On the 25th August 2022, I managed to get to London and do the long awaited tour of the abandoned parts of the Moorgate station which is promoted and organised through the London Transport Museum.
So my adventure all began the night before when I had travelled to London by train and having arrive at Marylebone, had a quick change at Baker Street, so I had a little explore around the station, to see what things I had not noticed before. It is amazing what you don't see until you stop and look around.
So after a one night stay at my friend's house, the adventure began. I said to my friend that as I don't live in London, I would like to find some abandoned parts of the network, where there are still visible signs of buildings from the past. I thought it would be good to find the abandoned Marlborough Road, so get off a train at Finchley Road and then use Google maps to walk to this one. However on the morning, it was raining heavily, so we decided to give this a miss, however we came up with a plan to see abandoned bits without getting wet!
The first stop was at King's Cross St Pancras. This is another station that I have never explored much. We arrived on a Metropolitan service and then a little walk across the main concourse to the Thameslink service, with a sneak peek through some windows at the Eurostar on the way. The Eurostar platforms are above the main concourse. It is quite amazing to think that these lines would have been used by steam trains many years ago.
The Thameslink service took us through the disused platforms of Kings's Cross that can still be seen and before we knew it, we had arrived at Farringdon, then up a few steps and onto a Circle line service to Barbican. I have seen a few videos on YouTube that show there is a lift that goes directly to the Elizabeth line at Farringdon, so really what we should have done was follow the signs to the Elizabeth line, then get the lift to Barbican, but we did it a long way around. We went: Farringdon to Barbican by train and then back to Farringdon by foot, without going through an Oyster touchpoint!
So we found the abandoned platforms at Barbican quite easily and saw the end of the widened lines tunnels, which go through to Moorgate.
After this we went to Moorgate, where we had a guided tour and explored lots of disused parts of the station. Before going, I didn't really know what to expect, other than lots of walking in dusty places and seeing things that most people would not normally see. I hadn't quite realised how the station redevelopment had left such chunks of tunnels underground. It was also interesting to see how modern technology has enabled straight lines and level surfaces to be used to create tunnels, rather than curves and slopes.
The 1st picture above shows me with my "visitor" Pass. the 2nd shows how the City & South London Railway would have looked on a map from 1890 - 1933. And the 3rd picture shows some broken glass tiles. When a lot of stations were originally built, they made tiles out of a very thin glass, so that the small amount of light that was available from gas lamps could be reflected back at people. There are not many places where there are still glass tiles available to see and I was aware of these, but had never seen any so close. I did not realise quite how thin they were!
After the tour, we then went exploring a bit more. So the next stop was Angel, which has it's own disused sections. The Hidden Hangouts team from the Transport Museum have done a great video explaining more than I can, which can be seen on YouTube here. I thought that the old station had been demolished when the station entrance was relocated, but we walked passed it.
Next stop was the former City Road station. Again there is another video produced by the Hidden Hangouts team, which can be seen here. This station was closed due to low footfall, but was then turned into a ventilation shaft and is now generating electricity for the local area and is called the "Bunhill 2 Energy Centre"
Next we went to Kentish Town, followed by a walk to find the abandoned South Kentish Town, where the building is still in use as a "Cash Convertors" shop and the door on the left hand side is an entrance to an escape room called "Mission Breakout"
Then to find York Road station. Looking on Google maps, there wasn't a lot in this area, however, this area is under a lot of redevelopment and there are lots of high rise buildings under construction here now. Again there is another Hidden London video which can be seen here.
Then it was a bus ride to King's Cross. Where we found the abandoned Thameslink entrance, again this one was not on our planned route, but the bus stopped almost right outside, so we took a sneaky peek through the windows.
The next stop was the abandoned Down Street station. Again there is another video produced by the Hidden Hangouts team, which can be see here. This station was used by Winston Churchill during the war.
The next stop was Hyde Park Corner, now you may be thinking that this is not an abandoned station. That is correct, it was originally built with an external building, which was repurposed after the station was redeveloped and is now a hotel.
And the final stop of the day was Brompton Road, another Leslie Green station that is left abandoned owing to either low footfall or redevelopment. There is another Hidden Hangout video, which can be seen here.
You may be able to spot a bit of a theme going on with some of these stations. I have watched a lot of the Hidden London Hangouts videos on YouTube by the London Transport Museum and I have been inspired to go and find some of these places for myself. After Brompton Road, I went for a ride on the Waterloo & City line and I was hoping to find the partial Greathead shield that is in a section of the tunnels, only these were closed off for the Bank redevelopment, so I was not able to see these (maybe next time). I have also made a video, if you would like to see it, then it is available here.
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