The Strand 'ex-Underground' station - Piccadilly Line

[filipblazevski]

On YouTube search type the secret station and there is a documentary about this station. It is very interesting much watch!!!!

[Shuttlefield]

Strand station that was on the Northern Line closed in 1976 I believe and was combined with Trafalgar Square on the Bakerloo to become the new Charing Cross. I am lucky enough to have one of the original station platform roundels from Strand station too that has a good place on the wall in my kitchen!

[JackBarnett21]

@Shuttlefield Wow - that is very impressive.

[bakedbeanishdragon]

thats aldwych on the piccadilly line. it was it opened as strand and was renamed aldwych

[JackBarnett21]

@bakedbeanishdragon Excellent - thank you.

[Cookycookcook]

you're not sure which line it was on? 0:20 einstein... :S

[JackBarnett21]

@Cookycookcook When it comes to the lines going and coming out of Charing Cross it is difficult to be certain which ones went where. Now obviously if you had an old underground map you could tell then - someone has said Piccadilly Line. Ok. I'll take that. But with the Central, Piccadilly, Northern, Jubilee and District going around this area it is not difficult to be uncertain. Thank you for your interest.

[Markjuk]

i thought there are plans to reopen this station if the DLR gets extended to the old Jubilee line platform at Charing Cross? Granted it isn't likely to happen until 2025 at the earliest!

[JackBarnett21]

@Markjuk Wow!

[TimBrown59]

This was a branch off of the PIccadilly line from Holborn & you should have gone around the other corner as the facade there is bigger!

[JackBarnett21]

@TimBrown59 Thank you Tim - i will make a point of going there and then linking that with this. best wishes

[grimobo]

god, i always traveled on the strand, central line was my line. sad

[slant40]

A waste of a good station. LUL should have kept it open, put in the new lifts and created a free transfer to Temple on the District/Circle lines.

[JackBarnett21]

Are there massive employers around here that need access for workers or venues that are much visited?

I just thought that this part of the Strand could be served by Charing Cross.

JackB21

[mick818522]

Hand in hand we'll conquer space

[JackBarnett21]

Thanks for the info.

[elbowlickerr]

go to 'subterranea britannica' website theres alot of info on aldwych station, with some cool photos aswell

[butiamthedoctor]

This was the station formerly known as Aldwych, which closed in 1997 due to the cost of having to replace the lifts. With the number of passengers that used it, there was no justification in spending that amount of money. Ironically, the run off tunnels from Charing Cross on the old Jubilee Line terminus, ran out as far as Aldwych, the plan was for the original route to go on to take over that station, then go on along Fleet Street, then out to Docklands , then to Lewisham.

[djb274]

actually it was closed in 1994

[butiamthedoctor]

I do believe I made a typo :)

[Bachsoboe]

@butiamthedoctor Aldwych closed on Friday 30th September 1994, same day as Ongar.

[butiamthedoctor]

@Bachsoboe As I stated 10 months ago, I do believe I made a typo!

[brianartillery]

@Bachsoboe

I had family members who lived in Ongar. The only things of interest I know about Ongar station are that it is home to a thriving colony of scorpions, and the station was the reference point for calculating mean distance to the centre of London, and thereby calculation of fares. Not far up the line from Ongar was Blake Hall station, possibly the least used station on the LU system. Average passenger numbers per day: 16. Little wonder it closed.

[Bachsoboe]

@brianartillery The colony of scorpions was put there by the station foreman as a practical joke. Yes, your right, distances on the Central line are still measured from Ongar, but this in no way is used to calculate fares. Blake Hall had an average of 6 people a day. Sometimes it was low as 2 people.

[raakone]

@butiamthedoctor It was 1994, not 1997. The same day that the Epping to Ongar branch closed (even if it was "attached", it was a branch as far as operations went), the Holborn and Aldwych branch did likewise.

[butiamthedoctor]

@raakone I refer you to the reply I made to Bachsoboe a month ago.

[raakone]

@butiamthedoctor Did not notice it, my bad! I apologize!

[raakone]

@butiamthedoctor Actually, it closed in 1994....the same day the Epping to Ongar branch of the Central line closed. Modernizing the lifts for so few people was deemed uneconomic. Had either the Jubilee line been extended here as planned, or the Picadilly branch been extended down to Waterloo, maybe it would still be open.

[butiamthedoctor]

@raakone You already pointed that out to me 3 months ago, after I'd already left a comment to correct my original post when someone else had pointed that out to me 5 months ago!

[butiamthedoctor]

@raakone You already pointed that out to me 3 months ago, after I'd already left a comment to correct my original post when someone else had pointed that out to me over a year ago!

[JackBarnett21]

I hadn't realised that, but i catch the Charing Cross overground trains regularly and so travel to Charing Cross (ex Trafalgar Square) and I can see what you mean.) Having to walk from TS to CX is a real bind underground and much better accomplished overground so long as you dont mind traffic dodging.

[elbowlickerr]

im sure you would of watched it but if you search aldwych theres a good video of the station before it closed, i think they did a most haunted episode down there aswell?

[WilburyVision]

Trafalgar Square was also a station until fairly recently wasn't it? I think it's now Charing Cross.

[butiamthedoctor]

Trafalgar Square was the Bakerloo Line platforms at Charing Cross, while Strand was the Northern Line ones, they got amalgamated into a new Charing Cross Tube station when the Jubilee Line was built in 1977. Embankment was Charing Cross station before then.

[funkg]

ive seen one of these abandoned stations on the brompton road

[freefink]

this was a branch line of the piccadilly line from holborn station, open only during the rush hour

[AppleOranges12]

There a hint on the top of the building which gives a clue of what line this was... "Piccadilly Rly" which was the abbreviated name for the "Great Northern Piccadilly & Brompton Railway" (GNP&BR) back in the old days before the London Passenger Transport Board took over the running of London's underground railways in the 1930's. Nowadays, this line is called the Piccadilly Line.

The original GNP&BR name can still be found on Holloway Road as well as Earl's court station buildings.

[ButlerHarperBlakey]

This is the Piccadilly one, later renamed 'Aldwych'.

[JackBarnett21]

apparently so.

[DeanieBoi07]

that's interesting, didn't know there was 2

[DeanieBoi07]

strand was on the Northern Line

[JackBarnett21]

This what they said in Wikopedia. "There have been two stations on the London Underground network called Strand station, both sites are located close to Strand.

The first was on the Piccadilly Line and opened as "Strand" in 1907. It was renamed Aldwych station in 1915. Aldwych tube station was closed in 1994 but the surface building can still be prominently seen.

The second station was on the Northern Line.

[JackBarnett21]

that is terrific - thank you very much.

jack