Haunted London Underground

by David Brandon

  6

  DEFUNCT UNDERGROUND STATIONS

  On the Underground system between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. the current is switched off and an army of maintenance workers descend on the system to ensure that the next day’s services will be punctual and safe. The safety record and quality of service is evidence of what a good job these hidden and unsung heroes do.

  However, in the labyrinth of tunnels, platforms, stairways, passages, sidings and shunting necks that make up the system, can we be sure that there are not other creatures of the night? Rats galore there are of course, but could there be other entities, living or some perhaps deceased, that become active when the last passengers have been excluded for the night? Many stations have tunnels and passages that are sealed off from public use. What creatures may lurk in them?

  Even more propitious for hauntings by who-knows-what are the closed stations on the system. There is evidence of several of these at street level while some traces of former platforms can be seen by those with a quick eye who know where to look. Among former stations with substantial remaining evidence at street level are Aldwych, York Road, South Kentish Town and Brompton Road. Just visible from passing trains are parts of such stations as St Mary’s (Whitechapel Road), York Road, British Museum and City Road.

  Perhaps the most fascinating closed station is one that never opened. This was the putative ‘North End’ which has come to be thought of as ‘Bull and Bush’. It would have been on what became the Northern Line, breaking up the lengthy section between Golders Green and Hampstead. There was little housing close by when the line was mooted and, by the time trains were running in 1907, it had been decided not to proceed with the development of North End Station although the platforms and a few associated passages had been built. There was no access to the surface.

  North End was an extremely deep station and it was used during the Second World War for the safe storage of vital archives. The only way to get to refer to this material when necessary was to make an arrangement for the archivist to travel in the cab with the driver who would then let him off at the uncompleted platform at North End. The feelings of this person as the lighted train from which he had just stepped rushed away into the tunnel can well be imagined. There were rudimentary lights but, except when trains approached and passed, there was a pervasive, tangible and absolute cold silence and loneliness. However, it would have been too easy to start imagining that they were not after all entirely alone and that slimy things were crawling with slimy legs towards them, full of malign intent. The hours must have weighed heavily. What would have happened to the poor archivist if the instructions had been misunderstood and the appointed hour passed and no train stopped to pick him up?

  York Road Station.

  7

  ‘GHOST’ STEAM TRAINS

  The last standard gauge steam locomotives were withdrawn from British Railways in August 1968. Steam-hauled passenger trains on the Metropolitan Line had ended in 1961 but London Transport had, for a long time, used a small fleet of steam locomotives on engineers’ and various other departmental trains on the sub-surface lines. Three steam duties continued until June 1971. They were all based at London Transport’s Lillie Bridge depot near Earl’s Court. One ran during daylight hours to Acton Yard while the others were nocturnal return trips to Neasden via Rayners Lane and Upminster via the District Line through Victoria, Whitechapel and Barking. The locomotives concerned were ex-Great Western Railway pannier tanks of a class originally introduced in 1929. Typically London Transport kept them in a very smart condition. These departmental trains had always been rather shy and secretive, many of them operating at night when the passenger trains had stopped running.

  The ending of mainline steam trains had received extensive coverage in the media of the time but no sooner had this happened than stories started circulating that there were ghost trains on the London Underground! The unmistakeable sound and smell of steam locomotives at work in the witching hours, the occasional mournful whistle and the trails of smoke they made, emanating from parts of the system open to the elements but often hidden from view behind hoardings and below street level, all came together to create a new piece of London folklore. Ghostly steam trains were at large on the Underground!

  The fact that similar departmental workings had been taking place for decades was conveniently ignored. These steam locomotives had been puffing around on such largely nocturnal and unglamorous duties for years, largely unnoticed or not remarked about. However, hadn’t the media told everyone that steam locomotives were a thing of the past? Therefore they must be ghosts!

  Every so often since the 1970s there have been reports of a ghostly steam locomotive which manifests itself on the Northern Line between East Finchley Station and the nearby Wellington Sidings.

  GIPSY HILL TO CRYSTAL PALACE

  The stretch of line between Gipsy Hill and Crystal Palace belonged to the West End of London & Crystal Palace Railway Co., but it was operated from its opening in 1856 by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway and eventually subsumed within the latter’s system.

  This part of south London is very hilly and between the two stations the line runs through Crystal Palace Tunnel. This tunnel is reputed to be haunted. Many years ago a track-maintenance worker was run down and killed by a train in the tunnel. He was decapitated in the process. His ghost has been seen on many occasions wandering disconsolately around the tunnel apparently engaged in the search for its missing head. Unfortunately those who have witnessed the ghost’s underground peregrinations have omitted to say whether or not the ghost appeared to be headless.

