- 6 hours ago
Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway explore King William Street, the original terminus of the first electric tube in the world. The long-abandoned lift shafts within Knightsbridge station reveal how such facilities are given new life or preserved as historical relics, showcasing the contrast between Victorian engineering and modern subway operations.
这是伦敦深层地铁（deep tube）上最早废弃的车站。该站于 1890 年作为城市与南伦敦铁路（City and South London Railway）的一部分开通，后因线路延伸和站台过短而被废弃，成为地铁历史中的“幽灵站”。
这是伦敦深层地铁（deep tube）上最早废弃的车站。该站于 1890 年作为城市与南伦敦铁路（City and South London Railway）的一部分开通，后因线路延伸和站台过短而被废弃，成为地铁历史中的“幽灵站”。
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TravelTranscript
00:04Come in here and have a look at this because this is something really special.
00:08This car was built in the 1890s, the very first deep-level tube line in London.
00:13But you'll notice it hasn't got any windows.
00:16It was designed for a tunnel at a time when people thought there wouldn't be anything to look at.
00:23There is, you'll be pleased to see, a tiny opening for air.
00:26And look at these high-backed padded seats that face each other.
00:30These, and the lack of windows, led passengers to call this type of car a padded cell.
00:37Welcome to Secrets of the London Underground.
00:42I'm Tim Dunn and we're back to reveal more hidden parts of the tube network.
00:47I am so excited I am standing on the wrong side of the escalator.
00:51The secret spaces with fascinating stories and incredible sights.
00:56Oh wow!
00:58This is extraordinary.
00:59My fellow explorer is Siddy Holloway.
01:02This looks like marble terrazzo to me.
01:05She knows these forgotten time capsules inside out.
01:09We are now walking underneath one of the busiest places in London.
01:13And has the keys to open them up.
01:16Ready?
01:16And show me places hardly anyone gets to see.
01:19Look at this!
01:21Oh, this is magic!
01:23We'll explore the history of stations and lines at the London Transport Museum's depot.
01:29And dive into its extraordinary archives.
01:31This is the good stuff, isn't it?
01:33Most of this stuff won't have been seen.
01:35It's crammed with the secrets of the London Underground.
01:38And people have no idea it's here.
02:02The padded sail car was built from the City and South London Railway, which opened in November 1890.
02:08But because that line was built so deep underground, they couldn't use steam locomotives to haul the cars.
02:15Instead, they used this.
02:18An electric traction engine designed and built by Mather and Platt in Manchester.
02:24The line ran from Stockwell in the south to a place called King William Street, just north of the river.
02:30But that station only lasted ten years.
02:33This loco wasn't powerful enough to pull the train up the steep gradient and tight curve from under the river
02:40to the station.
02:42It meant the line was diverted to a new terminus and King William Street was abandoned.
02:46In fact, it became the very first part of London's deep level tube network to become disused.
02:54It's remained hidden away for over a hundred and twenty years.
02:59It's been off limits for a very long time, so if there's one place you want Sydney to show you
03:04around, it's King William Street.
03:12The Square Mile is the oldest part of London.
03:16It was the epicentre of Roman Britain, and since the 18th century, it's been the hub of the capital financial
03:24district.
03:24It's also where the Great Fire of London started in 1666.
03:30Sydney and I are meeting next to the huge column designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which commemorates it.
03:38Well, here we are, Sydney, at the monument.
03:40So, clearly, you've come here to look at the fabulous views across the whole city of London.
03:44Well, we're not going to go up the monument.
03:46We're not even going to go into Monument Station.
03:49The reason why I've asked you to come here is because we are very close to the first disused deep
03:56tube electric station in London,
03:58King William Street.
04:00Brilliant. I've always wanted to go down there.
04:03It's really the granddaddy of disused stations.
04:07It closed over a hundred and twenty years ago, and looking around, you might think,
04:12where is a disused station here?
04:14You can't really see anything, but we're going to go just on the corner over there,
04:19because that's where it used to be.
04:27The historic square mile is well served by the underground.
04:32There are four stations within a five-minute walk of here.
04:36Two of those, Bank and Monument, are undergoing a major £700 million upgrade project.
04:42It includes a new section of railway tunnel and a new southbound platform on the northern line.
