Secret Staircase at London Tube Station Leads to Abandoned WWII Tunnels

Some people know about a secret entrance. It leads to a staircase going underground. This staircase spirals very deep. The bottom reveals dark, long tunnels. Each tunnel is sixteen feet tall, and they stretch for four hundred metres. These were World War Two shelters, used by Londoners during Nazi air raids.

The government ordered these shelters during the Blitz. Workers finished them in eighteen months. These opened to the public in 1944, when the V-1 flying bomb arrived. The tunnels held eight thousand people each night. They included bunk beds stacked three high, as well as canteens, a clinic, and toilets.

Seven shelters were under Northern line stations. One shelter existed under Chancery Lane station. London Transport built all of them. This company eventually became Transport for London (TfL). TfL hoped to use some tunnels after the war.

They considered linking all shelters to create a new express Tube line. It would run under the Northern line route. The trains would be bigger with fewer stops. This plan never happened. You can visit Clapham South’s shelters via the London Transport Museum tour.

Actors in warden uniforms guide guests, sharing the tunnels’ history from their building to today. The 1940s ads called them “luxury tunnels,” claiming they had “comfortable canteens.” Now, the tunnels feel scary and closed-in as Northern line trains rumble overhead.

It’s hard to imagine them as “homely.” People crowded in, terrified, sixty years ago. Cigarette smoke filled the tunnels. Many had no other choice but to shelter, as bombs destroyed their homes.

Margaret Barford was one such Londoner. A bomb flattened her house when she was ten years old. For two years, she lived at Clapham South, alongside others affected by the war. Despite tough times, Margaret remembers it fondly.

“I had a wonderful time,” she said in a recording. “I made friends.” She said, “We used to rush up and down the tunnels.” Sharing the experience made people equal, from rich to poor. Kindness was common, War produced that, she noted.

After the war, the tunnels became cheap lodging. Lodging cost three shillings nightly, about £4 currently. People from the Caribbean stayed there, part of the Windrush Generation.

In 1956, a fire happened at Goodge Street station. The government decided to close the tunnels. Now, they mainly store archives. Clapham Common’s tunnels once held a hydroponics farm. The “Hidden London” tour has new dates with tickets costing £38 each.