When people are waiting to cross the road at the Bishopsgate entrance to Liverpool Street, few know there’s a subway entrance right next to where they’re standing.
That it’s little known is not a massive surprise as while the entrance is easy to spot, it’s not signposted as being an entrance to the railway station, so why would anyone expect it to be one.
To find it, head to the pedestrian crossing, and look to your left, at this late 1980s postmodern office block, New Chapter House, head over and hidden in plain sight next to the shops is the subway entrance.
Just a big sign for the City of London, and nothing to indicate that if you go down here, it’ll take you right into Liverpool Street station.
A small plaque on the stairs tells us that the subway was built by the City of London and opened in 1992, which fits in with when the office block above was built.
Further down, and there’s a motif on the ceiling that’s from a late 1990s design to create logos for each of Network Rail’s main stations, and you can see it dotted around still on some of the old signs in the station.
A shallow depression as the tunnel passes under the road, and then you’re in the station just behind the escalators. No waiting for the traffic lights above.
It’s not totally unused, and plenty of local workers will know about it, but probably discovered by leaving Liverpool Street station as it’s signposted from there.
Considering that the City of London itself built the tunnel, and still cites it as a convenient utility, it’s peculiar that it’s not signposted as such at street level though.
So there you are, a convenient way to avoid the traffic lights and save a few precious seconds on the daily commute through Liverpool Street station.
I use this approximately alternate times I come into LST ( My local terminus ) …..
There’s a similar hidden-in-plain-sight exit from Waterloo – out of the SE side, down steps to Spur Rd & into Lower Marsh ….
Having moved into the middle reaches of freedom pass territory and with a wheelchair wife I’ve started to look at stations from a lift access perspective.
These can actually improve the platform access in surprising ways. A slight detour can save vital seconds in that rush to the tube in peak hours.
One such is Vauxhall. The unwieldy overground station now has total lift access and by crossing to the bus station island gives a short lift descent to the tube barriers. But the real game changer is the small lift to the left of the main escalators. Whilst the solid lava flow of commuters squeeze stiffly down the stairs, a smattering of cognoscenti take the faster shorter drop to a quiet end of the platform and vital saved seconds. In old geometry money, the hypotenuse is always longer than the vertical!
This subway has stairs at both ends and thus is not that convenient and while signs leaving Liverpool Street Station work , the present sign showing City of London makes it look like an entrance to convenients !
Anyway, we now see a policy of removing subways and reinstating crossings at street level which is a far better option .
At least with a Subway you stay dry. And safe from cars that don’t stop
Been using this daily for nearly 25 years
Always busy and hardly “little known”
You might notice from the empty photos taken in the middle of a morning that it’s not always busy.
It’s handy to get from the station and into tesco metro across the road quicker & without getting wet. Much cheaper food than in the station and less than a minute walk.
And if you go at lunchtime you can spend your entire lunch break in there! Never seen queues like it.
I’ve used that subway sometimes when it gets so busy.
You didn’t capture the homeless lady who’s usually sprawled in there, did you ask her to move from
her cardboard? And how did you make it look so clean?