Lockdown LDN: Explore The Hidden London Underground With These Virtual Tours

Last updated on March 6th, 2021 at 04:46 pm

Virtual. The buzzword of the past year. Virtual birthdays, virtual work socials, virtual Christmas celebrations. However, one virtual activity still eliciting excitement are the Hidden London underground tours. Run by the London Transport Museum, the Hidden London Tours usually involve an underground exploration around London’s disused tube stations. However, as with much of the world, in 2020 Hidden London underground tours went virtual, making for a rather unique Zoom call.

You may be wondering how the Hidden London Tours are run virtually, when you can’t go down to the tunnels in person. Well I’ve got you covered, with an overview of the King William Street tour and what to expect. I’ve not included all of the facts we learnt, don’t want to give too much of the tour away before you experience it for yourself! 

–

Disclaimer | I was kindly invited on this tour free of charge in exchange for content on The London Lifestyle, but as always all views are my own.

There are four tours to choose from: Aldwych, Holborn, Brompton Road and King William Street. Each are a similar style tour but with their own unique stories and history. The tour that instantly caught my eye was the King William Street station; the first disused tube station and used as an air raid shelter during WWII.

What To Expect on the Hidden London underground virtual tours

Before we get into the content of the tour, a little overview of how the Hidden London tours are held virtually. The day before the call you’ll be sent a Zoom link with the meeting ID and password. I appreciate that joining a Zoom call with strangers can be awkward; in the first lockdown I bought a ticket to an online event without realising you were expected to have your camera on and participate. Nothing worse when you’re not expecting it! There’s no fear of forced awkwardness with these tours, if you want to have your camera on then great, some members of my tour did, but if you don’t want to then that’s also fine.

The call began with introductions and finding out where everyone was from, this time everyone was from England but some tours have participants from all over the world! Once everyone had joined we got into the main tour, outlined below, which went on for around ninety minutes. Questions were saved for the end, which was an informal discussion and a nice way to end off the session.

Buy tickets for the Hidden London virtual tours here

The King William Street Tour: An Overview

The tour began with an overview of the history of King William Street station. Used as the Northern terminus of the City and South London railway, it was an operational tube station from 1890 until 1900. However the station had a steep curve and gradient to the tracks, proving hard for the electric trains to pull into the station. Upon King William Street’s closure in 1900, it became the first disused railway of the London Underground network as the tracks were realigned to run through London Bridge to Bank.

From there we headed “into” the tunnels for an insight into what the disused station looks like. This is something that would be great to experience in person, however the team did a great job at virtually transporting us there, with photos from different angles and perspectives. Entering a tube station in the 1800s wasn’t all too different from ‘tapping in’ with your card; passengers paid in cash before entering through a turnstile.

Making the King William Street London underground tour unique is that forty years after its closure, the station was used as an air raid shelter during WWII. Special conversions were made such as gas doors fitted and an a mezzanine above the platform to create extra capacity, creating enough capacity for 2,000 people. Visually the tour took us through what the tunnels would have looked like, including war propaganda and authentic photos from the thirties and forties.

Finishing up the King William Street tour was an insight into the Bank station capacity upgrade. The disused station is acting as the access point for these works, allowing Bank to stay open to passengers. We were guided through the works’ progess with a map and a sneak peek of a mock up of the all-new Bank station (lemme tell you, it’s looking swanky!). If you’ve ever wondered how you build a new tube tunnel, this tour has got you covered; talking us through the methods as well as health and safety of doing so.

Tickets: Buy here
Price: £20
Gift Vouchers: Buy here

If you’re looking for a different way to fill your evening or weekend then definitely look into the Hidden London virtual tours. You can buy tickets or gift vouchers through the links above. I’m a big advocate of gifting vouchers rather than buying a material gift that doesn’t mean anything – your recipient gets something to look forward to, and you’re helping a business out! For any history or London lovers, this would be a great gift idea.

Thank you to the London Transport museum for having me!

–

Like The London Lifestyle on Facebook to keep up to date with London offers and what’s on in London