This spring and summer, enjoy a unique London experience by exploring secret and ‘forgotten’ locations on the Underground network with London Transport Museum’s award-winning Hidden London tours.

Tickets are now available for April to August 2023 dates, giving ticketholders an exclusive chance to step behind closed doors and explore the locations where London Underground’s history all took place. Hidden London guided tours are the only ones in the city that grant guests access to these locations, which are usually off limits to the public.

Nine in-person tours will be on offer, including tours of Kingsway tram tunnel for the first time since July 2022; Aldwych’s ‘abandoned’ ticket halls, original lifts and tunnels; Moorgate’s maze of tunnels and complete Greathead shield; Piccadilly Circus’s secret Edwardian features, and the disused Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross.

Also on offer will be tours of the original 19th century passageways and features at Shepherd’s Bush, the bomb-proof wartime corridors concealed at the now disused Down Street station on the Piccadilly line, Euston’s secret 1960s gallery of advertising posters; and the labyrinth of underground passages hidden deep beneath Clapham South built to shelter Londoners during the Second World War.

There will be a busy programme of nine virtual tours available, which will explore disused stations such as York Road and Brompton Road and modern Elizabeth line stations Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street among others.

The museum’s newest virtual tour, ‘Hidden London: Discovering the Forgotten Underground,’ which forms part of the museum’s Tube 160 celebrations and covers the history of the network, will also extend its run until 15 August.

There are new dates for London Transport Museum’s Secrets of Central London walking tour of Covent Garden, Kingsway, Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Victoria Embankment. On this tour, expert Hidden London guides reveal fascinating and little-known historical tales and titbits about the area and its transformation over the last 200 years.

All Hidden London tours were written by historical experts from London Transport Museum and based on content drawn from the Museum’s extensive archive and collection. They were named ‘Best Hidden Gem in the World’ at the Tiqets’ Remarkable Venue Awards 2022 by public vote.

Fans who can’t get enough Hidden London content can subscribe to the Hidden London Hangouts, a regular series hosted on London Transport Museum’s YouTube channel by team members Chris Nix, Siddy Holloway and Laura Brown, and joined by broadcaster and self-confessed Tube geek Alex Grundon.

The series takes viewers behind the scenes of the Hidden London tours programme as they explore various parts of the London transport system and share findings from their research. A new season of episodes will be released in the spring, available for free on London Transport Museum’s YouTube channel.

In person Hidden London tour details and ticket information:

Aldwych: The end of the line

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Opened to the public in 1907, Aldwych was never as heavily used as originally intended and closed nearly 100 years later in 1994. The station has had a varied history; from providing shelter to Londoners during the Blitz, to being used for film and TV shoots including The ABC Murders (2018), Darkest Hour (2017), Sherlock (2014), and Atonement (2007). Explore the original ticket hall and lifts and discover abandoned platforms and inter-connecting walkways.

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 10 May and 11 June

Tickets: Adult tickets £44; Concession £39

Piccadilly Circus: The Heart of London

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*
Piccadilly Circus was London’s busiest station throughout the roaring twenties and the flagship of Frank Pick’s Underground. Behind secret doors you’ll see deserted passageways, original Edwardian design features and lift shafts, and you will learn about the successive layers of renovations that were undertaken to adjust to Londoners’ needs over the last century.

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 29 March and 08 May; Wednesday to Sunday between 19 July and 20 August

Tickets: Adult tickets £44 / Concession £39

Kingsway tram tunnel: Linking up London

The Kingsway Tram Subway was once the most important stretch of tram track in London, linking together the extensive tram networks of north and south London. In 1952, this unique part of the Capital’s transport network closed, but surprisingly more than half of the subway still exists, complete with original features. This tour takes you on a journey through the history of the remaining tunnels and the former Holborn tram station, revealing how it served London.
Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 07 May and 16 July
Tickets: Adult £49.00; Concession £45.00

Shepherd’s Bush: Suburbs to the City
Relive the days when this West London station was one of the busiest on the network, as the original western terminus of the Central London Railway (today’s Central line). You’ll learn how the station has transformed over the years since its opening in 1900, how a then new ticketing system became an ancestor to our present-day Oyster card; and see original Central line design features that remain frozen in time.

