Look through the window as you travel between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn on the Central Line and you’ll see a station – where no passengers have alighted since 1932. This used to be British Museum station. Or perhaps you may notice the tunnel wall change from cast iron tubing to bricks as you travel on the Piccadilly Line between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner. This also used to be a station. Down Street, closed in the same year as British Museum. These stations are often referred to as ghost stations.
There are about 40 abandoned or relocated stations on the Underground network along its entire 255 miles (408Km) of trackway – some subsurface and some above ground. Some have vanished without trace whereas others are almost intact, grimey time capsules of the era when they were closed.
London Underground History – Disused Stations on London’s Underground
If you need to know London better, you may well find this fascinating.
Bath Spa University: Greenwood’s Map of London 1827
They say that, in central London, you’re never more than a couple of metres from a rat. It’s also slowly becoming apparent that you’re never more than a metre from a Starbucks or a Pret, and never more than half a metre from a tourist.
Londoners are elusive creatures—you’ve got to look damn hard to find them. They only come out en masse during rush hours, and tend to move very fast from place to place. If you’re out in London at any other time, you’ll see plenty of tourists—but no Londoners. Interestingly, rats are just as elusive. It would seem that rats and Londoners survive by being as invisible as possible.
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As a general rule, I try to avoid blogging stuff that other people have published already. This rule is broken only if it’s groundbreakingly significant, or if I can add something to it. On that note, I apply the latter: Catherine found us some glorious variations of the London tube map, specifically one showing the relative geographic locations of the lines and stations. Then, Dan wondered why London Underground generally used schematic versions of the map—particularly as the geographic ones are really not that difficult to comprehend. As far as my reliable sources have led me to believe, the answer is security—London Underground would prefer it if people didn’t know where everything actually was. This became gospel during the frequent bomb attacks on the British public transport network, particularly in the capital, by the IRA during the Eighties. There now, you can all sleep a little easier.
I have researched over 400 byways, and on this site I present the result of my rambles. In each entry I have attempted to relay a combination of features. Historical events are, of course, high on the list and where there are tales to tell I have included sufficient detail to more than whet the appetite. Stories of yesteryear will stir the enthusiasm of most people if characterised with the right flavourings and I have highlighted the well known, the not so well known, the forgotten adventures associated with each byway, together with a description of these places in today’s world. Many of these tiny thoroughfares have associations with notable or famous people and no matter whether these are of times past or of more recent years, I have made mention as appropriate.
A guide to the alleys, courts, passages and yards of central London