Tours of Down Street (and others) in November and December

Hi

I won't post any photos simply because London stuff is a much better photographer than me and my iPhone.

Tour started at a hotel across the street with coffee and biscuits. Unlike the other two tours I have done, they checked the tickets against photo id and also did a bag search. There were 12 of us and 4 guides/staff. You are given a torch as part of the site wasn't lit. At parts of the site its possible to see the Piccadilly line trains going past and we were told that we had to switch the torches off when the trains were passing through the station. I think this is something to do with health and safety and the drivers.

The guide (who I think might of been the same guy who was the guide on the Clapham South tour) talked more about the station being used as the base for The Railway Executive committee during world war 2 than the fact that it was a disused underground station. I guess thats to be expected as Down Street was modified so much during WW2. I wasn't expecting to see bathrooms, the area were there was a typing pool, kitchen, dinning room, bedrooms with the remains of 1940's wallpaper.

The tour lasted 90 mins but it felt about 20, so I guess I had a good time.

Any the very end of the tour we were given a folder that contains a booklet/guide book to the site and a leaflet giving details about joining Transport For London's Patrons Circle. I read the first page and was all ready to sign up until I realised that its £2k per year!!

I have an Aldwych tour in Jan and have already visited Charring Cross and Clapham South. Do we know if there are likely to be any new tours next year??

Alex

Yes, and so's the Eastbound sign-Down Street closed in 1932, Cockfosters extension didn't open until 1933.

If both platforms are still in situ, but bricked off, my guess would be the signs are there for inspection workers etc to know which platform they go to if they are being picked up by train-as I believe there's still a small space at the end of each platform to allow it.

Especially if the site is partially unlit.

Here's a couple of photos of the signs that are referred to above; as the station still forms part of the operational railway these signs assist staff with navigation should they need to access the track or trains.

Eastbound platform - Down Street by Jack Gordon, on Flickr

Westbound platform - Down Street by Jack Gordon, on Flickr

The platforms exist but are bricked off, which was done as part of the site's wartime conversions. A small access hatch remains to allow access into the driving cab, as seen in the below photo.

Piccadilly line - Down Street by Jack Gordon, on Flickr

Glad that everyone is enjoying the Down Street tours - it's certainly a holy grail of disused tube stations! I'm told that the tours are just the "basic" circle and there's several areas that are left out for various reasons, so I'll dig out some photos of the more elusive bits over the next few days and post them up.

All of my images were taken during a private tour in early August.