When the Chairman had his bedroom inside an Underground station

Thursday 23rd January 2025

The latest Hidden London tour from the London Transport Museum launched yesterday and I went along to see what’s on offer.

This one features a behind the scenes look at Green Park Underground station, or to give it its original name, Dover Street, with passageways, ventilation shafts and lift landings long closed now able to be explored. A former station within an existing station.

Dover Street opened in 1906 on what was then called the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway – the Piccadilly line as we know it today. It was renamed Green Park in 1933 to better reflect the area it was serving, especially as at the same time, new entrances opened on Piccadilly right outside the Park and the old entrance/exit on nearby Dover Street closed.

This original entrance was designed by Leslie Green in his traditional style that can also be found on other stations on the original Great Northern, Piccadully and Brompton Railway between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith as well as the Bakerloo line and the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line which were in the same Underground grouping prior to 1933. You can still see the spot where the original Dover Street entrance was located although it’s now almost unrecognisable following modern development.

The new Green Park was designed by Charles Holden and included escalators enabling the two lift shafts housing four lifts and a shaft for a staircase to be closed including the two passageways which pass over the Piccadilly line platforms…

… taking passengers to and from the platforms below.

As always with Hidden London tours, as you explore these abandoned passageways…

… there are examples of vintage signs…

… and wall tiles to admire which were last seen by passengers almost a century ago.

Our two excellent Tour guides, Becky and Eesa, explained how Dover Street played a pivotal role during the Second World War, with the abandoned passageways and lift shafts offering a place for the London Transport Executive Board to safely meet during air raids and helping ensure London’s public transport continued to function. There’s a detailed plan showing how the confined space was repurposed into offices and other facilities.

Particularly fascinating is seeing where Lord Ashfield, then chairman of the London Passenger Transport Board, had his bedroom secretly fitted at the heart of the station by one of the former lift shafts…

… and hearing about and seeing examples of the class distinction between directors and employees being very much a thing in those days with an executive dining room separated in the passageway from another eating area for other employees. The former had walls treated with finer materials while the latter remained covered in the original Dover Street tiles, left untouched with the contrast still visible today.

After hearing about that history, the Tour continues to explore developments at the station in more recent decades, notably the 1960s and 1970s, when Green Park expanded to accommodate two post-war lines, the Victoria line (1969) and Jubilee line (1979).

The Tour takes you along the long connecting passageway to the Victoria and Jubilee line platforms and looks at the extensive building work to construct huge ventilation shafts installed for both lines.

Participants are also entertained by clips from a 1960s documentary charting the background to the building of the Victoria line…

… it’s formal opening…

… and the extensive marketing that raised awareness of its existence.

Having seen the Victoria line, the Tour then continues down a level…

… to reach above the Jubilee line platforms…

… and hear about that line’s development and how its eastern terminus was originally at Charing Cross…

… as well as seeing another incredible ventilation shaft.

It’s a fascinating tour and well done to Aaron and the Hidden London team for another excellent exploration behind the scenes. Tours are taking place four times a day, five days a week (Wednesdays to Sundays) until the end of March and can be booked on the London Transport Museum Hidden London website for £45 (£42 for concessions and children). There’s currently very limited availability until mid February with weekends particularly popular, so if you feel the urge to attend, it’s best to book soon.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS