Abandoned Euston Tour

As one of Tom's Christmas presents, I'd booked a Hidden London tour of the disused tunnels underneath Euston station.

We met outside the old red-brick station on Melton Street where we were given Hidden London vests to wear.

The tour started in the old lift shaft inside the station, which has been transformed into a fan room with a massive noisy fan used to ventilate the underground.

The station was closed in 1914 and you could still see some of the original tiling and plaster work on the walls.

We then made our way over to Euston station and headed down into the underground.

We made our way to the end of platform six on the Bank branch of the southbound Northern Line, where a small door was unlocked so we could make our way into the disused tunnels.

From this point onwards, the tunnels got very very dirty.

There was some interesting graffiti scratched into the dirt, especially this Hippy From Hell drawing.

We were on a photography tour, so after a quick guided tour, everyone was split into groups of two with a guide and left alone to explore one of six different areas.

We started in one of the passenger tunnels, which had been closed in the 1960s and was now being used for storage for tools and supplies.

It was fun looking in all the supply crates for the bits of track we recognised.

It was eerie how similar the tunnels felt to the station today, however they were filled with vintage posters from when the tunnel closed in the 1960s.

There were amazing posters for old shops, movies that were out at the time that we'd consider classics today, and vintage adverts for the underground.

It was funny to see that some of the posters had been graffitied.

Because we were in such a small group, we got to go through locked doors and venture into small unlit rooms that tours don't usually get to go in.

We then made our way into the lift shaft, which was a huge towering space.

The lifts had been removed and all that remained was a ladder that I would have been terrifyed to have to climb.

We then made our way through even more tunnels filled with cables.

Eventually we ended up in the ventilation shafts which were large tunnels similar to the tube tunnels.

This was my favourite area of the tour because it felt like walking along the tracks.

We then entered a tunnel directly over the platform with vents we could look down and onto the station.

It was fun looking down on the passengers as they waited for their trains.

The tunnel would get really hot when the train arrived at the platform below and then really cold when it left.

The final area of the tour was a passenger tunnel connecting two different railway companies.

This area featured some of the coolest and strangest vintage posters.

This advert was for Theosophy, a religious movement formed in 1875. Our guide pointed out the groups logo in the corner which combined as many religious symbols as possible.

Tom pointed out that this was one of the most important posters, announcing the redevelopment of Euston station, just before this tunnel closed.

As the underground used to be run by two separate companies, passengers would have to buy a ticket to switch trains, so there was an underground ticket office halfway along the tunnel.

It must have been quite a strange job working in a dark ticket office in an underground tunnel all day.

After two and a half hours exploring the underground, it was time to head up into the daylight.

Back on the platform, we could see the grates that we were behind looking down on the passengers below. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at them from now on without thinking I'm being watched.