Visting the former Aldwych tube station
I had read a lot about the secret side of ‘underground London’ for a while without tasting too much of the real thing: the odd surface remnant of a disused tube station being the height of it. So I was delighted then to stumble across news that London Transport Museum were again hosting visits inside the disused Aldwych station, which had closed to passengers in September 1994. The tours sold out sharpish but I managed to get a couple of tickets in time! There is definitely a sense of excitement about getting a glimpse of something that has been ‘hidden’, even in relatively recent history. Even when in use, Aldwych (which opened as the Strand station in November 1907 on the site of a demolished theatre) had an aura of sadness about it, and not just because the ghost of a theatre actress allegedly haunts one of the platforms!. Despite bigger plans on several occasions, it only ever existed as a small branch line from Holborn and was under-used by passengers throughout its hi