04:48The ongoing work is giving Sydney and me a fantastic opportunity to explore not just a station from the past,
04:56but also the tube of the future, because the old station is now an access point for this huge underground
05:02construction project.
05:04Ready?
05:05Let's go.
05:05And we've been given special permission to have a look around.
05:13King William Street Station was open for just shy of ten years.
05:18It closed in 1900, when the City and South London Railway extended their line northwards.
05:25Today, it's the bank branch of the northern line.
05:28King William Street was bypassed entirely.
05:33This stair shaft would have been used by passengers in emergencies.
05:37Today, it's used by construction workers.
05:40There were also two hydraulic lifts, which have long since gone.
05:45Now, Tim, come and have a look at this.
05:48Oh.
05:49Look at these.
05:51This is amazing.
05:52These are original City and South London Railway tiles from 1890.
05:58They're just incredible.
05:59Aren't they lovely?
06:01There's wonderful patterns.
06:02You know, I've never seen these down on the tube before.
06:04Now, they do survive in a few places on the network.
06:07Oh, really?
06:08Whereabouts?
06:08For example, at Kennington, in some cupboards there.
06:12But really, in this kind of entirety, this is really unique.
06:17And you know what?
06:17Down here as well, you can see these footsteps down here.
06:20All of these steps.
06:21They're wooden.
06:22They're wooden.
06:22Yeah, the wooden treads.
06:23Yeah.
06:24The anti-slip mechanism of the Victorian times.
06:27Look at that.
06:27They're made in London, it says there.
06:29That's lovely.
06:30And so, just around the corner, we're now getting to the platform.
06:46The King William Street platform tunnel is just six metres wide.
06:52Its middle section was converted to a private air raid shelter during the Second World War.
06:58When the station opened in 1890, there were two wooden platforms, 60 metres long, one for arrivals, one for departures,
07:07with a single electrified track in the middle.
07:10In 1895, the two platforms were replaced by an island platform with tracks either side.
07:16And like the staircase, the station was lined with white glazed tiles.
07:24We can see the fabric of the station a little bit better here.
07:27So you've got the slope of the actual tunnel coming through.
07:31This was the early city in South London, so the running tunnels were small, the platform tunnels were all small.
07:36The station was immediately popular with commuters.
07:40On the 18th of December 1890, the gate opened to the public, the number of people using King William Street
07:47was vast.
07:49In fact, during the evening peak, the lifts were taken out of service, leaving some passengers briefly locked in at
07:56the close of traffic.
07:57But the novelty of travelling by bleep tube appeals to Victorian Londoners.
08:03One passenger describes the scene at King William Street on opening day.
08:08By and by, a rumbling is heard.
08:10It becomes a roar and then swells into a rush as the advancing train, emitting electric sparks,
08:16apparently from the region of the rails, emerges from the Black Mouth Tunnel.
08:22By 1895, up to 15,000 passengers a day were using King William Street.
08:28But the station's small layout was becoming a problem.
08:32This station only survived for just over nine years.
08:36It closed in February of 1900 because it simply wasn't viable.
08:40So it lay dormant for years and years and years until the Second World War broke out.
08:46That's when all of this space was leased to the office building above here as a private shelter, believe it
08:53or not.
08:54The private air raid shelter could accommodate up to 2,000 people from the offices above,
08:59which were leased by merchant shipping and finance companies.
09:03The two cast iron running tunnels for the trains became makeshift latrines for those sheltering from the bombs.
09:12The breeze block cubicles still line the running tunnel, which is just three metres wide.
09:17This would have been a bit of a luxury, having breeze block walls around your toilet facilities.
09:22I mean, in many other shelters, all you would have had is a bit of cloth separating you from your
09:27neighbour.
09:27So this is quite fancy.
09:29Very special indeed.
09:31Now, on this incline though, heading down away from the main station, it really is quite a steep incline, right?
09:37It feels literally like you're just, yeah, sliding down.
09:40But the incline...
09:41And a very tight curve as well.
09:43All of those things that you just said are the reason why King William Street only lasted just over nine
09:48years.
09:48The tunnels are very narrow because the original city in South London locos were quite small.
09:54This incline is to reach from Arthur Street all the way down underneath the tent.
10:01So it has quite a steep slope to kind of slide down.
10:04And then the curvature is because the only spot available at the time for a station
10:10was kind of across King William Street from Arthur Street.
10:13So that's why they had the curve.
