Hidden London - Shepherd’s Bush: Suburbs to the City...

Yesterday Andy and I took the Hidden London tour Shepherd’s Bush: Suburbs to the City in, under and around London's glitzy Shepherd’s Bush station.

 

During the tour we explored the 'wonders' of Shepherd’s Bush station which opened in 1900 as the Western terminus of the brand-new Central London Railway (CLR).

 

The CLR was pioneering as it cut through the centre of London and provided a transport link between London’s Western suburbs and the City of London. From Shepherd’s Bush, passengers could catch a tram to take them even further on one ticket, making it West London’s most important transport hub in the early 20th century. One train every 5 minutes it was popular from the get-go.

 

The station has gone through several upgrades and renovations in the past 122 years, so much so that today it is almost unrecognisable from the original. But behind closed doors and grilles, the old station corridors and lift shafts are still there, waiting to be explored.

 

So, we got to visit one of the best examples of the original Central line design features, learned about the line’s history as the third deep Tube railway to be built in London, and saw the brilliant engineering behind cooling the famously warm (and smelly) line. And how those same passageways were used in unexpected ways 80 years ago (spoiler: as bomb shelters.)

 

Great fun. Not quite as good as the Down St or Clapham ones, but still good.