New virtual tours of Aldwych tube station have been announced, including areas not normally included in the physical tours that used to run in pre-lockdown times.
Aldwych, originally known as the Strand, opened to the public in 1907, but was never as heavily used as originally expected and closed nearly 100 years later in 1994.
Over the past decade, it started the expanding Hidden London tours, which are going virtual at the moment.
On the new virtual tour of Aldwych station, a tour guide, with the help of a gallery of rarely seen archival images, contemporary photos, videos and footage of the station – will lead guests through abandoned platforms and tunnels, lost-in-time ticket halls, original lifts and deserted walkways. Virtual visitors will find out why Aldwych station ceased to be a terminus of the Piccadilly line.
The virtual Aldwych tour will also include parts of the station that are not accessible on the in-person Aldwych tour, such as the upper ticket hall.
All tours include Q&A sessions at the end.
Aldwych virtual tour tickets will go on sale from Friday 12th February – tickets available from here.
London Transport Museum has also released new tour dates for their other virtual tours.
- Holborn (Kingsway)
- Brompton Road
- King William Street
I believe Aldwych came about because originally there were plans for two separate private railways which were combined by company that built the Picaddilly line with the section to Aldwych left in no doubt to serve the nearby theatres .
Back in the 1960s the Wilson Labour Government proposed extension of line to Waterloo Station with legistion passed but funding was not forthcoming and legal powers eventually lapsed.
I was lucky to be there when an exhibition was held in the ticket hall and thus got to see inside this level but not below.
Was lucky enough to do this virtual tour of stations just before Christmas as a joint Holborn, Kingsway tram tunnel, Strand overload of wonder and no surprise I recommend it.
Apart from the smell of the musty lifts, it almost didn’t matter that it was on a screen.
Great presentation from the usual entertaining and erudite Hidden London guides, very atmospheric filming with the requisite dripping water sounds in the background and totally immersive.
The best zoom meeting I’ve been in so far.
I’ve done all 3 of the Hidden London Tours on Zoom now. Highly recommended and worth doing. They’re not cheap, that’s my only moan. But it all goes to funding the London Transport Museum when it’s their only means of income. So I stumped up.
You also receive a PDF of the tour’s photos and some of the content afterwards as well. It’s emailed about a week afterwards.