10:16The curve and gradient just outside the station was so severe that the electric locomotives struggled to get up the
10:24incline.
10:25Siddi and I are heading deeper into the tunnel towards the Thames
10:29and it feels like we're the first people to come down here for a very long time.
10:35Well, look the first one.
10:37This is one of the biggest I've ever seen.
10:40So this is a calcium-like straw.
10:42It's essentially calcium leaching from the ground coming in through the tunnel.
10:48But the thing is, is that these are so brittle, if you touched it or even breathed too high on
10:53it, it would break.
10:54They can only really fall in places where there's hardly any movement of air.
11:01Unfortunately, today you can't go as far as Borough, the next station on the old line.
11:09So here we are.
11:12Something tells me we're close to the River Thames.
11:15Yep.
11:15Well, I think that's a giveaway here.
11:18So this tunnel was actually capped off in the First World War.
11:23So it's been capped off for a long time.
11:25However, they did use this tunnel when they were building the Jubilee Line extension.
11:29But on the London Bridge side, you can see some of the pumping equipment just over there.
11:33That's because the engineers need to come down here every so often to make sure that it's still okay
11:38that the infrastructure is still working and pump out some of that water.
11:41But isn't it kind of strange standing here thinking that we are now technically underneath the River Thames.
11:48How deep beneath the river actually are we here?
11:51We are quite close to the riverbed.
11:52In fact, sometimes, if you've been here before the upgrade work started and you'd be absolutely quiet,
12:00you could often hear the propellers of boats rushing by in the River Thames.
12:06This diffused 120-year-old tunnel feels so far away from anything modern.
12:13But just a few hundred meters from here, engineers are building a brand new London underground tunnel.
12:20And I can't wait for Sidney to show me.
12:22Oh my gosh!
12:24This is extraordinary!
12:25Nobody murdered here!
12:39Sidney and I have been exploring King William Street, the first disused deep tube station.
12:47The old station currently has a different purpose as an access point for the major upgrade project as bank and
12:54monument.
12:55Over the last six years, 200,000 tons of material have been excavated from underneath the City of London.
13:03It's made way for a new southbound tunnel for the Northern Line to be constructed.
13:08As the project nears its end, I'm really excited as Sidney and I have been given a tiny window to
13:15visit the site.
13:20Well, if you have it, daylight!
13:25It's extraordinary! It really is!
13:28So where are you right now?
13:29So we're at the Arthur Street shaft.
13:31So this is the middle of Arthur Street, opposite where the entrance of King William Street used to be.
13:36And through the shaft, all of this has been excavated and built.
13:41So from here, this is how they've hoisted absolutely everything out.
13:44Talk about keyhole surgery on an epic scale.
13:49This shaft actually cuts through part of the old King William Street station.
13:55So the old platform is above and behind us.
13:59The new running tunnel, which is 570 metres long,
14:04bipartis the existing southbound Northern Line.
14:06It allows the platforms at bank to be enlarged, increasing capacity at the station by 40%.
14:13This section of the Northern Line is currently closed for 17 weeks for the crucial final phase of the project,
14:20merging the old Northern Line tunnel with the brand new one.
14:24So we're now standing in the new southbound tunnel of the Northern Line.
14:29And then up there is Bank Station and the brand new platform.
14:34It's genuinely extraordinary. It really is.
14:37This entire new tube line is being created via this single shaft.
14:46Oh, wow! No way! This is so incredible!
14:52Look at that!
14:54Our timing is perfect because engineers in the new concrete tunnel have just broken through to the existing cast iron
15:03running tunnel.
15:05Cidi and I are witnessing the birth of a new underground railway.
15:09Now they've broken through and so that is part of the old tunnel.
15:15Well, funnily this dinosaur has stopped eating away at the clay so we can have a close look at this.
15:21Wow!
15:22Like the falls in for us.
15:29Oh my gosh!
15:31This is extraordinary.
15:33Nobody bordered here.
15:36This is London clay.
15:38This is what allows tunneling to be so easily done in London.
15:43This is that malleable ground that basically made the underground what it is today.
15:49It's almost like, you know, you'd want to make some pottery out of it.
15:53So these rings here, how old are all of these tunnel rings? They're cracking through.
15:56So these would have been from the enlargement of the Northern Line which happened in the 1920s.
