‘Hidden’ Holborn Tour
As part of London Transport Museum’s ‘Hidden London’ tours, the disused parts of Holborn station were added to the choices in 2024. I visited in early August, when the tours had been running for only a few days.
The frontage to Holborn station on Kingsway is unique in that it incorporates elements designed by both Leslie Green and Charles Holden. The semi-circular windows date from the station’s opening in 1906, but unlike all other Leslie Green designs, the familiar oxblood tiling was not used here, owing to the requirements of London County Council. Instead, the station frontage itself was finished in polished granite that was stained red, while the surrounding buildings (and the southern lift exit arch - behind the tree in the photograph below, which is now used for ventilation) were finished in Portland stone. As part of the station modernisation (including the opening of the Central line platforms as replacements for those at British Museum Station), the Leslie Green frontage was replaced to a new design, also using Portland stone, by Charles Holden in 1932/3.
The disused lift exit is (mostly) filled in now, with just a portion above head height left open for ventilation.
The former Magnet House remains at the corner of Gate Street. This served as the headquarters for the General Electric Company (GEC) for many years.
The logo for The British Electrical Federation Ltd survives above the door.
After passing through some staff areas, the original emergency spiral staircase was encountered behind an innocuous-looking door. Notice that the original staircase has been replaced, with the replacement being set slightly lower than the original was, causing a small gap below the decorative tiling. At certain points along the staircase, new doorways had been introduced, allowing access to the new ventilation shaft situated alongside.
A truncated passageway existed at the foot of the stairs, with more short sections of the original tiling remaining. The display board shows two images of British Museum station as it appeared when in operation. The breeze block partition wall to the right leads into the area housing the ventilation equipment.
Following the closure of the second Aldwych branch platform in 1917, owing to low passenger demand, the area was re-purposed, firstly, as a laboratory for Birkbeck College, and then, throughout the Second World War as a hostel and office area, with partitions installed along the platforms, and the track bed filled in. With this being a bay platform, the conversion was relatively straightforward, despite the only direct access being (as it is today) via a door at the western end of the eastbound Piccadilly line platform.
As part of the conversion, the platform tiling was whitewashed over in later years; however, intrepid individuals have removed a small part of the paint in subsequent years, allowing these tiles to be observed once again.
Our group was led along the length of the platform, through the former running tunnel, and into the chamber that housed the scissors crossover between both of the branch platforms. With the second platform at Aldwych also being taken out of use in 1917, the crossover was changed to a single running line at this time, and the left-hand tunnel portal to Aldwych bricked up.
Close-up of the surviving tunnel mouth, looking towards Aldwych.
It is curious that the left-hand platform at Holborn remained in operation, while at Aldwych, the right-hand platform did.
Looking back the other way, with the surviving running tunnel towards Holborn passing alongside its disused counterpart.
This too is bricked up, with a door being constructed in the space.
A display board featuring a 1914 diagram of the layout at Holborn had been positioned on the tunnel wall. The crossover tunnel is not included on the diagram, but it would be to the right of the image.
Looking along the running tunnel, with the platform area being visible in the background.
The tunnel ring pieces were produced at the Sheepbridge foundry in Chesterfield.
The witness marks left by former shelving brackets were visible at the start of the platform area.
The white walls of the converted platform tunnel were put to good use for the next part of the tour - a series of vintage slides was projected on to them. The first showed the expansive area that had been excavated in the early 1930s to accommodate the four new escalators from the ticket hall down to the new circulating area for the existing Piccadilly and new Central line platforms.
The new Central line platforms were excavated around the original running tunnels, with the old tunnel segments gradually being removed as work progressed. One of the original 1900 Central London Railway trains is seen passing through during the construction.
A similar image, but with the train positioned further along the running tunnel this time.
This 1960s’ view shows the completed Central line platforms. The tiling was the pale ‘biscuit’-coloured type seen in other stations that received design work by Charles Holden in the 1930s.
A 1940s’ image of the updated station frontage.
This diagram, from 1942, depicts how both of the Aldwych branch platforms were adapted for accommodation in the Second World War. All of the fittings installed on the through platform were removed in 1946, and train services resumed.
The close-up reveals how the bay platform area received the many new living, washing and toilet facilities, while the former track side was divided into two floors to create additional space. Our guide points to the through platform area, with the westbound Piccadilly line passing beneath.
A Christmas party was held on the through platform during wartime.
Another part of the platform became a mess room.
A food preparation kitchen also existed, complete with food waste bin!
This slide shows the washroom and bedroom facilities that were installed here.
The image showing the officer shaving is reproduced on a display in one of the rooms, although this may not necessarily be where the picture was taken.
