Aldwych – lost London Underground station how to visit it.
One of London’s 40 lost Tube stations allows visitors to descend to the abandoned platforms for a tour.
A visit to Aldwych is an unforgettable experience for Underground enthusiasts – and you might remember it from the films.
The station’s vacant hallways, ticket hall, and platforms have been on screen in films ranging from Sherlock, Luther, and Bodies to Superman IV, Atonement, 28 Weeks Later, and Patriot Games, in addition to the London Transport Museum’s Hidden London tour.
The London Transport Museum’s Hidden London excursions include a visit to the passenger lift at Aldwych station. (Image from Wikimedia Commons).
When Nazi bombs fell on London, the tunnels were used to house important British Museum treasures, including the famed Elgin Marbles from The Parthenon.
Before it was erected on the corner of Surrey Street and The Strand, there were great plans to connect it to trains travelling north to Alexandra Palace, then to the City of London, and finally under the river to Waterloo.
Visitors can walk past the old posters last seen by commuters in 1994 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
But permission for the schemes was never granted to Strand station stood alone on a spur of the Piccadilly Line shuttling passengers to and from nearby Holborn.
Strand station was on an offshoot of the Piccadilly line that shuttled to and from Holborn (Image: Wikimedia Commons).
It was proposed for closure as early as the 1920s, and by 1962, it only operated on weekdays during peak hours.
Then, in 1994, the £3 million cost of replacing the elevators was deemed too exorbitant, and it closed permanently.
Plans to restore the station to an interwar appearance with ancient London Underground rolling stock transporting tourists up and down the unused tracks proved ineffective, though an old Northern line carriage did roll up and down for movie sets.
Aldwych Tube station was originally called Strand when it opened in 1907 and it is now Grade II listed. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
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