London Underground urban exploration

[90sWereBetter]

Whilst having a poke around for photos of the disused Holborn branch this afternoon, I stumbled across this urbex website which has a number of reports detailing clandestine visits to parts of the Tube network, as well as other metro systems.

Whilst what they're doing is clearly hideously illegal, I can't help but feel awe for these people reading their reports. Their visits to British Museum, Holborn and Aldwych are incredible. However, it sounds like they got rumbled during their last exploration at Paddington last year, judging from their report, and the fact there's been no new visits since December 2016.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[trash80]

Yes i agree with you, i can't condone their law breaking but i also enjoy reading of their adventures

 

[bramling]

Whilst having a poke around for photos of the disused Holborn branch this afternoon, I stumbled across this urbex website which has a number of reports detailing clandestine visits to parts of the Tube network, as well as other metro systems.

Whilst what they're doing is clearly hideously illegal, I can't help but feel awe for these people reading their reports. Their visits to British Museum, Holborn and Aldwych are incredible. However, it sounds like they got rumbled during their last exploration at Paddington last year, judging from their report, and the fact there's been no new visits since December 2016.

Thoughts anyone?

Indeed one can't help but admire the audacity of it. Some of their assumptions are a little wide of the mark though - like assuming they're safe if the traction current is on. Well they might be safe from running into p-way (who probably wouldn't bat an eyelid anyway) but the reason the juice has been left on is probably because an engineers train is booked to run in that section!

There are of course a few LU staff who take staff round many of these areas legitimately, and some of the locations are indeed spectacular. The stalactites in the Charing Cross disused loop tunnel are one such example, although this isn't somewhere the general public would ever be able to go.

 

[edwin_m]

Watching the repeat of the Tube programme just now, I noticed the presenter was introduced as an "Engineer and Urban Explorer" (this is the one where he legitimately got to see many of the disused bits of the Northern Line).

 

[Cowley]

This all very very wrong!

It is interesting though isn't it?

 

[AlterEgo]

Let me preface by saying that I do not condone this sort of behaviour, and it is of course very, very, dangerous.

But I did love this quote:

"I'd had 5 years of fun without incident down there, and wanted to go out on top like the Beatles or Usain Boltz."

Looks like the guys who run the site "retired".

 

[Busaholic]

"I'd had 5 years of fun without incident down there, and wanted to go out on top like the Beatles or Usain Boltz."
.

The well-known Czech athlete.

 

[AlterEgo]

The well-known Czech athlete.

Yes, they should have enlisted the help of a spelling Czecher!

 

[Smod]

I see they have explored several other countries. Probably best not to try this in North Korea.

 

[matt_world2004]

I see they have explored several other countries. Probably best not to try this in North Korea.

Although people have urban explored in totalitarian governments before someone broke into the highly sensitive metro 2.

 

[Buggleskelly]

I'm extremely interested in disused stations, especially the ones on the London Underground. It's so nice to see the way these stations look after all these many years, it's almost like stepping back in time. While what these people are doing is illegal and reckless, it gives the railway enthusiast in all of us an opportunity to see the beauty of long forgotten stations and areas of disused railway. The only way anyone could see something like this legitimately is to go on an organised tour. Surely TfL and others realise that interest of abandoned stations etc is a thing and organise tours for people who just don't want to see just photographs. I still do try to spot some stations while travelling, its just a case of knowing where to look.
Anyways thanks for bring the website to attention, I am liking everything I see.

 

[Mojo]

The only way anyone could see something like this legitimately is to go on an organised tour. Surely TfL and others realise that interest of abandoned stations etc is a thing and organise tours for people who just don't want to see just photographs. I still do try to spot some stations while travelling, its just a case of knowing where to look.
Anyways thanks for bring the website to attention, I am liking everything I see.

The Transport Museum already holds tours at a variety of disused/partially disused stations such as Down St, Euston, Highgate, Charing +, Aldwych, and Clapham South shelter. Search for ltm hidden london on Google.

Some locations such as Brompton Rd aren't really practical as access is only from a train (surface buildings and much of the Underground are not LUL property), whereas others like York Rd and South Kentish Town are of limited interest as there isn't anything to see and all of the (ex) platform areas are part of the track (although in the case of the latter there was some kind of team building experience day I saw advertised there recently but just for the surface building).

 

[Lrd]

The Transport Museum already holds tours at a variety of disused/partially disused stations such as Down St, Euston, Highgate, Charing +, Aldwych, and Clapham South shelter. Search for ltm hidden london on Google.