None of the toilet facilities remain, although the partitions and sealed-off waste pipes are still in place.
The marks left by the fixing holes for the washbasins are also still present.
One of the rooms became home to the Central line’s Model Railway Club in the post-war era.
This now-empty room may have been one of the bedrooms.
The individual rooms are all numbered, for easy identification.
Room 11 featured the start of one of the former platform area tiling rings - a feature of the Leslie Green era stations.
I didn’t dare head Inside No. 9!
The original platform edging stones are visible in the centre of the picture, with the filled-in track bed being to the left.
Another of the rooms housed the second of the vintage images, though this still was a toilet facility, rather than a bedroom.
The Male Staff Cloakroom was situated at the southern end of the platform.
None of the stalls survived here. The image here shows how narrow the walkway between the individual groups of rooms was.
The tiling rings cease above head height on the track side of the platform to allow for advertising to be installed beneath them.
We then moved to the westbound Piccadilly line platform. At the western end, behind another innocuous-looking door, was a passageway that last saw use in 1994, serving as one of the routes to/from the remaining Aldwych shuttle platform.
Despite the rest of the station undergoing refurbishment in the 1980s,. this section remained in its original 1906 state, owing to the significantly lower footfall of passengers using the Aldwych branch (though the passageway did make for an alternative means of changing between the westbound and eastbound platforms).
This passageway passes over both the westbound Piccadilly line tracks, as well as the Aldwych branch platform. Despite the years of abandonment, the tiling along here was immaculate.
Another 90 degree bend at the end of the passage led to another flight of stairs.
An amazing relic awaited our arrival at the top - this pre-Heathrow map still survives. It is believed to date to the mid-late 1930s, and would have been hidden behind a poster frame for much of its life. I suspect that it proved so difficult to remove that the poster frame was fitted here as a quick way of hiding it from view.
These doors segregate the disused parts from the Piccadilly’s eastbound platform, and were installed in the years following the closure of the Aldwych branch.
Poster frames have been placed over the original tiling on this portion of the platform, obscuring the unique pattern and decorative cartouches.
Part of the ‘No Exit’ one at the other end of the row is still visible, however. The dark red bar above all of this would have carried station name friezes when the platform was in use.
The ‘(Kingsway)’ suffix was added to the station name on the 22nd May 1933, but its use diminished subsequently, and by the 1960s, was all but gone completely.
A 1980s’ No Smoking sign straddles the space between a projection screen (used as a trial for projected adverts at one point) and a removed poster frame.
Part of the platform is now given over to a small room. This image on Wikimedia Commons shows a similar view prior to the cessation of the Aldwych shuttle - notice that the internally-illuminated Way Out sign is now gone, although its supply cable remains on the ceiling.
As with the Aldwych platforms, this platform saw use after closure to test equipment planned for station refurbishments elsewhere on the network. New panelling obscures the tiling along this portion of the platform.
Confusingly, the roundel here states Holborn, the panelling above states St. Paul’s, and the information panel provides the history of Queen Anne’s Gate, near to St. James’ Park.
The mock-up includes a higher section that features light fittings. With the panelling removed, the void used in concealing cables is revealed. The fire point sign would be original to when the platform was in use, however.
Somewhat ironically, the fire-fighting equipment is housed in a wooden enclosure that is against the platform wall.
On the opposite side, in between two further Holborn roundels, is a diagram for the eastbound platform at Chancery Lane.
The porcelain insulators for the conductor rails are inscribed ‘Doulton Pedestal Rail Insulator’.
A general view of the platform area, looking towards Holborn.
A portion of the ceiling at the end of the platform is damaged - this is intentional, and supported an experimental platform cooling system.
Despite the platform having been out of public use for nearly 30 years at the time of photographing, the headwall clock still works. To the right is a small room that served as a local signal cabin.
Nothing remains of the signalling system within the cabin now.
A small portion of the tiling pattern is visible behind the cabling and pipework for this more conventional cooling system.
Looking in the other direction, towards the eastbound Piccadilly line, the close-up reveals that the decorative edging to the tunnel mouth remains in place.
Shortly afterwards, a train passed by in the distance. Transferring stock to/from the branch now requires the manual setting of the points in the crossover tunnel, but previously, this was done remotely, with a three-car 1973 Stock unit travelling to and from Northfields depot every day to work the shuttle service in latter years.
Although now obscured by various runs of steel cable trunking, the distinctive decoration above the passageway entrance still remains too.
To finish, this is the wide escalator shaft that was seen under construction in the earlier slide - over 90 years later, and it is still serving modern passengers well.
