Ghost Tubes

A constant source of fascination and speculation to Londoners is the “Ghost Tube.” This is not the tube system at weekends but the unused stations and tunnels under London’s streets. There are 40 disused or abandoned Tube stations out there and some have found alternative uses – South Kentish Town is a massage parlour, Marlborough Road was a Chinese restaurant and Aldwych is often used for movies and has hosted a recent exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the London Blitz during which it gave distinguished service.





Click on maps for larger image

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html

The system has many former stations, while others were planned but not opened. Services to some former stations ended when they were closed because they had too few passengers to make their retention worthwhile; some stations became redundant after lines were rerouted or replacements were constructed; others are no longer served by the Underground, but remain open to National Rail main line services. Many stations were planned as parts of new lines or extensions to existing ones, but were later abandoned without having been opened.



Some closed stations retain their original station building, converted for other uses or abandoned, while others have been demolished and their sites redeveloped. A number of stations, while still open, have closed platforms or sections, such as the Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross. The interiors and platforms of closed stations are among parts of the London Underground available for filming purposes.





The retro website Retronaut has picked up on Penney Design’s modified Tube art, which has redrawn old transport maps with new “ghost” symbols for long lost stations like North Weald and Ongar.

“Ghost-stations are those which are closed and disused. Many remain fairly intact and some even feature time capsule-like qualities, such as WWII propaganda posters hanging from the platform walls.”

- Penney Design

All map images (c) Penney Design.

Have a look at their site;

http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/07/ghost-station-tube-maps/

An invaluable source of information on London’s abandoned Underground stations is Hywel Williams Underground History site;

http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php

For info on a whole underground railway abandoned under London see my Blog on London’s Other Underground;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/londons-other-underground.html

For details and a rather amusing video of an abandoned extension to the Northern Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/northern-heights.html

As part of BBC Radio 4's "London: Another Country?" season, London Underground's David Leboff offers a guided tour round St Mary's in East London, one of the tube network's least well-known or visited disused stations.



This video takes you on a visual journey through Aldwych, a closed station on a now defunct branch of the Piccadilly Line.

Ghost Tubes

A constant source of fascination and speculation to Londoners is the “Ghost Tube.” This is not the tube system at weekends but the unused stations and tunnels under London’s streets. There are 40 disused or abandoned Tube stations out there and some have found alternative uses – South Kentish Town is a massage parlour, Marlborough Road was a Chinese restaurant and Aldwych is often used for movies and has hosted a recent exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the London Blitz during which it gave distinguished service.





Click on maps for larger image

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html

The system has many former stations, while others were planned but not opened. Services to some former stations ended when they were closed because they had too few passengers to make their retention worthwhile; some stations became redundant after lines were rerouted or replacements were constructed; others are no longer served by the Underground, but remain open to National Rail main line services. Many stations were planned as parts of new lines or extensions to existing ones, but were later abandoned without having been opened.



Some closed stations retain their original station building, converted for other uses or abandoned, while others have been demolished and their sites redeveloped. A number of stations, while still open, have closed platforms or sections, such as the Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross. The interiors and platforms of closed stations are among parts of the London Underground available for filming purposes.





The retro website Retronaut has picked up on Penney Design’s modified Tube art, which has redrawn old transport maps with new “ghost” symbols for long lost stations like North Weald and Ongar.

“Ghost-stations are those which are closed and disused. Many remain fairly intact and some even feature time capsule-like qualities, such as WWII propaganda posters hanging from the platform walls.”

- Penney Design

All map images (c) Penney Design.

Have a look at their site;

http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/07/ghost-station-tube-maps/

An invaluable source of information on London’s abandoned Underground stations is Hywel Williams Underground History site;

http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php

For info on a whole underground railway abandoned under London see my Blog on London’s Other Underground;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/londons-other-underground.html

For details and a rather amusing video of an abandoned extension to the Northern Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/01/northern-heights.html

As part of BBC Radio 4's "London: Another Country?" season, London Underground's David Leboff offers a guided tour round St Mary's in East London, one of the tube network's least well-known or visited disused stations.



