Aldwych Tours - June 2014

Me and my wife are thinking of going again. One query though, last time we went there was strict rules on photography or what type of camera you could take in. My wife's camera is a cannon eos 600 d. It is hand held so not on a tripod but I don't think they let her use it last time. Does anyone on here work for the museum team that could clarify the rules this time on photography? Any feedback greatly appreciated, will probably still go as it's a great experience to be somewhere that a lot of people don't get to go.

Thanks

Lee

There were restrictions on camera type two years ago (I am told at the insistence of LU), but not any more. Somehow camera size was linked to probability of the user falling down the stairs or causing someone else to do so.

I'm pleased to say I've got my tickets for one of the tours in June. The leaflet which came with the tickets makes it clear that tripods are not allowed (as we would expect). It also says that "no professional audio visual or audio recording equipment" is allowed. I wonder whether the rather posh camera was mistaken as one which might be used for taking photographs for professional/commercial purposes? Elsewhere in the leaflet there is reference to the fact that people on the tour might find themselves in photographs as "audience" members, which coupled with the comments on tripods seems to make it clear that photography for personal use is permitted.

I wonder whether they have ever thought about enhancing future tours by including a trip to or from Holborn? I gather the line is still in working order and is used for training and filming. Perhaps it's not passenger certified any longer? It would be rather wonderful if one could enter Aldwych, go down the stairs, and then leave by way of the shuttle to Holborn!

The use of DSLR and SLR cameras is permitted; I went on the Dec 2012 tour and photography was allowed. Just no tripods.

At this rate, there will soon be more people using Aldwych than used it when it was still operational!

Ooh, a May 31st tour would make an excellent birthday present

If they reopened the station- I'd use it lol!

Glad you enjoyed the tour. I agree that 1 h 15 min would make for a less rushed experience (particularly for platform 1) but to justify any longer you'd need an additional feature e.g. walking across the bridge in the middle shaft, which we currently don't do owing to time constraints.

The early deep level tube lines followed the same rule as sub-surface in terms of following the line of the roads above so as to reduce the need for compensation to landowners at street level. In the case of Aldwych, the over-run tunnels are under Surrey Street; the island set-up is no good for Aldwych as it would mean that the tracks would be farther apart and thus would not fit in line with the narrow Surrey Street.

The same principal can be applied to St. Pauls, Chancery Lane and Notting Hill Gate stations on the Central line, though these differ in that the westbound and eastbound lay on top of one another.



I haven't heard of any proposals to install escalators instead of lifts. There were various options explored at time of closure e.g. a travelator link to Temple, but all of these failed their cost:benefit analysis. I suspect the cost of replacing the lifts with escalators would have almost certainly exceeded £3m and wouldn't have been justified given the station's mere 450 return trips per day.

Interesting observations, thanks. I was aware of the general principle of not putting tracks under buildngs, but not how it would take effect in this case. And I suppose I was thinking of escalators against the background of the abandoned platform 2 and its overrun tunnel providing footprint space, but I agree that nothing can really be cost-effective in the context of 450 passengers a day.