16:02So between 1922 and 1924 they had a similar blockade but to enlarge the entire tunnels
16:09because of course those city and south London railway tunnels, they were so tiny.
16:13Yeah.
16:13So they needed to make them bigger.
16:15So that's the era from which these tunnel lining rings are.
16:18So a hundred year difference between the tunnels here and this tunnel there.
16:24Extraordinary.
16:25If we were to walk all the way down there, eventually we'd get onto the platform at London Bridge.
16:31We can't hold up the work for long.
16:33They have got the tunnel to finish.
16:36Today engineers use concrete instead of cast iron rings to build tube tunnels.
16:42Once the boring machines had excavated the London clay, the walls of the tunnel are sprayed with concrete.
16:48They then line the tunnel with a waterproof membrane before a secondary layer of cast concrete completes the job.
16:55Not a cast iron ring in sight.
17:00They're due to start running test trains along this new section of tunnel in just a few weeks.
17:05So the clock is ticking.
17:08The responsibility for keeping things on track falls to construction manager John Cummins.
17:14We're walking the new Northern Line tunnel towards Bank.
17:21I'm trying not to say there's light at the end of the tunnel coming up soon.
17:24You've had that a million times before.
17:26Yeah, there is.
17:26But you're actually looking forward to that.
17:28Are there still some big challenges you've got to go?
17:30We're tunneling at the moment.
17:31So touch wood.
17:32We should complete that part of it.
17:34But then there's a lot of challenges ahead of us still.
17:37With all the track beds.
17:38We're actually walking on the track bed now under these steel plates.
17:40Oh wow, wow.
17:41That's incredible.
17:42So this track's already been laid.
17:44The rail is over here on the right hand side.
17:46And once we get all the tunneling finished.
17:48And then we're going to lift these plates up and put the rails back in.
17:51How many of you guys are there working down here at any one time?
17:54Well, okay.
17:55We've got about 500 people on the project.
17:57Just over 500 in total.
17:58So of which about 150, 180 are staff.
18:02And the remainder are tunnelers, carpenters.
18:06You know, we've got specialists in steel cladding systems.
18:09You know, for the finishing on the tunnels.
18:11We've got specialists floor layers.
18:13Now can I ask John, what was the biggest challenge constructing this upgrade project?
18:20Getting the shaft in.
18:22So getting started.
18:24A hell of a lot of work and planning and time went into preparing for the project.
18:29And then started to sink the shaft.
18:30You start constructing the shaft that you're going to work in.
18:32And then at that point then you're sort of free from all the interference doing our thing.
18:38What we know, what we feel comfortable with, which is tunneling.
18:41Yeah.
18:42I guess being in the City of London and in this area there are loads of things that you must
18:46be, have to be aware of.
18:48We've gone under some, you know, old churches.
18:52Lots of banks above us.
18:53You know, very influential people.
18:55Yeah, a lot of negotiation.
18:56What impact will you have though on people up there above us?
19:01Well, in the long term, none. None really.
19:04Other than giving them a new station entrance, step-free access to mobility impaired people down to the DLR,
19:10a new one to the Northern Line, all the escalators, the upgrading and the sort of enlarging of the station
19:15itself.
19:16I mean, I think this will just become another part of London.
19:23The construction of the new southbound tunnel and platform at Bank has allowed the old track and platform to be
19:30converted into a spacious public concourse.
19:33Like any self-respecting railway enthusiast, obviously I took a selfie on the old platform on the last day trains
19:40ran through.
19:41That was just two and a half weeks ago and this is what it looks like today.
19:46You can see the speed of the work.
19:49And this will be the new southbound Northern Line platform.
19:56See that?
19:57Oh, look at that. The signs are up.
20:00Yeah.
20:01This is bizarre, like the finishing touches are up.
20:04Look at how neat and tidy this is going to be.
20:07I mean, complete game changer for the Northern Line here at Bank.
20:11It's extraordinary.
20:12I mean, I've seen all the stations on the underground network, but I've never seen one at this stage of
20:17its construction.
20:21Sidi has one more place to show me.
20:24Just beyond the new station at Bank, where the new tunnel merges with the existing Northern Line tracks,
20:30we can access part of the now disused southbound tunnel.
20:35Woo!
20:39Look at this.
20:40So, just a few weeks ago, the Northern Line trains were running through here at a regular service.