Some locations such as Brompton Rd aren't really practical as access is only from a train (surface buildings and much of the Underground are not LUL property), whereas others like York Rd and South Kentish Town are of limited interest as there isn't anything to see and all of the (ex) platform areas are part of the track (although in the case of the latter there was some kind of team building experience day I saw advertised there recently but just for the surface building).

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london

All tours except Clapham South are sold out so that proves how popular they are.

 

[trash80]

The only way anyone could see something like this legitimately is to go on an organised tour. Surely TfL and others realise that interest of abandoned stations etc is a thing and organise tours for people who just don't want to see just photographs. I still do try to spot some stations while travelling, its just a case of knowing where to look.
Anyways thanks for bring the website to attention, I am liking everything I see.

Look up Hidden London, i've been on Highgate and Charing Cross tours this year, Euston and Aldwych last year. Next year's tours will go on sale in a few months i think.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Am not sure if any RR's still run beyond Charing Cross ex-Jubilee stn Eastwards. Am sure it runs a fair distance (almost to Aldwych) and opened out a bit where they once intended to build a station. It was rare to use it when the station was operational so I suppose it is now hardly ever used.

 

[Buggleskelly]

Thanks all, as Lrd pointed out, they are all sold out now. I have just subscribed to their newsletter so they can inform me when new date are available. Until then, all I can do is just imagine the images of these places while underground when the train passes through a large empty space (British Museum) or brick wall (Brompton Road).

 

[edwin_m]

Am not sure if any RR's still run beyond Charing Cross ex-Jubilee stn Eastwards. Am sure it runs a fair distance (almost to Aldwych) and opened out a bit where they once intended to build a station. It was rare to use it when the station was operational so I suppose it is now hardly ever used.

I found it on an urban exploration site a while ago but can't find it now - perhaps taken down? It appeared (at the time at least) that the overrun tracks were intact. I'm not aware that there was any provision for an extra station (digging out a platform tunnel would have been a huge expense for no good reason) but there was/is a ventilation shaft near the end of the tunnel where they got access.

 

[CarlSilva]

.......and much of the Underground are not LUL property........

How's that ? Does LUL have rights of access for maintenance purposes then or what ?

Has anyone managed to explore the remains of the old King William Street Station (under Regis House, EC4) ?
Cant' see a mention of it on any of the list from that link.

 

[bramling]

Am not sure if any RR's still run beyond Charing Cross ex-Jubilee stn Eastwards. Am sure it runs a fair distance (almost to Aldwych) and opened out a bit where they once intended to build a station. It was rare to use it when the station was operational so I suppose it is now hardly ever used.

The platforms are used fairly regularly for reversing late running trains. The overrun sidings are less used, but stuff does go down there from time to time, and they are of course often used in conjunction with filming activities in the platforms. One of the sidings has recently been used for experimenting with different designs of LED tunnel lights.

The siding berth runs for some way beyond the platform, including the fan shaft at Southampton Street - which is presumably where the urban explorers gained access. A very deep staircase, with lattice metal stairs and a not particularly high handrail - so not good if one doesn't like heights! The base of the fan shaft is of course laid out as it would have been for a through running line, complete with bell mouths oriented for what would have been the direction of travel in each tunnel. Beyond the siding berth the track continues as far as the actual end of the tunnel, probably never ever seen a train since it was laid. The track eventually ends in a long sand drag, there is a cross passage between the two sidings, and the westbound tunnel has an extra fan, now disused, which was originally intended to be a temporary measure pending the line being extended.

It's little known that the Fleet Line had a further fan shaft partly built between Aldwych and Ludgate Hill. I'm not sure how much work was done below ground, but the surface structure is certainly still there, looking rather out of place in the middle of a nondescript office block.

 

[bramling]

How's that ? Does LUL have rights of access for maintenance purposes then or what ?

Has anyone managed to explore the remains of the old King William Street Station (under Regis House, EC4) ?
Cant' see a mention of it on any of the list from that link.

It tends to be the surface buildings, which I believe are either sold off, or perhaps rented or leased out. The only two which have no surface access are Brompton Road and British Museum - the former because the surface building is no longer in railway hands, and the latter because the surface site has been completely redeveloped with the shaftsvbeing backfilled down to the level of the lower lift landings.

