It’s not often realised that Aldwych station was originally intended to be the southern terminus of the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR) serving the West End and theatreland. This line was planned by the mainline Great Northern Railway at the very end of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901) to relieve pressure on its suburban passenger services running north out of King’s Cross station. Hence it was designed and equipped to be a busy station.
However financial problems coupled with entrepreneurial interests from the USA conspired to make it the sleepy terminus of a Piccadilly line shuttle service from nearby Holborn station. Never busy, the station was not completed at opening in November 1907 and started closing down again only ten years after.
Aldwych station clung on to life almost to the end of the 20th century, mostly thanks to a number of unrealised plans to extend the line further south under the Thames, serving Waterloo station and beyond, not to mention its inclusion in the aborted Fleet line proposals of the 1970s.
It finally succumbed in 1994 due to a lack of patronage. However, it was given a new lease of life in the 21st Century as a location for filming and TV shoots including Killing Eve (2019), Darkest Hour (2017), Sherlock (2014), and Atonement (2007).
With our new virtual tour of Aldwych you can discover the rich history of this station and virtually explore areas that aren’t accessible in person such as the ladies toilets, retaining original features that have since disappeared in modern Underground stations, and the upper ticket hall with its original ticket windows and telephone booths, dating back to 1907.
Virtual tours of Aldwych station run from 13 February until the end of March 2021. Tickets for this and other Hidden London sites are available to book here.