20:46And now, look at it.
20:48What they've done, they've just plugged it up here because they are merging the tunnel over there with this old
20:53tunnel,
20:54but just a little bit further up.
20:55So, they have to plug this one up in order to not interfere with the work.
20:59What's happened to all this track down here? Will it stay in here forever?
21:03Yeah. I mean, why would you take it out?
21:05It's going to be more of a nuisance.
21:07This is just going to be left because this is just a dirt-lust tunnel at this point.
21:11At the end of that, we'll finally get to where the platform used to be, which now is going to
21:16be Comfort.
21:17There'll probably be a door that you can open, and this will be the latest disused track on the London
21:23Underground.
21:25Perhaps Siddy and I will come back in 30 years' time to explore this old tunnel.
21:39The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden's famous piazza operates out of a former Victorian flower market building.
21:47It's open to the public every day.
21:49They get to explore the stars of the collection, including this, the only surviving electric locomotive from the King William
22:00Street era.
22:00And the museum's assistant director, Chris Nix, is on board to show me around this rare artefact.
22:09So, Chris, this engine, which haul trains, is really rather smaller than I imagined it would be.
22:15Yeah, it's not big, is it? And it's because the city in South London Railway was the first major railway
22:21to use electric locomotives.
22:24And so they were finding things out as they went.
22:27And it was built by a company called Mather & Platt, who are based up in Manchester.
22:33Why go with someone from Manchester for the London Underground?
22:36Well, Mather & Platt were known for building large engineering things, for mills and for pumps.
22:44They acquired the rights to build dynamos under license from Edison.
22:49And they were an obvious choice to go to for electrical apparatus like this.
22:57Inside, it's quite primitive.
22:59You might even describe it as dangerous by modern standards.
23:04Terrifying from my point.
23:05I wouldn't disagree.
23:06Yeah.
23:07You've got the main motor here driving the wheels.
23:10Yes.
23:11You've got a brake over here.
23:14OK.
23:15Down here, we've got a set of contactors, which is a speed controller.
23:19This was quite a terrifying piece of equipment.
23:22You've got 500 volts running on this at the time.
23:26The rotating coils would set up a big arc of electricity, which would tend to come straight
23:32through the forearm of the driver just here.
23:36Do we have records of where that happened?
23:38Yes.
23:38One of my colleagues had talked to one of the drivers many years ago.
23:43And when he was describing this habit that they had, he rolled his sleeve up and showed
23:48him the scar that he had from where his loco had got him.
23:54So, yeah, open contactors, not a great idea.
23:58Around the world, you don't see many other locomotives that are electric with underground
24:02carriages.
24:03They're always together as multiple units, aren't they?
24:05Why is that?
24:06This was the only really credible way of running a railway of this length at the time.
24:13Cable systems were tried.
24:15Indeed, they originally planned to use cable hall railway for the city in South London
24:20Railway.
24:21Steam hall had been tried in deep tubes, but there's some obvious problems with that,
24:25that there's nowhere for it to go, and it could be quite an unpleasant environment to
24:29be in.
24:29So, this experiment, as it was really, with electric power for a major railway, was successful
24:39and ultimately adopted and refined into what we know today.
24:43Now, where did this thing last actually run? Do you know?
24:46The city in South London line was expanded. The tunnels were widened between 1922 and 1924.
24:53that's when car and loco were drawn from service.
24:59As the electric locomotive trundled along tunnels under the Thames, Victorian passengers
25:04huddled together in this.
25:12Okay, a little bit creepy, I have to say.
25:15Well, welcome to the padded cell, so named because of these high back seats, and when
25:22they were originally built, lack of windows.
25:24Not because of the people inside it?
25:25No, the people inside it, though, kind of represent the typical scene of travelling inside
25:32of one of these when they were first running.
25:35And one person in particular, just here, particularly important to the story of this,
25:42a gentleman called A. H. Bevan, who was visiting the railway when it first opened.
25:48Now, he described the experience of travelling on one of these in not very complimentary terms.
25:56He said it felt like being a condemned man on the gallows, waiting for the lever to be pulled
26:03and to be sent into another world.
26:05The second thing that he noted, we kind of take for granted today when we're travelling on the Tube,
26:10what was new for railways, which is the classes are not separated.
26:14Of course.
