Aldwych Station (Permission Visit)

Derelict Places

Help Support Derelict Places:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

UrbanX

Moderate Moderator
Joined
Apr 2, 2007
Messages
7,543
Reaction score
8,163
Location
Cambridge
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…

IMG_5572_zpsc4a84a19.jpg

IMG_5627_zps57376d10.jpg

IMG_5622_zpsa0bd98d7.jpg

IMG_5636_zps7bed7075.jpg

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.

IMG_5592_zpsb123e01a.jpg

IMG_5642_zpsfe532f60.jpg

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:
IMG_5645_zps4c81f8a1.jpg

Controls:
IMG_5656_zps3a0b3127.jpg

Old phone numbers on the side of a phone box in the Entrance lobby:
IMG_5660_zps1f9e129f.jpg

IMG_5597_zps6e593260.jpg

IMG_5568_zps3a594a1f.jpg

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.

aldwych121940old3_zpsb7ac93a2.jpg
Photo taken during the Blitz in 1940

IMG_5631_zps35b9ccad.jpg

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:
IMG_5607_zps056e4957.jpg

IMG_5610_zps1ccc2d9c.jpg

IMG_5614_zpse3f7fc86.jpg

IMG_5613_zps477e0c88.jpg

IMG_5615_zps3321d1f8.jpg

Fake posters:
IMG_5575_zps4266a785.jpg

IMG_5576_zpsd5824ed3.jpg

IMG_5589_zps50d3a45f.jpg

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:

IMG_5594_zps1d3cb574.jpg

IMG_5609_zps22c339fe.jpg


New Aldwych sign, for filming: The ‘tiles’ are actually just printed onto MDF.
IMG_5577_zpsdb5a237c.jpg

Another new sign, most of these had been ‘aged’ but this one was looking very new:
IMG_5595_zpsef0d05d2.jpg

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:

IMG_5586_zps211712e9.jpg
Inside the cab

IMG_5588_zps6bff7b10.jpg
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: IMG_5602_zps1d13afeb.jpg

Another ‘Strand’ sign destroyed by testing tile adhesives:
IMG_5618_zpsc51b62b8.jpg

IMG_5626_zps7b23eaf9.jpg

IMG_5664_zps7f094ea5.jpg

Thanks to TfL for letting me have a mooch and thank you for looking:
IMG_5636-Copy_zpse7c31fcc.jpg
 
It was a private group visit.
I think there are some public tours starting this Thursday?
 
LOVING THIS! Always wanted to do a London Underground Station. Might have to look into this. Thanks for sharing this. Awesomeshots, esp of the tunnel
 
I CANT tell you just how jealous I am right now!!!

Have you seen "Creep"? Eversince I have been so very hungry to get into the old, unused underground stations, preferably the ones where disfigured orphans live who grow up and up feed unsuspecting visitors their canibal siblings and have bottles of carefully preserved body parts!

Thank you :)
 
Loving this report..I love how you explained the two ways of doing it.from the long first one to the oh so simple one sentence second one.that made me smile to myself.cracking pics.
 
Excellent report mate. Especially the old adverts, im a sucker for them
I did the new york subway museum once, that had some old rolling stock with fake, but interesting old adverts.
any idea why the signs for the Bakerloo line? Not nearby
Creep was a gruesome film!
 
Very nice stuff, was gonna go on one of the tours coming up, but never got around to booking it in the end :(
 

Latest posts

Back
Top