This video takes you on a visual journey through Aldwych, a closed station on a now defunct branch of the Piccadilly Line.

Psst! – Wanna buy a Tube station?

The disused Shoreditch station which is for sale



Wanna buy a Tube station? Just be careful who you sit next to on the Tube because there are a lot of Tube “Anoraks” out there whose dream of earthly paradise is to own a Tube station. Sad Boys – yes it is a male thing! There are 16 disused Tube stations out there and some have found alternative uses – South Kentish Town is a massage parlour, Marlborough Road was a Chinese restaurant and Aldwych is often used for movies and has hosted a recent exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the London Blitz during which it gave distinguished service.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html

Shoreditch was always a strange station even when open for it lost much of its meaning when the line into Liverpool Street was cut, was in an area of narrow streets and was hard to find unless you knew where it was! There was a sign at the top of Pedley Street directing you to the station and at the end of its 130 year history it was only open during peak hours and catering for 1,100 passengers a day.




Looking for the Tube station Guv? The sign underneath the original street sign is in Sylethi as this area is now known as "Banglatown" with a mainly Bangladeshi population around Brick Lane

One more point which made it hard to find it was it was in Spitalfields near Brick Lane not Shoreditch! The old station has seen more spray cans than commuters over the past five years, and don’t expect to be able to wander down to the platforms looking out for ghost trains to New Cross – much of the old line has been filled in and grassed over, and the stairs removed. But what you’ll get for your money is a cosy little building which has played a big role in London railway history, which once saw steam trains from Liverpool Street to the south coast as well as Tube trains. Presumably it is for sale now as the platforms and stairs have been removed and the new embankment for the realigned East London Line has been completed. Interested? Details are here on auctioneers Andrew and Robertson’s site;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html





Shoreditch station opened in 1876 and closed in 2006, having consisted of a single platform serving a single track next to the disused Bishopsgate goods yard as well as the station building upon Brick Lane, a road notable for its wide variety of curry restaurants. The station was situated just to the south of the railway line into Liverpool Street, and the Underground line at Shoreditch used to continue onto the mainline tracks until the tube line was electrified in 1913.





While open, the station was the northernmost terminus of the line, but due to a shortage of passengers, trains only called there during rush hours and at weekends. Shoreditch belongs to the long tradition of Underground stations with misleading names (Harrow on the Hill being below the Hill, Acton Town being a half mile from Acton Town, Watford being a mile from Watford etc) as it is not really in Shoreditch but at the top of Brick Lane and behind the old Goods yards.


Map showing the two Shoreditch stations originally served from Liverpool Street. Directly north there was Shoreditch on the mainline from Broad Street (since amalgamated with Liverpool St.) which was closed after being bombed in the Blitz of 1940 and to the right Shoreditch on the East London Line

Due to plans to extend the East London line to form part of the new London Overground network, Shoreditch station is now disused. Trains will leave the original route of the line to call at a new station at Shoreditch High Street while passing along the route of the old Broad Street viaduct, the only remaining structure from the old national railway station of the same name. The fact that the disused North London line runs along most of the desired route of the extension means that Shoreditch station really had very little chance of being included in the project. The new line and station form part of the London Overground network, a suburban rail service operated by Transport for London but separate from the Tube network.





Unlike other closed stations, Transport for London provided a temporary service to Shoreditch - until the new line fully opened in 2010, a non-stop rail replacement bus connected Shoreditch with Whitechapel using the station's previous limited opening hours.


The original East London Line with Shoreditch as its northern terminus

The cutting in and around the station area has been filled in and partly reused for the line from Whitechapel (also in a cutting) to the replacement Shoreditch High Street (on an embankment). Until the late 1960s the East London Line connected with the main line railway to Liverpool Street (and Bishopsgate until 1916) just north of Shoreditch station. The site of the link is still visible from the end of the platform and from National Express East Anglia main line trains between Stratford and Liverpool Street. The station was one of only a handful on the network with a single platform and a single track layout, though it originally had two tracks and platforms.