  HADLEY WOOD TUNNEL

  Hadley Wood is in the leafy and undulating area north of New Barnet. It has a station on the East Coast Main Line served only by suburban trains. The line opened in 1850 but the few inhabitants of what was then a scattered rural community had to wait until 1885 before the then Great Northern Railway provided a station. This was built largely in anticipation that the station would attract house building nearby as they so often did.

  The station is in a cutting and between tunnels. For a time the double track through Hadley Wood had been a considerable bottleneck, and eventually, in 1959, the line at this point was quadrupled. The tunnels go by the simple names of Hadley Wood North and Hadley Wood South.

  Some people believe that Hadley Wood South Tunnel is haunted by a ghostly diesel locomotive. This is D9020, later known as No. 55020 and named Nimbus after a classic racehorse. The Deltics were hated at first by railway enthusiasts as this class of twenty-two locomotives replaced fifty-five steam locomotives including many magnificent Gresley Pacifics. In time, however, even many of the most hardened steam buffs came to admire the ‘Deltics’. They packed a real punch, having two 18-cylinder Napier engines and they used to tear up and down the East Coast Main Line on the heaviest and fastest expresses.

  Nimbus was withdrawn from traffic around 1980 but, if the stories are to be believed, it could not bear to leave the East Coast Main Line. The authors have been unable to ascertain whether it has been seen moving or simply lurking in the tunnel. Enthusiasts will remember the characteristic roar that these locomotives made especially when accelerating from a stand. A tunnel haunted by one of these locomotives making that roar would satisfy even the most demanding railway ghost hunter.

  HOLBORN TO CHANCERY LANE

  The Central London Railway opened in 1900. In the 1960s and 1970s many motormen dreaded being held up by signals on the section between these two stations. This is not surprising given that many of these workers, by no means the most fanciful people in the world, reported that when their trains drew to a halt at adverse signals, they would suddenly become aware that, in the partial light shed by the carriage lights behind them, they were sharing the driving cab with an uninvited guest. This indistinct figure was apparently staring fixedly ahead through the cab’s front windows and standing just a foot or two away from them. As soon as the train moved off when the signals changed, the figure vanished.


  Whatever it was, this phenomenon was sufficiently threatening for a number of motormen to travel as slowly as possible between the two stations, anxiously hoping that by doing so, they would not have to stop for signals.

  KINGSWAY TRAM TUNNEL

  Kingsway was conceived in the 1900s in conjunction with New Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road as one of a tranche of new roads built to ease congestion and to help to eliminate some of London’s most notorious slum areas often referred to as ‘criminal rookeries’. Kingsway opened in 1905 and the Kingsway Tram Tunnel in 1906. It was extended to the Victoria Embankment in 1908 and acted as a link between the north and south London tram systems. At first it was used only by single-deck trams but it was enlarged in 1931 after which double-deckers could operate through it. Three tram routes ran through the tunnel between Embankment and Theobalds Road. Londoners affectionately referred to the Kingsway Tram Tunnel as ‘The Spout’. Part of the northern exit to the tunnel was on a gradient of 1 in 10 and this provided a stern test for the skills of the tram driver and his vehicle’s traction motors.

  The tunnel had two intermediate tram stations at Holborn and Aldwych. These were immensely atmospheric places, not very far below ground. They had white tiled walls to reflect and maximise the light and were something like a combination of a tube and a sub-surface underground station while yet being distinctly different. In the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s London was still afflicted by ‘pea-souper’ smogs and the almost tangible murk that resulted permeated easily into these stations, filling them with an almost impenetrable air of eerie mystery. Between the arrival and departure of the trams, the smog rendered the stations extraordinarily quiet given their location in the heart of the Metropolis. The silence was only broken by the hiss of the enormous gas lamps which provided the illumination, which under the conditions gave off a fuzzy glow.

  The favourite uncle of one of the authors used the Aldwych Tram Station on a regular daily basis. He was a great fan of Surrey County Cricket Club and spent many happy hours watching his heroes at the Oval. There he struck up a close friendship with another cricket fan, a milkman who had moved to London from recession-hit South Wales in the 1930s. They both lived in London but in districts some distance apart and they renewed their friendship at the beginning of each cricket season.