I have been down King William Street three times. At the time of writing it's largely as pictured on the Sub Brit site, although most of the wartime posters have disintegrated now. One can walk as far as the watertight doors at the end of the notorious Arthur Street curve, which are firmly secured. The London Bridge end of the under-river section is firmly sealed; although still used as a routeway for high-tension power cables.

If and when the work starts for a new southbound platform at Bank, King William Street is likely to change a little. The station will be a worksite, although LU has identified that the station finishes and features should be given some protection. The deck added as part of the air raid shelter conversion will be removed, and a small section of tunnel at the country end of the station will be back filled and then have a working shaft sunk through the backfill. One hopes the brick station tunnel withstands all this upheaval unscathed...

I can't see any urban explorers getting into King William Street. They would have to know exactly where to go, plus access involves passing through several locked doors, all of which are covered with monitored CCTV.

 

[bramling]

I found it on an urban exploration site a while ago but can't find it now - perhaps taken down? It appeared (at the time at least) that the overrun tracks were intact. I'm not aware that there was any provision for an extra station (digging out a platform tunnel would have been a huge expense for no good reason) but there was/is a ventilation shaft near the end of the tunnel where they got access.

No provision for a station. The next station east was always planned to be further east. The only opening is for the fan shaft at Southampton Street, which was always intended to be a mid-tunnel facility, as is common on most Tube sections built since the 1930s.

 

[CarlSilva]

Has anyone managed to explore the remains of the old King William Street Station (under Regis House, EC4) ?

Found one - https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/king-william-street-abandoned-london-underground-station.t52018

 

[king_walnut]

These guys went and explored the old mail rail a few years ago. Probably my favourite urban exploration article. Amazing read.

http://www.placehacking.co.uk/2011/04/24/security-breach-london-mail-rail/

 

[3141]

I'm envious of Bramling having been to King William Street. All my visits to closed or abandoned sections of the Underground have been legal ones, and you have to be a lot younger than I am to do the climbing that these people do. I've been to City Road, the Northern Line City branch areas at Euston that went out of use when the tracks were rearranged at the time the Victoria Line was built, some abandoned areas at Angel, and I've walked from Aldwych to Holborn and back, including the short platform at Holborn that went out of use 100 years ago.

London Transport used to organise special train trips that visited sections of line not normally used by passenger services, and I've been round the Kennington Loop, along the link from the Northern at Euston to the Piccadilly at Kings Cross, through the old platform at Wood Lane to the depot at White City before it was completely relocated, and through Cockfosters depot. But they stopped doing such trips during the time of PPP scheme, and haven't reinstated them.

I have managed to get a place on the visit to the Clapham South Deep Shelter next week.

I like the way posters on this thread express their serious disapproval of the activities of the urban explorers, and then say how interesting it all is! The aspect that concerns me is that if these people can get in to take photos, someone else with much nastier intentions could get in as well.

Have you seen the book Subterranean London by Bradley Garrett? It contains photos of several other subterranean places besides the Underground system.

 

[edwin_m]

I like the way posters on this thread express their serious disapproval of the activities of the urban explorers, and then say how interesting it all is! The aspect that concerns me is that if these people can get in to take photos, someone else with much nastier intentions could get in as well.

I think they are primarily a danger to themselves, plus the staff who may be involved if and when something goes wrong. As we discovered in 2005 it's quite possible to cause carnage on the Tube without going to any non-public areas.

 

[king_walnut]

Bradley Garrett's website is amazing, this was a tremendous read too

http://www.placehacking.co.uk/2011/03/29/hacking-london-underground/

 

[3141]

As we discovered in 2005 it's quite possible to cause carnage on the Tube without going to any non-public areas.

Obviously, but I was thinking of damage to the infrastructure. The disruption that could be caused by people getting into the Camden Town junctions on the Northern Line is tremendous, and there are locations on other lines with similar potential. You wouldn't even need to blow yourself up in the process.

 

[whhistle]

I'm surprised LUL don't see this as an extra revenue stream.

As others have said, I don't condone what they do but I'm half glad they do it. I see the reports as preserving things (such as the Tot's TV house), that would have otherwise been destroyed.
But I guess it's like the people who stick extra stickers around on the LUL network. Funny, but a constant battle.

 

[trash80]

Revenue stream? You mean like Hidden London?

 

[Ianno87]

Although highly illegal and I do not condone their activities nor recommend anybody try it for themselves...their exploration of Mail Rail is a fascinating read.