The preceding station was Whitechapel, which was the northern terminus of the East London Line until the line closed for extension in December 2007.The station had two platforms for the twin track railway which continued westwards, joining other mainline tracks running into nearby Liverpool Street station. Services on this stretch of the line varied over the years, but eventually passenger services terminated at Shoreditch in 1913 rather than carrying through to Liverpool Street when the line was electrified, with goods traffic only continuing to Liverpool Street. In 1966, even this service was withdrawn and the junction with the mainline tracks just beyond the station was severed.



The line itself has gone through several identity changes. At times, it was seen primarily as a goods line but in 1913, the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District railways started using the line for passenger services. When the London Underground was nationalised, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Line and in 1970 became known as the Metropolitan Line - East London Section. In the 1980s, the line was given its own identity as a separate London Underground line, though in reality to this day it still has a close relationship with the Hammersmith & City (also former Metropolitan Line), even sharing rolling stock. The East London Line was a unique creature, the only Underground Line which didn’t go through Central London, the second oldest line dating from 1869 but incorporating the oldest part of London Underground – Isambard Brunel’s Wapping Tunnel dating from 1843.


Construction work on the East London Line extension, photographed from outside the former Shoreditch tube station building (looking east).


For the fascinating history of the original East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/east-london-line.html

For the story of one of London’s most important transport developments, London Overground, which incorporates the East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/04/east-london-line-goes-overground.html


Still got your cheque book at the ready? The sale of Shoreditch Station takes place at the Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on 16 February. But if you want to buy the ultimate Geek’s crash pad as well as the £180k + reserve price you want to have deep pockets. The building has been boarded up for 5 years, is a monument to graffiti and has extensive asbestos throughout the structure.



Here is a video tribute to the last day of Shoreditch station. I may even have been there myself but I can’t confirm that for security reasons!



Here is TfL's promo video on the new line with excellent aerial shots which make sense of the route decisions;



For more on London Underground and its unique heritage and contribution to design see TUBEBLOGS in my Blog sidebar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Psst! – Wanna buy a Tube station?

The disused Shoreditch station which is for sale



Wanna buy a Tube station? Just be careful who you sit next to on the Tube because there are a lot of Tube “Anoraks” out there whose dream of earthly paradise is to own a Tube station. Sad Boys – yes it is a male thing! There are 16 disused Tube stations out there and some have found alternative uses – South Kentish Town is a massage parlour, Marlborough Road was a Chinese restaurant and Aldwych is often used for movies and has hosted a recent exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the London Blitz during which it gave distinguished service.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html

Shoreditch was always a strange station even when open for it lost much of its meaning when the line into Liverpool Street was cut, was in an area of narrow streets and was hard to find unless you knew where it was! There was a sign at the top of Pedley Street directing you to the station and at the end of its 130 year history it was only open during peak hours and catering for 1,100 passengers a day.




Looking for the Tube station Guv? The sign underneath the original street sign is in Sylethi as this area is now known as "Banglatown" with a mainly Bangladeshi population around Brick Lane

One more point which made it hard to find it was it was in Spitalfields near Brick Lane not Shoreditch! The old station has seen more spray cans than commuters over the past five years, and don’t expect to be able to wander down to the platforms looking out for ghost trains to New Cross – much of the old line has been filled in and grassed over, and the stairs removed. But what you’ll get for your money is a cosy little building which has played a big role in London railway history, which once saw steam trains from Liverpool Street to the south coast as well as Tube trains. Presumably it is for sale now as the platforms and stairs have been removed and the new embankment for the realigned East London Line has been completed. Interested? Details are here on auctioneers Andrew and Robertson’s site;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html





Shoreditch station opened in 1876 and closed in 2006, having consisted of a single platform serving a single track next to the disused Bishopsgate goods yard as well as the station building upon Brick Lane, a road notable for its wide variety of curry restaurants. The station was situated just to the south of the railway line into Liverpool Street, and the Underground line at Shoreditch used to continue onto the mainline tracks until the tube line was electrified in 1913.





While open, the station was the northernmost terminus of the line, but due to a shortage of passengers, trains only called there during rush hours and at weekends. Shoreditch belongs to the long tradition of Underground stations with misleading names (Harrow on the Hill being below the Hill, Acton Town being a half mile from Acton Town, Watford being a mile from Watford etc) as it is not really in Shoreditch but at the top of Brick Lane and behind the old Goods yards.


Map showing the two Shoreditch stations originally served from Liverpool Street. Directly north there was Shoreditch on the mainline from Broad Street (since amalgamated with Liverpool St.) which was closed after being bombed in the Blitz of 1940 and to the right Shoreditch on the East London Line

Due to plans to extend the East London line to form part of the new London Overground network, Shoreditch station is now disused. Trains will leave the original route of the line to call at a new station at Shoreditch High Street while passing along the route of the old Broad Street viaduct, the only remaining structure from the old national railway station of the same name. The fact that the disused North London line runs along most of the desired route of the extension means that Shoreditch station really had very little chance of being included in the project. The new line and station form part of the London Overground network, a suburban rail service operated by Transport for London but separate from the Tube network.





Unlike other closed stations, Transport for London provided a temporary service to Shoreditch - until the new line fully opened in 2010, a non-stop rail replacement bus connected Shoreditch with Whitechapel using the station's previous limited opening hours.


The original East London Line with Shoreditch as its northern terminus

The cutting in and around the station area has been filled in and partly reused for the line from Whitechapel (also in a cutting) to the replacement Shoreditch High Street (on an embankment). Until the late 1960s the East London Line connected with the main line railway to Liverpool Street (and Bishopsgate until 1916) just north of Shoreditch station. The site of the link is still visible from the end of the platform and from National Express East Anglia main line trains between Stratford and Liverpool Street. The station was one of only a handful on the network with a single platform and a single track layout, though it originally had two tracks and platforms.





The preceding station was Whitechapel, which was the northern terminus of the East London Line until the line closed for extension in December 2007.The station had two platforms for the twin track railway which continued westwards, joining other mainline tracks running into nearby Liverpool Street station. Services on this stretch of the line varied over the years, but eventually passenger services terminated at Shoreditch in 1913 rather than carrying through to Liverpool Street when the line was electrified, with goods traffic only continuing to Liverpool Street. In 1966, even this service was withdrawn and the junction with the mainline tracks just beyond the station was severed.



The line itself has gone through several identity changes. At times, it was seen primarily as a goods line but in 1913, the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District railways started using the line for passenger services. When the London Underground was nationalised, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Line and in 1970 became known as the Metropolitan Line - East London Section. In the 1980s, the line was given its own identity as a separate London Underground line, though in reality to this day it still has a close relationship with the Hammersmith & City (also former Metropolitan Line), even sharing rolling stock. The East London Line was a unique creature, the only Underground Line which didn’t go through Central London, the second oldest line dating from 1869 but incorporating the oldest part of London Underground – Isambard Brunel’s Wapping Tunnel dating from 1843.


Construction work on the East London Line extension, photographed from outside the former Shoreditch tube station building (looking east).


For the fascinating history of the original East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/east-london-line.html

For the story of one of London’s most important transport developments, London Overground, which incorporates the East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/04/east-london-line-goes-overground.html


Still got your cheque book at the ready? The sale of Shoreditch Station takes place at the Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on 16 February. But if you want to buy the ultimate Geek’s crash pad as well as the £180k + reserve price you want to have deep pockets. The building has been boarded up for 5 years, is a monument to graffiti and has extensive asbestos throughout the structure.



Here is a video tribute to the last day of Shoreditch station. I may even have been there myself but I can’t confirm that for security reasons!



Here is TfL's promo video on the new line with excellent aerial shots which make sense of the route decisions;



For more on London Underground and its unique heritage and contribution to design see TUBEBLOGS in my Blog sidebar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>