26:15There weren't first class, second class, third class tickets.
26:18Not in a deep level cube anyway.
26:20Right, there wasn't the space.
26:22And so it meant that, with the fares being relatively cheap, that all of the classes are mixed in together.
26:29And that is something which takes a very long time for the rest of the transport world to emulate.
26:35Now, these windows are put in later, I know, for this car.
26:39So how did people know when to get off the train?
26:41You had to have a guard in between each carriage, a set of carriages,
26:46so that they could not only shout which station you were in,
26:49but also operate the gate to let you on or off the train.
26:53And because the power system was quite primitive on the city in South London Railway,
26:58they only had one power station down at Stockwell,
27:01it did mean that the lights would actually dim rather when the locos were pulling a heavier load.
27:06So quite an exciting environment in here, I think.
27:10One I'm very glad that we didn't have to start with today.
27:31Twelve stops west along the Piccadilly Line from Covent Garden is Acton Town.
27:41It's home to the London Transport Museum's enormous depot.
27:50But not everything in the museum's depot is historic.
27:54Well, at least, not yet.
27:56New artefacts are being enlisted in the Transport Hall of Fame all the time for future generations to study and
28:04enjoy.
28:06Rosamund Lily West is responsible for collecting contemporary, everyday objects for the museum.
28:13Now, Rosamund, what have we got in front of us?
28:17Well, quite a big part of London in the 2020s obviously has been the Covid-19 pandemic.
28:23And this badge here is a face mask exemption badge.
28:29And this is one of the things that we've collected that's reflecting Covid-19 and the impact on London and
28:34London's transport network.
28:36Because suddenly the underground became a site that people were anxious about and frightened of.
28:42And I'm seeing here you've actually got some of the LGBT roundels you've got from the Ride With Pride stuff.
28:47Yes, yes, yes. So we've got three roundels here that were produced by TFL.
28:52And so we've got the rainbow roundel.
28:55We've got the white, pink and blue roundel representing trans people.
28:59And then we've got on the bottom here a blue, purple and pink roundel representing bisexual people.
29:05We're deliberately trying to look for communities that weren't well represented in the collections.
29:11So in any future displays, it's really important that everybody looking round the museum can see themselves in the displays.
29:18And that's where contemporary collecting can really, really help with the museum collections.
29:23Now, there's other things you've got here too. In fact, there's one that just caught my eye.
29:26Elizabeth Line. Trial operations. What's this about?
29:31These are really exciting because I just collected these for the museum two days ago.
29:36So this is about the opening of the Elizabeth Line, so Crossrail.
29:41And I volunteered along with some friends to go on a trial of the Elizabeth Line from Woolwich to Custom
29:48House.
29:48So we got to ride on the trains and we got to do a pretend evacuation.
29:52But what's interesting is we were given things as a volunteer and I've collected them because they reflect that moment.
30:00But they also help tell the story of the Elizabeth Line away from the engineers and the big engineering story,
30:07which is really important.
30:09Isn't it funny? We're standing here, something that's two, three days old, and we're still holding it with white gloves
30:14and protective materials.
30:15Yes.
30:15It's valuable, right?
30:17Yes, yes. As soon as something comes into a museum collection, we have to care for it and look after
30:21it.
30:22Because historians in the future, you know, two, three hundred years time, people will be looking at that and it
30:28won't seem everyday and normal.
30:29It will seem like a past relic.
30:32Absolutely.
30:33And historians of the future and the public of the future are going to thank you, I'm sure.
30:38It's so interesting to think, next time you use the tube or any railway, every single item around you could
30:46be worthy of a place in a museum.
30:50Sidi is about to visit another station and there are plenty of artifacts there.
30:55And I get so excited every time I see one of these because they really are so rare.
31:12Sidi and I are having a poke around the museum's depot.
31:16So this is the design store.
31:19And this is the best bit of the museum as far as I'm concerned.
31:22There's so much stuff in here from every part of the network.
31:25In fact, every part of London.
31:28That's it.
31:29Well, that's why I wanted to bring you here because I've taken the grills away from this storage area here.
31:35Because in this shelf, there's a lot of things that relate to the station I'm about to go to.
31:41Oh, detective work time.
31:43So, what are we looking at here?
31:45Right.
31:45Okay.
31:46I can see a bronze escalator model.
