Abandoned London – Down Street

Photo Story

If you have ever looked out of the window when riding a Piccadilly line tube train in London between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, you may have caught a glimpse of what looks like a brick wall with a metal grille door. This is actually an access point to the long abandoned tube station at Down Street in Mayfair.

Closed since 1932 after only being open for about 25 years, this station has a fascinating history, and I got to explore it with Hidden London – a tour organised by the London Transport Museum.

A Very Brief History

Down Street station opened in 1907, a little later than the rest of the line. Due to its location being in one of the wealthier parts of London, people used other modes of transport, plus being close to Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, footfall was low and it eventually closed in May 1932.

The most interesting part of its history was from 1939 when it was earmarked for use as a bunker for the Railway Executive Committee to run the railways from a secure location during the war.

The platforms were bricked up, and a warren of offices, dormitories and a telephone exchange were built. Many of these still exist albeit in a very dusty and abandoned state. It is also believed that Winston Churchill visited the bunker and took shelter there from the bombing of London.

What Remains

The façade of the station building still remains on Down Street with the Oxblood red tiles but the ticket hall has long since been replaced by a convenience store. Access to the station is now only accessible through a metal door at the side of the shop which leads directly down a flight of stairs to the top of the spiral staircase which leads down to the tunnels.

At the bottom of the first flight of steps is a blast-proof door, and there are remains of some signage that looks to have been hand painted at the top of the spiral staircase.

The whole place is very dimly lit, so we were issued with torches and hard hats for our exploration.

At the bottom of the stairs is a space that was re-purposed as a typing pool, with a small access passage to one side – wide enough to fit a tea trolly through we were told.

The corridor takes a 90 degree right turn and there is a longer corridor which used to house a meeting room for the REC executives and some smaller office spaces.

Whilst many of the partition walls have since been removed, there are still many in situ, especially along what was the 2 platforms – these were used as dormitories, dining rooms and a kitchen amongst other things.

We also saw the remains of the old telephone exchange, still in situ and hanging on by a thread, yet covered in years of dust.

The one thing you cannot fail to notice is the regular rumble and then breeze as the trains pass by. At the bottom of the stairs that lead to the old platforms, there are metal gates which act as emergency evacuation points but also allow you to stand literally inches from the passing trains which is quite an intimidating experience.

As a train approached, we had to turn off any lights and torches so as not to dazzle the train drivers. Standing in pitch black darkness with the sound of a tube train approaching is very un-nerving but still a great thing to experience. Once they had passed by, silence and calm returned – at least for a few minutes until the next train was due.

Before returning to the surface, we walked through the old lift shaft – a huge void as all the equipment has long since been removed.

I believe that there are plans for some of the station space to be used for new ventilation equipment in the not too distant future, so we could have been one of the last groups to be able to experience this space in its current form.

This place posed a bit of a challenge for taking photos due to the low light, but I am pretty pleased with how the images came out, and really enjoyed my time with LTM learning about the history of this place. Hopefully there will be tours run again in the future and I would recommend anyone to go and visit.

Here are some images from my trip…..