This Hidden London tour was to be to the modern station under Charing Cross that was side lined when the Jubilee Line was extended. The tour was on Saturday 26th January 2019 and coincided with a protest outside the Japanese Embassy.
My earlier Hidden London Tour was underneath Euston Station. This part of the Underground would soon be demolished to make way for CrossRail.
Not the James Bond London tour
My instructions were to go to Exit 3 of the Underground station and join the tour there at 10.30 am to be ready for an 11 am start. My tube from Waterloo did not deliver me to Exit 3 and I was advised to go up to the Strand and come back down into the Underground station from out side the railway station.
I found Exit 3 and the small Hidden London sign. There were about 20 people congregated there listening to a guide describing the shooting of scenes from the James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ at the station. No-one bothered to check me off and I joined at the back of the group and listened as we exited the station through an almost deserted corridor back to the Strand. This was then I was when I started to think that this was a strange way to visit hidden tunnels. As we walked towards Chinatown I asked the people at the side of me just what this tour was. I was in the James Bond London tour!
By now it was after 10.30 and I headed off back to the Underground station across the Strand. Back at the sign there was now another group of people and this time I double checked if this was the correct group. A few minutes later we were joined by TfL Museum representatives and were checked off a list after we had shown picture ID. Another representative issued us with high visibility yellow jackets that had to be worn all the time.
Down to closed station
We followed the two representatives through the turnstiles and down into the station. We then went through a door and were in a hall with escalators in front of us. We walked down the escalator and were greeted in the lower hall with our two guides for the tour.
This was the start of the tour proper. After a safety briefing we listened to introductory talks from both the guides.
I was fascinated to discover that the modern Charing Cross Underground station was in fact three stations now joined together. These were Trafalgar Square, Strand and Charing Cross. Each of these stations had had access to the surface at one time and were on different lines.
The closed station
The new line was to have been called the Fleet Line. It was originally planned to open during the Queen’s Jubilee year and was renamed in her honour. This station was the original terminus of the now Jubilee Line. The station’s opening had been delayed as the installation of the escalators took much longer than planned.
This platform of the station looked close to an in service platform.
Looking the other way the lines lead to the unused Aldwych station.
We learnt this tunnel was used to ‘park’ trains when big events were on and empty trains were needed to be pushed in to the system.
All along the platform we looked at the adverts which did not familiar at all.
Using real adverts would have caused issues for film makers so instead fake adverts adorned the walls along the platforms and the corridors.
The Jubilee line was extended into one of the spurs of the original Bakerloo Line and Charing Cross was then bypassed leaving this station.It was used for trials such as the placement of ramps for disabled access or the tiles at the edge of the platform. All the roofing material was removed after Kings Cross fire but unlike stations in service it was not replaced.
Other trials were the projected advertising images on the walls opposite the platforms. These were tested here so that they could be made not to distract the drivers.
We were now in the other escalator hall. Look carefully as all the ‘Stand on the Right’ signs have been removed so that James Bond could slide down the middle of the escalator with injuring himself!
We walked back up the steps to the top of these escaltors. There we stopped to look up at the signs left from last James Bond film that labelled the corridor as being part of a Circle Line station.
We were then split into two groups. One group to look at the tunnels left over from tunnelling and the other to look at the ventilation shafts and Northern Line platforms.