Hidden London launches revamped guided tour of Clapham South deep-level shelter and British Sign Language Tours

 

• London Transport Museum has released new tickets for its exclusive, award-winning Hidden London guided tours, running up to the end of March 2025
• This includes tickets for a revamped tour of Clapham South’s deep-level shelter, a wartime air raid shelter located 11 stories underground
• This new tour will be hosted by two guides, with one guide portraying a 1940s warden to bring history back to life
• Visitors will be able to see the site as it looked in wartime, thanks to meticulously reconstructed spaces such as the warden’s booth and the canteen – all based on archive pictures and extensive historical research
• They will be able to interact with authentic Second World War artefacts, sourced by the museum’s historical experts
• Tickets will also be on offer for signed British Sign Language (BSL) tours of Aldwych, Baker Street, Charing Cross and Clapham South for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors
• New additions have also been made to the Down Street: Churchill’s Secret Station tour to reveal more first-hand accounts of what it was like to live and work there when it was home to the Railway Executive Committee
• It will be the last chance to see Down Street, before the tour will be retired for the foreseeable future at the end of September
• Additional dates are also now available for tours of Baker Street, Euston, Aldwych, Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Clapham South, and Holborn

·       Tickets can be booked via London Transport Museum’s website: www.ltmuseum.co.uk

·       Profits from the tours are used to fund London Transport Museum’s charity and to continue conserving and sharing London’s transport and design heritage.

Tickets are now available for tours running up to the end of March 2025 for London Transport Museum’s award-winning Hidden London tours, giving ticketholders an exclusive chance to step behind closed doors and explore the locations where London Underground’s history took place. Hidden London guided tours are the only ones in the city that grant guests access to these locations, which are usually off limits to the public.

 

A revamped tour of Clapham South:

Visitors will now be able to step back in time on a brand-new, enhanced Hidden London tour of Clapham South, one of the eight deep-level shelters built in London during the Second World War. Opened in 1944, this secret underground maze was designed to protect over 8,000 people, featuring canteens, medical stations, and sleeping quarters—all hidden beneath the streets of London.

Over its 80 years of existence, it sheltered not only wartime Londoners seeking refuge from the air raids above ground, but also in 1948 became home to Caribbean migrants arriving on the Empire Windrush, and later visitors to the Festival of Britain.

The new tour will be led by two expert guides, including one portraying a 1940s warden to share a first-hand account of what it was like to work and shelter there during the war, and to place guests in the footsteps of wartime South Londoners spending their first night there.

Along the way, guests will get a sense of what the space looked and felt like 80 years ago thanks to meticulously recreated spaces such as the warden’s booth and canteen, which have been newly reconstructed based on historical photographs and extensive archival research.

Visitors will also be able to handle authentic wartime artefacts sourced by historical experts, discover what an Anderson shelter looked like, handle genuine Second World War torches, and experience sitting on the bunk beds turned benches that families would spend their evenings on during air raids.

This tour will be the most immersive Hidden London experience to date. Chris Nix, Director of Content at London Transport Museum, shares:

“It’s incredibly powerful to present such a unique history in such an authentic setting. Our decade-long research has ensured that we honour those who lived and worked here, delivering their story with the utmost respect and accuracy. We’re looking forward to delivering Clapham South’s story in a new and engaging way to the public.”

The new tour of Clapham South will start on 16 October 2024. More details and tickets are available here.

 

British Sign Language Tours:

In addition to the revamped Clapham South tour, Hidden London will also be introducing signed British Sign Language (BSL) tours to four of its sites. These tours will feature a BSL interpreter in addition to Hidden London’s expert guides, and they will be open to BSL users, their friends and families only.

The following signed BSL tours will be taking place to the end of March 2025:

• Aldwych: The End of the Line – 9 March 2025
• Baker Street: The World’s First Underground – 25 January 2025
• Charing Cross: Access all Areas – 13 December 2024
• Clapham South: Subterranean Shelter – 17 October 2024

 

Last chance to see Down Street:

It will also be one of the last chances for guests to see disused Down Street station, as the Down Street: Churchill’s Secret Station tour will be retired for the foreseeable future from the end of September.

Located in Mayfair between Hyde Park Corner and Green Park stations, Down Street had a short life as a working station from 1907 to 1932 but became critical to winning the Second World War when covertly transformed into the Railway Executive Committee’s bomb-proof headquarters. It was from there that the nation’s railways were coordinated, and where Prime Minister Winston Churchill secretly took refuge at the height of the Blitz.

