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Introduction

In a leafy suburban corner of north London, 39 metres below ground, remains the abandoned tunnels of an Underground station that has lain incomplete for over a century. A non-descript surface-level building, which could easily pass as an uninteresting electrical sub-station, is actually the way down to what exists of the abandoned North End station. While this site, in between Hampstead and Golders Green, never had a life as an operational station, it did fulfil an intriguing purpose at the height of the Cold War.

Incomplete

In the first years of the twentieth century, the Underground network was rapidly expanding, fuelling the growth of many of London’s suburbs. In 1903, the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR), later to be part of the Northern line, began work on constructing a station to be known as North End. To transport staff, both then and now, it is often referred to as ‘Bull & Bush’ after a pub a quarter of a mile away. The new station was to be positioned on the line between Hampstead and Golders Green stations in an area of largely open farmland that was anticipated as being ripe for suburban housing. 

However, in 1904 a larger area of land nearby was sold to the Hampstead Heath Extension Council. While this conservation group were happy for a station to be constructed, giving better access for visitors to Hampstead Heath, this now meant a lack of local housing and much reduced commercial potential for the CCE&HR. In 1906 the company opted to abandon construction, despite much of the lower level elements having been built. The wider surface level site was sold for residential use in 1927.

Re-use

For over 40 years, North End was largely cut off from the outside world. But in the 1950s, access from the surface was finally provided for secretive purposes. A spiral staircase of 197 steps was installed to give access to a floodgate control room connected to the abandoned station construction below, which would have become operational in the event of a nuclear attack. A small manual lift was also constructed, stopping short of the surface, where staff had to ascend stairs to the exit.

2021/137 Photo of stairway leading to North End floodgates control room, by Toby Madden, November 2018.jpg

This floodgate control room was part of a network on the Underground designed to prevent the flooding of stations in central London, near the River Thames, in the event of a nuclear attack in the Cold War. This network had first been added amid the regular air raids of the Second World War.

2021-139 photo of remains of floodgates control room at North End, by Toby Madden, November 2018

Abandoned

Today North End remains an eerie and atmospheric abandoned space, populated only by London Underground staff and, very occasionally, London Transport Museum curators. The only visible indication of where North End station was intended to stand is a platform-width gap beside the track. As passengers rumble by on Northern line trains between Hampstead and Golders Green, very few realise that the shadowy tunnels they pass through had a hidden Cold War history.

2021-138: Photo of passenger walkway at unfinished North End station, by Toby Madden, November 2018

The story of North End’s use in the 1940s and 1950s features in the Hidden London exhibition. It also features in episode two of the television documentary The Secrets of the London Underground.

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