Secrets of the London Underground

Explores the unusual station at Old Street. It serves both the Northern line and mainline trains, and they discover how the platforms and tunnels differ across the two different services. The station has undergone massive changes since it first opened in 1901, and there’s still plenty of evidence of its early years, if you know where to look. Tim goes through a tiny doorway to discover a hidden passage with an original fully-tiled vaulted ceiling. Siddy discovers a staircase last used in the 1920s, which still has the original sign showing the Northern Line tube stops. Siddy visits Hampstead, the deepest station below ground on the entire Underground network. Unsurprisingly, it also has the deepest lift shaft, and she gets to ride on top of the lift to see the record-breaking 55-metre shaft up close. At our Museum depot, Tim meets the first ever female driver on the Victoria line. She talks about working on the tube in the 1970s.

Explores the rich history of Stockwell station on the Victoria line. It was originally the terminus station for the City and South London Railway – the first ever deep level electric tube railway in the world, and the birth of the tube as we know it. Tim finds evidence of a deep level shelter used by Londoners during the Second World War. On the platforms, he reveals something rather more contemporary – the tiles depicting a swan in homage to a local pub. As Siddy descends deep into the station, she finds metallic tiles on the walls and cast iron segments in a disused lift shaft, each crucial relics of their era. Siddy visits the main depot for the DLR. She hears how they’re developing new technology to alert them to any passengers on the tracks. And she gets a preview of their new fleet of trains currently on test runs along the network. At the Museum depot, Tim explores the items in their collection charting the history of the DLR, including models of the original 1986 trains.

Tim and Siddy get privileged access to the vast maintenance depot at Ruislip, at the end of the Central line. It’s the nerve-centre for all that takes place on the tube, from routine track repairs to emergency engineering. Tim gets a demonstration of how tracks are replaced, as a crane lifts huge pre-assembled sections of railway track into place. Siddy gets in the driving seat of a machine that moves ballast into place under sleepers to hold the track in position. At Warren Street, on the Northern and Victoria lines, Siddy explores the station’s constant reinvention. It first opened in the early 1900s, was remodelled in the 1930s and then had a massive make-over in the 60s when the Victoria line arrived. At the Museum depot in Acton, Tim meets a poet who has had her work chosen to appear as part of the ‘Poems on the Underground’ series.

Explore South Kentish Town a station once on the Northern line,but abandoned more than a century ago. Tube trains still run through it, creating an eerie atmosphere and the spookiest sound they’ve ever heard in a tube station. They explore the disused passageways, reveal the ventilation shafts still working to keep air circulating on the Northern Line today, and tell the story of the passenger once stranded at the station after getting off a train by mistake. At a secret location somewhere in zone 1, Siddy gets a behind the scenes tour of the London Underground Control Centre. It’s the hi-tech mothership of the entire network, sitting in an enormous control room, running operations, power, policing and track access from one central hub. It includes a huge multi-screen display, which can show simultaneous live feeds from any of the 12,000 CCTV cameras on the underground. Tim meets one of the underground’s buskers to hear the secrets to her craft

Tim and Siddy go under the platforms of Paddington station. It has five different tube lines running through it, with its oldest and newest lines opening 150 years apart. Tim explores a tunnel still in use under the mainline station, but with intriguing clues as to its original purpose. Siddy discovers some former police cells underneath the platforms, and unearths what remains of the luggage carousels from when passengers on the Heathrow Express were allowed to check-in their luggage in the main station. At Tottenham Court Road, Siddy reveals the huge changes to the station to accommodate the Elizabeth line, and tells the story of how the station’s iconic mosaic artwork was preserved during the works. She also takes us behind a locked door to uncover a floodgate installed as part of Britain’s Cold War defences. Back at our Museum depot in Acton, Tim meets a young tube driver who’s built up a large following on social media for her posts showing behind the scenes of her job.