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 14 June and 23 July

Tickets: Adult £44, Concessions £39

Clapham South: Subterranean Shelter

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*
Step back in time to the dark days of the Second World War and discover how south Londoners found refuge in this deep-level shelter during the blitz. This secret labyrinth of underground passages was built to accommodate over 8,000 people, and came complete with several canteens, medical stations and sleeping quarters. The first Caribbean migrants also temporarily lived there after having arrived on the HMT Empire Windrush, making it their first home in Britain.

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 29 March to 30 April

Tickets: Adult £37, Concessions £32

Moorgate: Metropolitan Maze

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

On this tour you will relive the early days of the Tube’s construction when the first tunnels were dug, and discover Moorgate’s original glass tiles, abandoned tracks and even a complete Greathead shield from 1904 still in situ (the only one of its kind on the London Underground Network).

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 05 April and 15 May; Wednesday to Sunday between 23 and 27 August
Tickets: Adult tickets £52.50 / Concession £47.50

Down Street: Churchill’s Secret Station

Enjoy access into one of London’s most intriguing spaces, hidden between the Piccadilly line tracks in Mayfair. Down Street had a short life as a working station from 1907 to 1932 but became critical to winning the Second World War when covertly transformed into the Railway Executive Committee’s bomb-proof headquarters. You can experience the warren of narrow tunnels where the nation’s railways were coordinated, and where Prime Minister Winston Churchill secretly took refuge at the height of the Blitz.

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 30 July and 27 August
Tickets: Adult tickets £90 / Concession £85

Charing Cross: Access all areas

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Walk under Trafalgar Square as you explore exclusive areas of Charing Cross station that are not accessible to the public. This tour will take you to disused parts of the station, including the Jubilee line platforms that were closed in 1999 but which you may recognise from many famous movies and TV productions since, including Skyfall (2012), Paddington Bear (2013), and TV’s Killing Eve (2019) and A Spy Among Friends (2022).

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 05 July and 13 August

Tickets: Adult £44, Concessions £39

Euston: The Lost Tunnels

*As seen on UKTV’s Secrets of the London Underground series*

Discover a labyrinth of dark and dusty passageways once used by the travelling public, marvel at a gallery of preserved vintage advertising poster fragments that have been concealed for over 50 years and see the iconic Leslie Green station. Plus learn about the newest innovations to a Tube and Network Rail station that serves over 42 million passengers each year.

Dates: Wednesday to Sunday between 29 March and 02 April; Wednesday to Sunday between 17 May and 02 July
Tickets: Adult £44, Concessions £39

Virtual Hidden London tour details and ticket information

Join a Hidden London virtual tour from anywhere in the world via Zoom to get up close to out-of-bounds areas on the capital’s transport network.
Tickets: Adult £20, Concession £17.50. Visit www.ltmuseum.co.uk/hidden-london for individual tour dates and details.

Hidden London: Discovering the Forgotten Underground

This new Hidden London tour takes you on a journey through 160 years of the London Underground’s history to explores how the network grew and evolved over the years. Along the way you will discover how some stations came to become ‘forgotten,’ disused, and even sometimes repurposed in surprising manners.

Featuring exclusive documents and a gallery of historical and contemporary photos from London Transport Museum’s archives, this tour delves into the history of several Hidden London sites, and even glimpses into previously unexplored areas of Oxford Circus.

Dates: Selected Mondays and Tuesdays evenings between 18 April and 15 August

Tickets: Adult £20, Concession £17.50

To book visit www.ltmuseum.co.uk/hidden-london