Hidden London - The Lost Tunnels of Euston Underground Station
24th January 2018
It was a very rainy January afternoon when I arrived at Euston so having about 45 minutes to spare before meeting the Hidden London guides in Melton Street I hid for a while in Costa and then in the waiting room in the mainline station which is near the Melton St. exit.
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| Melton Street |
After introductions and a safety briefing inside the old Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway Melton St. station building we were issued with Hi-Vis jerkins (which as usual fitted like a rubber band on an egg) and shown some of the still extant interior features of the station building which opened in 1907. The interior is now dominated by a large ventilation system for the tunnels below but there are bits of original decorative tiling and moulding visible amongst the pipes, cables , and equipment. Outside in Drummond St. we were given a quick history lesson and look at the outside of the building (fortunately the rain had eased off).
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| CCE&HR Station, Drummond St. side. |
It's a classic Leslie Green station with big arched windows and ox-blood red tiling. Alas it will be demolished as part of the HS2 project but it is planned to save the tiles for maintaining the other Leslie Green stations in London.
From there it was off across the road to the main line station and down.
The tour takes in tunnels which were previously foot passageways for passengers between different parts of the station but as the station has developed and been rearranged are no longer used and are now locked off. They are still used by engineering staff however for storage and form part of the ventilation system of the station.
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| Tunnel between City & South London Rlwy. platforms and lifts to London & North Western Rlwy booking hall. |
One of the most interesting things about these tunnels is the old posters which have been left on the walls since the tunnels ceased to be used by passengers. Here's a selection of the better preserved ones:
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| More miles for your money. |
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| Blue Pullman |
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| Cameo Royal |
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| A kind of loving |
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| The Knife |
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| Theosophy |
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| Crystal Palace |
Crystal Palace, Easter Monday Motor Cycle Racing
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| PSYCHO! |
PSYCHO Cert X 1960.
Your Accomodation Service has been replaced by a Londis convenience shop.
Passengers changing between the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead, and City & South London railways would have to purchase a new ticket at this underground Ticket Office in a tunnel between the two company's stations:
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| Ticket Office |
Not from this fellow though, he's one of the LTM guides!
Not all the tunnels visited were originally for passengers. This tunnel was purposely dug as a ventilation shaft for the Victoria Line although in terms of construction it's a standard tube tunnel.
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| Ventilation tunnel |
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| Hello! |
From the top you can look down through the grilles onto the platforms below. Hang on to your possessions - you drop it, you've lost it.
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| Lift shaft |
Looking up one of the two disused lift shafts between the Underground and L&NWR Euston mainline stations.
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| Lift lobby |
The lift bottom lobby showing where the entrances to the lift cars were.