31:48I've got a sign for the Piccadilly and Brompton Railway.
31:51Great Northern Piccadilly and Brompton Railway.
31:53Get it right done.
31:54You've then got a downlighter lamp.
31:56You've got another uplighter there.
31:58It's all in bronze and escalator bits.
31:59So this is escalator-tastic.
32:01What's going on?
32:02Well, this is a station that opened on the Great Northern Piccadilly and Brompton Railway.
32:06The Piccadilly line.
32:08It originally had beautiful Leslie Green Down lighters that we see there.
32:13And later on, it got refitted with the bronze escalators and had the bronze uplighters there.
32:18So, where do you think I've been?
32:21It's going to be one or two places.
32:22Where is it?
32:24Knightsbridge.
32:31I'm in SW1, London's poshest postcode.
32:35This is Knightsbridge, home to Harrods and Harvey Nicks and some of the most expensive property
32:42in the world.
32:43London's exclusive retail district is a magnet for shoppers and tourists.
32:47And so, it's been well served by the underground for over a century.
32:52But Knightsbridge has an unusual history.
32:56Fashions change and over the last century, so has its underground station.
33:01Now, behind me is a station which opened in 1906 as part of the Great Northern Piccadilly
33:07and Brompton Railway.
33:08Today, we know that as the Piccadilly line.
33:11But this entrance is not the original.
33:14The original one is a little bit further on.
33:25The first Knightsbridge station was one of nearly 50 designs by legendary London underground architect,
33:31Leslie Green.
33:32He defined the public image of the early tube and could be described as the man who painted
33:39the town red since his numerous stations were often finished in distinctive oxblood glazed tiling.
33:47His 1906 station has an entrance on Knightsbridge near the junction with Brompton Road.
33:53It was adorned with large Art Nouveau flower decorations.
33:57There was also a rear entrance to the station on Basel Street.
34:02From the booking hall, four Otis lifts carried passengers to the platforms,
34:08the norm at the time since there were no escalators on the underground in those days.
34:25Leslie Green's surface building no longer exists.
34:29But some of the diffused passages and tunnels from that early night bridge station do.
34:34You just need to unlock the right door.
34:39You just need to unlock the right door.
34:45But what's really exciting is that these original passages are being brought back into use for the first time in
34:5390 years.
34:55Away from the public gaze, Knightsbridge Station is a construction site, which is why this hidden section is so well
35:03lit.
35:06So these are the original corridors of Knightsbridge Station.
35:10And these tiles are original too.
35:13This beautiful blue, green, white and cream colour scheme of this station.
35:18Which is just stunning.
35:21And just over here, we have an original wayfinding sign telling us that it's this way to the staircase.
35:30The emergency staircase, which would have brought passengers from here and up and out of the station.
35:37In 1934, Knightsbridge Station got its first makeover.
35:42The lifts were removed and escalators with wooden treads were introduced to the station.
35:47Similar to these ones pictured at Leicester Square in 1935.
35:51The last wooden escalator was at Greenford.
35:54That was removed in 2014.
35:58At Knightsbridge, Leslie Green's building was demolished and a new booking hall opened further up the road.
36:05In 2017, that entrance closed and has since been turned into an exclusive clothing store.
36:11And the reason that entrance is also now gone is that Knightsbridge Station is essentially being taken back to how
36:19it was when it first opened.
36:21A kind of retro makeover, but one with a modern twist.
36:30Now, this is something incredibly special that's happening here.
36:34I mean, this is really the only time I've ever seen anything like this happen on the underground.
36:40These are the original lift shafts of Knightsbridge, which opened in 1906.
36:45They are now inserting lifts back into those original shafts in order to make the station step-free and accessible
36:56again.
36:57It's just amazing that this area, which has lain dormant for nearly 90 years, is now going to be reused
37:04again for its original purpose, bringing passengers in and out of the station.
37:09The return of the lifts will make this station easier for anyone with a wheelchair, a pushchair or heavy shopping
37:16bags from Paris.
37:18Currently, only a third of underground stations have step-free access, although TfL is planning to converse more.
37:25Behind the scenes, work is underway preparing the passengers for passengers.
37:32They will be covered with these lovely tiles, the original tiles of Knightsbridge.
37:37However, they've all been stripped away as if so many of them were damaged.
37:42And this entire wall has been rendered for it to be re-tiled before the public starts using the new
37:49lifts of the station.
