off as a New York subway station
THIS page is a good read about exploring the TTC tunnels (and lower bay), and THIS page gives a little bit of the history of lower bay.
INFILTRATION is a website that specializes in clandestine exploration of subway tunnels, amongst other things.
The TTC has a number of abandoned stations and facilities. http://www.transit.toronto.on.ca/transit.cfm?tt=su bway&id=5006
The most commonly known abandoned station is Lower Bay, the lower level of the Bay station. It was used for a few months when the Bloor-Danforth line first opened, to allow the trains to interline with the Yonge-University line.
When the Yonge line was planned, it was thought that a streetcar subway would run under Queen Street (rather than the Bloor-Danforth line we have today). A roughed-in platform was built for the streetcars under Queen Station. At Osgoode (Queen St, University line), there is no second platform, although utlities were moved to accomodate a line (should it be built).
Another abandoned "station" is located at Allen Road, along the cancelled Eglinton line. The station was the first to be built, but the new government at the time cancelled the line and the station was filled in. Work never progressed far enough for it to be called a station though.
Keele and Woodbine stations on the Bloor line were terminal stations when the Bloor-Danforth line first opened. Special tunnels were built to make it easier for passengers to transfer to/from the streetcars, but were later abandoned.
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I'm sure this one was discussed on the UK transport newsgroup a few years ago.. A related discussion (but not the actual one) is linked to here.
The Victoria line has a stretch between Victoria and Green Park. The most direct route would go under Buckingham Palace, the Queen's primary residence. However, if you look at 'real' maps of the Underground, a kink is in the line which causes it to skirt the Queen's property.
Supposedly this is related to security, but also to an atomic shelter located under the Palace.
If, however, you keep your eyes peeled while looking out of the train between these two stations, you can actually see a very small platform and some dim lights. I've only seen it once, and I -think- it's out of the left hand side of the train when going northbound, but I'm not 100% sure.
The newsgroup speculation at the time was that this was a way for the Royals to access the Underground in certain 'situations'. Next time you're on that stretch of line, check it out.
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Of all the deepcut lines, the Picadilly Line is probably the most fascinating for abandoned stations.
There are three notable abandonments; Aldwych, Down Street, and Brompton Road. There are also abandoned sections at Hyde Park Corner (which no longer uses it's original surface building, which is now a Pizza Restaurant), Green Park, South Ken (the lift shafts are empty), Caledonian Road, and no doubt several other stations.
Aldwych is probably the best known of the abandoned stations. It was closed in 1994 as the replacement cost for the lifts was deemed uneconomical, given the usage the station got. Aldwych runs on a branch down from Oldborn, and some tunnel extends further. This is because the Picadilly line was originally two seperate lines, the western section running to Covent Garden, the northern section running to Aldwych. The northern section was intended to run south of the river, hence the extra tunnel. This was never completed though, and the two sections wer joined at Holborn very early on.
Aldwych also has other random tunnel going to it, as the Jubilee line was built all the way to Aldwych, but never used that far. Now the Charring Cross section of the Jubilee line is completely abandoned as the Jubilee extension takes the line through Westminster instead.
Down Street was closed in the 1930s along with Brompton Road to thin down the number of Central London stations on the Picadilly line when the line was extended further east and west. Down Street, due to it's proximity to Green Park, was never a particularly busy station, and hence was an easy target. During the war it was converted into a transport command HQ and government bunker.
Brompton Road was likely chosen for closure due its very high proximity to South Ken - much of the surface building still stands next to the Kensington Oratory, just a few minutes walk away. Brompton Road was also used during the war, although it's uses were entirely military, and somewhat murky. The military still own the shafts, making access from the ground impossible. Several years ago a man died after breaking in and falling down one of the shafts. His remains were not discovered for quite some time!
Both Brompton Road and Down Street can be spotted from passing tube trains - the platforms were bricked up during their war usage, so you can see where the platforms would be by looking where the tube wall turns into a brick wall. Brompton Road is between South Ken and Knightsbridge, Down Street is between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park. Also look out for the cross-over / passing tunnels between Hyde Park Corner and Down Street :-)
This is a fascinating subject. Some of my favorites...
c om
http://www.nelsap.org
http://www.forgotten-ny.
And exactly on the subject of abandoned subway tunnels, here's an index for New York...
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/
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After seeing Die Another Day, I decided to do some research on the abandoned tube station that Bond went to. The name of the station was "Vauxhall Cross". It turns out, that a Vauxhall Cross station never existed, but it is the offical name of the building better known as MI6 headquarters. Also here are some more pictures of Vauxhall Cross. I'll give them credit for throwing in a little easter egg like that.
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