This tour was also recently enhanced with additional inclusions, including a poignant first-hand testimony from Madeleine Henrey, author of ‘A Village in Piccadilly’, on what life was like for Mayfair residents during the worst days of the Blitz.

Also new is a projection of a wartime steward in the Executive’s mess room to greet visitors and share details on what it was like to live and work at Down Street, whose testimonial was written by the museum’s historical experts based on findings from personal diaries, archives, and declassified documents.

Down Street: Churchill’s Secret Station will end on 15 September 2024. Tickets are available here.

 

Additional Dates:

More tickets running up until the end of March 2025 were also released for the following tours:

Holborn: The Secret Platforms

Step behind the concealed doors of this busy interchange into the expansive disused areas that lay behind, some not seen by the public in nearly 30 years. Enjoy an unexpected view of the Piccadilly line, explore the two closed platforms of the former Aldwych branch complete with vintage posters, see the Aldwych crossover, original Leslie Green Edwardian design, and an original early 20th century signalling cabin.

Dates: Selected Wednesday to Sunday in October and November 2024, and March 2025

Tickets: Adult tickets £45, Concession £42

Baker Street: The World’s First Underground

Step into a historical journey at one of the oldest underground railway stations in the world. Hear what the very first Victorian passengers thought of underground travel and explore closed-off parts of the station including original platforms and corridors that lay hidden in plain sight – some of which last accessed by the public over 75 years ago.

Dates:  Selected Wednesdays to Sundays from October 2024 to February 2025

Tickets: Adult £45, Concessions £42

Aldwych: The End of the Line

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Opened to the public in 1907, Aldwych was never as heavily used as originally intended and closed nearly 100 years later in 1994. The station has had a varied history; from providing shelter to Londoners during the Blitz, to being used for film and TV shoots including The ABC Murders (2018), Darkest Hour (2017), Sherlock (2014), and Atonement (2007). Explore the original ticket hall and lifts and discover abandoned platforms and inter-connecting walkways.

Dates: Selected Wednesday to Sunday in November and December 2024, and March 2025

Tickets: Adult tickets £45, Concession £42

Charing Cross: Access all areas

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Walk under Trafalgar Square as you explore exclusive areas of Charing Cross station that are not accessible to the public. This tour will take you to disused parts of the station, including the Jubilee line platforms that were closed in 1999 but which you may recognise from many famous movies and TV productions since, including Skyfall (2012), Paddington Bear (2013), and TV’s Killing Eve (2019) and A Spy Among Friends (2022).

Dates: Selected Wednesday to Sunday in November and December 2024, and January 2025

Tickets: Adult £45, Concessions £42

Matinee Adult £40, Matinee Concessions £37

Matinee prices are available on the first two tours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

PLUS: Charing Cross & Classic Afternoon Tea at The Clermont

Pair your Charing Cross tour with a quintessentially British afternoon tea at beautiful The Clermont, one of London’s greatest railway hotels, to enjoy tea complete with scones, finger sandwiches and homemade treats.

Dates: Available on Friday and Sunday’s 14.35 tours

Tickets: Adult £80, Concessions £77

Euston: The Lost Tunnels

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Explore a century of the station’s history, from its humble beginnings on the corner of Melton and Drummond Street, to its exciting future as the London terminus for the brand-new High Speed 2 (HS2) line up to the Midlands and beyond. Discover a labyrinth of dark and dusty passageways once used by the travelling public, marvel at a gallery of preserved vintage advertising poster fragments that have been concealed for over 50 years and see the iconic Leslie Green station.

Dates:  Selected Wednesdays to Sundays in October and November
Tickets: Adult £45, Concessions £42

Piccadilly Circus: The Heart of London

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Piccadilly Circus was London’s busiest station throughout the roaring twenties and the flagship of Frank Pick’s Underground. Behind secret doors you’ll see deserted passageways, original Edwardian design features and lift shafts, and you will learn about the successive layers of renovations that were undertaken to adjust to Londoners’ needs over the last century.

Dates: Selected Wednesday to Sunday in October 2024 and February and March 2025

Tickets: Adult tickets £45, Concession £42

Matinee Adult £40, Matinee Concessions £37

Matinee prices are available on the first two tours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Secrets of Central London (Walking Tour)

Discover the secrets of the area around Theatreland, Covent Garden, Kingsway, and the Embankment with one of our expert guides. This walking tour reveals little known facts about the area that were pulled straight from our archives. Find out how well-known streets shaped London’s transport systems and get glimpses of some iconic Hidden London tour sites.

Dates: Every other Saturday and Sunday, October 2024 to March 2025

Tickets: Adult £20, Concession £17.50

To book visit www.ltmuseum.co.uk