Abandoned subway stations are equal parts fascinating and creepy. Due to its role in World War II, the Down Street tube station in Westminster, London is historically fascinating and creepy. And soon, it will be open to the public.
The lifespan of Down Street as a tube station actually lasted less than three decades. The station opened in 1907, when the underground lines were electrified, and closed in 1932 after London Underground authorities decided that it wasn’t used enough. Seven years later, on the eve of the war, Down Street was transformed into a bomb shelter for the Railway Executive Committee and, later, Prime Minister Winston Churchill himself. He called it “The Barn.”
Beginning May 7 the London Transport Museum will be giving guided tours deep down into the disused Down Street Tube station as part of their new ‘Hidden London’ season. The Museum will also run tours into the abandoned labyrinth of tunnels under Euston station, Clapham South’s deep-level Second World War bunker, as well as the London Underground’s former headquarters at 55 Broadway near St James’ Park.
If you happen to be in London this year, you should not miss the chance to explore these spaces. (You can buy tickets online starting April 20.) If not, the photos below may give you a chilly glimpse at what was it like to spend days or weeks in 1940, during the Blitz, listening to the murmur of the Nazi bombs.
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If you really want to be creeped out, visit the existing War Rooms museum. When you get to the main situation room, look on the wall just as you enter the room. There’s a tally of the number of V1 and V2 bombs launched at London on a sheet of paper pinned to the wall behind some perspex. It’s only a partial list, but it reads something like this (for each day):
June 16
Number launched: 122
Crossed coast: 95
Over London: 45
That’s for each day. The list also shows the number of buildings destroyed per day, and the number of civilians killed and injured.
Now imagine living in London during the blitz where those sort of numbers were repeated for 267 days, and that doesn’t include the bomber raids.
You start to understand why Churchill had so many different bunkers, and why the tube was so widely used in addition to household Anderson Shelters to shelter from the bombs.