In today’s Urbandoned video, we are heading underground in the UK’s capital to showcase
two forgotten secrets.
Four years ago, we had the chance to explore two of London’s defunct transport lines
that had remained in darkness for decades.
Today, we are shedding light on the two tunnels to show you what has survived until now.
Alistair: Hi everyone.
Just a brief announcement before this video begins.
Obviously, we have a huge catalogue of locations that we’ve filmed over the past five years
and the backlog is always growing.
During Summer, we have some more time, so we decided to upload one video a week for
the next six weeks.
The video will be up every Friday at 6pm.
To repeat, that’s a brand new video every week for six weeks.
The last time we did this was Winter 2018, so I hope you are as excited as we are to
see constant content from us.
Today’s release takes us back to 2019 showcasing two locations that you would never realise
are right under your feet.
It was a cold night in 2019 and myself and Reece had met up with some more local explorers
with the aim of accessing some of London’s lost underground system.
It had been something we had wanted to do for a while, but without too much knowledge
of the correct way to go about it, we were glad to be accompanied by some people more
familiar with the area.
Alistair: Somewhere under our feet now is where we are trying to go.
It’s one of the old entrances to what was a tram tunnel.
The tramline we wanted to enter ran beneath a road packed with cars, so it was important
for us to bide our time before the opportunity to infiltrate the tunnel finally arrived.
Alistair: We’re inside this tram tunnel.
Dodgy, dodgy access, but pretty straight forward physically.
Now, we are in and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel over there, which is
where the main part of this site is.
Quite a hefty walk towards it, with the sounds of cars going above your head, it’s quite
atmospheric.
Alistair: There is quite a lot of crap in the way, but this is the old platform.
Tram would head downhill from here, that way.
You can see the old advertisement boards, even though there is nothing on them.
The exit stairs, or the entrance stairs, the old underground sign and stuff like this,
as well.
Wow! This is cool!
What we didn’t realise at the time was that the underground sign, as well as these papers
that appeared to date back to a wartime era, were likely to be from a period in 2009 when
the platform was used for filming.
Alistair: I’ve only just noticed these.
Walking past, you hardly notice them, but just this little bit of text that’s left.
‘House,’ maybe ‘Picturehouse.’
I’m not sure.
Obviously - adverts though.
You can see where they all were.
There’s some strange bits of it left.
It says ‘Auction,’ I think.
‘6th day of August, 18…’
That is from the 1800s, I think.
(Totally wrong, it’s from a film set, muppet) That is insane…
Alistair: The way they are presented is almost like one of those Western Wanted posters you
would see in the old movies…
(Homer Simpson DOUGH!)
So old.
The tram tunnel was constructed in the early 1900s, and operated for a little over fifty
years.
It was an important build, allowing for the continuous 12 minute journey from north to
south of its destinations, whilst also allowing horse drawn carriages at the time to use the
overhead road.
In the 1920s, double decker trams were introduced which meant that the tunnel was deepened to
permit more passengers aboard each carriage.
During the 30s, vehicles like diesel buses and trolleys would replace trams, and London’s
system was decommissioned in 1952.
Since then, the small underground line has been abandoned for more than 60 years.
Alistair: Cars drive over this thing.
Really weird.
So loud.
I bet barely anyone knows that this lies down here under the grids.
Alistair: Heading downhill.
Can see the details of the tiling, there, but there’s nothing in that room.
It’s more of just what this was, rather than what’s in it, that’s the interesting
part about this place.
This is quite cool.
Can see the two tracks really clearly, here, as they meet from their curves and travel
side by side.
We’ve been told that puddle in front, the large one, if we travel past that, then there’s
sensors, so obviously, we don’t want to do that.
Before the tunnel was used for filming, there were plans to bring it back into use as a
modern tram line, but this didn’t go ahead.
As water seeps in from the streets above, it is uncertain what will end up happening
to the historic line.
It was time for us to leave, as it was very late into the night.
Despite this, the roads were still abundant with the cars that had pushed the tunnel into
disuse, so we had to slip back onto the surface quickly.
Across the city, you find us in another tunnel system a few hours earlier.
We didn’t plan to film a full video here, but looking back, putting these two underground
sites together makes a nice collaboration.
Alistair: So many noises down here, because the lights are on, it’s probably just the
generator for the lights.
It’s creepy, to say the same (?). These tunnels are endless, as well.
At the end of that corridor, there is someone’s Hi-vis.
This train tunnel is much further below ground than the tram line, and we are forced to take
a long ladder into the system to reach the derelict region.
Alistair: All the way down, there.
Reece: So deep down!
Alistair: Can hear the trains.
Even though it is disused, you can hear the trains in the live bits that are nearby through
the walls, and it all echoes.
This is such an unreal experience, though.
Where else are you going to get into a situation like this?
It’s crazy!
Running under a canal and the active mainline rail, this track served as a transport route
for empty steam carriages without passengers aboard.
It was necessary so the movements of trains wouldn’t disturb the busy schedule on the
mainlines.
However, with it not required anymore, the line was disused around twenty years ago,
and has been a ghostly chamber ever since.
The distinctive noises of the tube was audible through the walls creating a one of a kind
atmosphere.
However, with the tunnel looking the same throughout, we didn’t film a great deal.
Once we had crossed to where the line meets the overhead track, we turned back around.
It has been a memorable night in the capital exploring two places that we don’t come
across often.
Mixing the huge chambers void of humanity and sound, with the distant echoes of trains
and cars, forms a spectacle you can only find in this situation, a real Urban Exploring
marvel.
It is unlikely that the purpose built sites will find another use any time soon, and we
would predict they will continue to lie empty for years to come.
Here are some of our photographs from the abandoned transport lines.
If you like the look of them, check out our Instagram page in the description, where we
share images from our explores months before they are seen on YouTube.
Thanks for watching!
We hope you are as excited as we are for weekly uploads for six weeks.
Don’t miss the busiest period on the Urbandoned channel for years!
See you next time!