37:52But some of the original tiles, which are nearly 120 years old, will be kept.
37:58Come and have a look at this.
38:00So, these are tiles that have just come off the wall here at Knightsbridge in preparation for the public to
38:07come through.
38:08And just look at these beautiful originals.
38:11But what's most extraordinary about this is that over here we have a maker's tile.
38:18And I get so excited every time I see one of these because they really are so rare.
38:23And this particular tile is now going to be preserved for future generations to enjoy.
38:42Back above ground, a new station entrance will open on the Brompton Road,
38:47just meters from where Leslie Green's building once stood.
38:51And a second entrance is being built underneath a new office development in Hooper's Court.
38:57The architects have paid homage to the rear entrance of Knightsbridge's first underground station.
39:03In a lovely twist, the facade has been embellished with Leslie Green's style red piling.
39:11And here it is, the new station in Hooper's Court.
39:15I mean, it's got so many of the original features.
39:18So, you've got the flat roof.
39:20You've got the semi-circular windows.
39:22You've got the red oxblood tiles.
39:24And you've even got a nod to the Art Nouveau flowers that were outside on the original Knightsbridge station.
39:31It's just so lovely to see these new 21st century buildings having this nod to heritage,
39:38that they're being built as a part of kind of showing London's past as well as London's future.
39:46It's just simply stunning.
39:57Accessibility has long been an issue for the London Underground.
40:01It's the oldest metro system in the world, and many of its stations were built in an era
40:06when equal access to transport services wasn't considered.
40:10Today, the task of making the network more accessible for Londoners belongs to Claire Taylor.
40:16She's the senior project manager for station upgrades at TFL.
40:21Sounds like a big job.
40:22What does Step Free Access actually mean?
40:24It's providing a truly accessible route for everyone to use, not just mobility impaired.
40:33Tourists with big suitcases.
40:35As a mum, I know how difficult it is to sort of commute around London without the lifts.
40:41And, you know, it's for parents with buggies.
40:44It's just a safer route for certain parts of the population to use.
40:49So, currently, there are quite a few stations along the network that are Step Free, right?
40:55But, of course, some of them have got much bigger challenges than others in order to provide that, right?
41:01What are some of those big challenges?
41:03Why can't we just put a lift shaft in every station?
41:06You need capital, so you need to be able to weigh up how you are going to fund those projects.
41:13So, that's why we're working more and more with third parties and developers to provide potential opportunity to deliver Step
41:21Free as part of wider developments in the area.
41:24Makes sense, doesn't it?
41:25Yep.
41:26We could probably forget that all these tube stations deep below ground have got private stuff above them now, haven't
41:30they?
41:30Yes.
41:31So, you have to kind of strike when the other guys above you are doing work.
41:35Especially in sort of the inner zones of London, it's very congested and very difficult to find access to provide
41:42the Step Free access entrance.
41:45You have to sort of work out where you've got all the existing infrastructure, where you can actually physically put
41:51in any lift shafts, and how you access to do that.
41:55Because everything's underground. How do you access to remove all the spoil?
42:01Yeah.
42:01How do you access to manage the work safely? And how do you manage that while keeping the station open
42:06as well?
42:07Yeah.
42:09Of course, it's easier when you're building a new railway. All the stations on the Elizabeth Line are Step Free.
42:16On the other hand, only three stations out of 25 are Step Free on the Bakerloo Line, which opened in
42:231906.
42:25I mean, what's really exciting is when you open the Step Free and you see those customers coming out and
42:32using the lift.
42:33At Finsbury Park, as an example, we had customers who were telling us that they've had to use buses in
42:38the past.
42:39And just that excitement of the customers being able to use the stations more easily, or at all, is what
42:46makes it all worthwhile.
42:48It's brilliant work.
42:49Yeah, it really is.
42:56Next time, we visit the most secret station we've ever been to, completely cut off from the surface.
43:03Good Lord.
43:03And CIDI is exploring the critical infrastructure that was hidden deep below St. Paul's.
43:10They nicknamed this facility The Hall, and I can kind of understand why.
43:15Good Lord.
43:17Good Lord.
43:20Good Lord.
43:33Good Lord.
43:35Good Lord.
43:35Good Lord.
43:39Good Lord.
43:42Good Lord.
43:43You
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