Euston Underground Station Disused Tunnels
Most people know there are disused stations on the London Underground, but fewer know that there are lots of stations which have disused tunnels. These once bustling spaces became redundant over time as more efficient (in terms of people moving) escalators replaced lifts and stations were reconfigured with the opening of new lines.
And so it is at Euston. Entering through a door from the end of a Northern Line platform you enter tunnels unused by passengers since the Victoria Line was built in the 1960s which resulted in a significant rebuild and the creation of the passenger tunnels used today which were designed to cope safely with far greater numbers.
Whilst disused by passengers, the tunnels are very much in use by the engineers to unobtrusively route cabling around the station and improve the station’s ventilation. The London Transport Museum runs occasional tours around these tunnels which, given their age, have lots of interesting things to see.
1960s posters are as they were last left on the walls and there is the unique underground ticket office, a relic from the days when the lines were operated by different companies.
Go to the surface and the odd structure between platforms two and three becomes interesting as you now know it is the original entrance to the Underground station.
All pictures were taken on 11th February 2022 during a London Transport “Hidden London” tour.
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London Transport Museum’s Hidden London tours take people to parts of London Underground normally completely off limits.
I’ve been on most of the tours over the last couple of years. They are all excellent. My favourites have to be Charing Cross and Kingsway Tram Tunnel.
- Aldwych: Used for historic films and Prodigy’s “Firestarter”
- Baker Street: The world’s oldest underground station
- Charing Cross: Very long construction tunnels and see where films are made
- Clapham South: Huge air raid shelter and its influence on Brixton
- Down Street: Used by Winston Churchill to escape air raids
- Euston: Huge numbers of posters from the 1960s
- Holborn: The other end of the Aldwych branch
- Kingsway Tram Tunnel: Huge sub-surface space for tram
- Moorgate: Lots of tunnels to walk through and a huge fan
- Piccadilly Circus: See behind the mysterious platform grills
- Shepherd’s Bush: Ventilation and air raid shelter tunnels
