Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.

Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.

Exhibition: Hidden London - The Exhibition

Location

London Transport Museum,

Covent Garden Piazza, London,
WC2E 7BB

Dates

This exhibition CLOSED on Wed, 18th Mar 2020

This exhibition has finished.

Cost: £16.50

Description

Hidden London - The Exhibition takes people on an immersive journey of some of London’s most secret spaces belonging to the oldest subterranean railway in the world.

These ‘forgotten’ parts of the Tube network have incredible stories to tell about Britain’s wartime past such as the Plessey aircraft underground factory which had 2,000 members of staff, mostly women, working in the two 2.5 mile-long tunnels on the eastern section of the Central line during the Second World War.

Discover how Winston Churchilll took refuge in the Railway Executive Committee’s bomb-proof headquarters deep underground at Down Street station in Mayfair. London Transport Museum has recreated the dining-room used by Britain’s great wartime leader with replica tables, chairs, wine bottles, menu cards and ashtrays like those Churchill would have used.

At 22 metres below ground, Down Street was safe from air raids and protected from gas attacks. There were lavatories, washrooms, a typing pool and dormitories for around forty staff. Visitors can try their hand at being a wartime Telephone Exchange Operator as they race against the clock to connect incoming callers to the appropriate government departments.

Visitors will be transported to a bygone era as they enter Aldwych station’s recreated historic ticket office with an original ticket booth from the station dating from the 1930s, famous Leslie Green tiles from the station, as well as a newspaper stand advertisement announcing the station’s closure on 30 September 1994.

Some objects will be on public display for the first time such as a 1939 architectural drawing of Down Street station before it was converted into a secret bunker. It is the first time such a large number of archive photographs, objects, artworks, diagrams and heritage posters relating to disused stations have been displayed together.

The exhibition uncovers why these ‘lost’ quirks of the Underground network exist.


Contact and Booking Details

More information at this website.

No need to book tickets - just turn up on the day.

Disclaimer

The information and prices in this listing are presumed to be correct at the time of publishing, but please always check with the venue before making a special trip.

All images are supplied by the exhibition organiser.

This exhibition has finished.

This event runs over several days/weeks. Dates include:

Location

London Transport Museum,

Covent Garden Piazza, London,
WC2E 7BB

Map
Map