Ghost Stations

There are well over 50 abandoned stations, including 8 big stations in the centre of London. Here are some of them.

• Aldwych - Closed in 1994, it's now used for filming and for exhibitions. Patriot Games, the All Saints film Honest, the BBC production of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and videos such as Prodigy's FireStarter have all been filmed here. It also featured in Tombraider the game.The station can be found on the eastern end of the Strand, with entrances on the Strand and Surrey Street. Parts of the surface station can be clearly observed by looking through the metal gate at the Strand entrance. The station now bears its original "Strand" name.
• British Museum - You can see the station if you look through the window as you travel between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn on the Central Line. It closed when nearby Holborn Station opened and was used as an administrative office during WWII.
• South Kentish Town - lies between Kentish Town and Camden Town on the Northern line and closed in 1924 - it was then used as an air raid shelter during the war. It's now a sauna and massage parlour on the Kentish Town Road...
• Down Street - otherwise known as Vauxhall Cross in the Bond film Die Another Day. The original entrance can be found on the west side of Down Street, just off Piccadilly. It was closed in 1932 and used as an underground bunker in 1939. It was also used by Churchill as temporary Cabinet War Rooms until the actual Rooms in Horse Guards Road were ready.

King's Cross

The original station at King's Cross was built to the east of the current one. Platforms in the old station can be seen from Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith and City line trains.

Aldgate

Aldgate station was built on the site of a plague pit described by Daniel Defoe in "A Journal of the Plage Year" - 1000 bodies were buried here in only two weeks during the plague of 1665.

Mansion House

Mansion House station was originally meant to be a junction but it was downgraded and actually given the wrong name as the real Mansion House (home of the Lord Mayor of London) is to be found at some distance to the east.

Sloane Square

The Westbourne River is conveyed along a station platform in Sloane Square through a great iron pipe.

Bond Street

In 1909 Gordon Selfridge wanted to build a tunnel from his famous shop to Bond St Station but was refused permission.

Tottenham Court Road

This not very prepossessing tube station is actually decorated with millions of tiles in a mosaic designed by Scottish sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi.

Mosquitos

Even when not natives of the UK, they're found regularly underground - perhaps journeying from Heathrow or other airports via the underground tunnels.

Post Office Railway

For over 75 years a little known miniature railway (or Mail Rail) operated beneath the streets of London, conveying letters from one side of the city to the other. At its peak in the 50's the railway delivered 12,000,000 letters a day. It closed in 2003 as part of the Royal Mail's larger programme of withdrawing from the railways.

Ghosts

• Aldwych Station was built on land previously home to the Strand Theatre, and the ghost of an actress can supposedly be seen here.
• Bank Station and the Bank of England is supposedly haunted by Sarah Blackhead, a woman dressed in black who, although her brother had died, used to visit his office in the Bank every day. She's also known as the "Black Nun".
• Aldgate - an old woman was seen by a railway worker stroking his friend's hair shortly just before the worker touched a live wire and was hit with a 20000 volt shock. He survived.
• Bethnal Green - in 1981 a station master heard the cries of children, soon joined by the screams of women. During WWII 173 people died in an incident - the majority were women and children.

More Information

You'll find a link to a very entertaining London Underground Blog and a site featuring photographs of the mosaic at Tottenham Court Road Tube at The Joy of Shards I've also added a few links for books I think you'll enjoy at London Underground Links