  Going to work one morning in the winter, he was at Aldwych Tram Station when he was surprised to see his old friend coming down the platform towards him with what he described as ‘a fixed expression’ on his face. He stepped forward to greet him only for his friend to pass him by with no sign of recognition. He was puzzled and not a little put out. Next day exactly the same thing happened. The uncle was quite hurt – it was just not like his friend because he always had a cheery word for everyone. However, he was already late for work and had to hurry on. When he got home, a letter was waiting for him. It was from his friend’s widow. It described how he had been knocked down and killed by a tram on another part of the system the day before he made the first of his two appearances at Aldwych Tram Station.

  Surviving tram lines at the northern end of Kingsway Tram Tunnel. Remarkable survivors given that trams stopped running in 1952!

  The last trams ran in London in April 1952 and obviously the Kingsway Tram Tunnel closed. In 1964 part of it was converted into a traffic underpass. The rest of the tunnel is still there. In recent years Transport for London has considered restoring trams to the streets of the capital but has apparently ruled out reusing the Kingsway Tram Tunnel for this purpose.

  LONDON ROAD DEPOT

  Few of the travelling public know of the existence of the London Road depot of the Bakerloo Line. It stands near to St George’s Circus in the Lambeth district south of the Thames. It was originally the engineering works for the Bakerloo Line rolling stock as well as being the line’s major stabling point. It opened when the Bakerloo Line services started early in March 1906. It is hidden away from prying eyes below street level but is open to the elements. Its access to the Bakerloo main line is through a single-line tube tunnel close to Lambeth North station. The depot remains in use for stabling rolling stock.

  Bakerloo line staff have provided many reports of strange noises and unexplained appearances around the depot and most especially in the connecting tunnel. In the sidings in the small hours of the morning repeated metallic-sounding tapping noises have been heard as if an old-fashioned wheeltapper was at work. This has happened on innumerable occasions at times when no maintenance work was being done on the carriages. More disturbing have been the shadowy figures seen passing hither and thither in the sidings and often disappearing into the entrance tunnel. Witnesses have never managed to get a good look at them – the apparitions keep their distance and have been described as ‘blurred round the edges’. The appearance of these figures is apparently more disconcerting and puzzling than actually menacing. Was there a burial pit in the vicinity which was disturbed when the Bakerloo Line was built?

  Another apparition in the area is that of a nun. She is thought to have been connected with a nearby convent school.

  London Road depot of the Bakerloo Line.

  Greenford Station. Between here and Northolt on the Central Line, sightings of a large puma-like creature have been reported.

  NORTHOLT TO GREENFORD

  In the 1990s there were reports that a puma or, even more extraordinarily, the ghost of a puma had been seen on the Central Line between Northolt and Greenford. This section of the line runs on the surface.

  Over the years and from many parts of Britain there have been significant numbers of reported sightings of ‘big’ cats. Few people have been prepared to say they think they saw such an exotic beast as a tiger or a lion and it is either natural modesty or the desire not to look totally stupid that has probably accounted for many of the sightings being described as more like a creature of puma size. That’s still a pretty big cat.

  On occasion big cats have escaped from captivity in this country but it is extremely unlikely that they would last long without being detected and recaptured or killed, especially in the intensely urbanised environs of London. In the case of the Central Line puma, we would have to say that if such a creature had managed to get onto the line, it would almost certainly have been electrocuted and killed within minutes when it touched the conductor rails. For that reason the ghost of a puma haunting the line in this vicinity is possibly somewhat more plausible than a real living puma.

  VICTORIA TO PIMLICO

  During the building of the Victoria Line southwards from Victoria towards Brixton, an extension which opened in 1971, what was described as a ‘large black presence’ was seen between Victoria and Pimlico. Explained by the ‘experts’ as being a mist caused by changes in air pressure in the humid atmosphere of the subterranean workings, whatever it actually was proved sufficiently menacing to cause two of the tunnelling workers to drop their tools and rush away, swearing never to have anything more to do with building tube lines under London.

  WATFORD TUNNEL

  Between the present-day Watford Junction and King’s Langley Stations on the West Coast Main Line are the Watford tunnels. One accommodates trains on the up and down fast lines; the slow lines run through the other. The line through the tunnels was opened in 1837 by the London & Birmingham Railway.

  When the tunnels were being built, the workings unexpectedly penetrated part of a churchyard. Coffins were exposed and human remains in the form of bones rained down on the men engaged in the construction work, much to their horror. This desecration of the dead caused something of a scandal at the time.

  As far as railwaymen were concerned, it also put a jinx on the tunnel and this part of the line. A number of nasty blowbacks occurred on the footplates of steam locomotives working through the tunnels. A blowback is a blast of fire which bursts out of the firebox into the cab and usually happens when a steam locomotive enters a tunnel at some speed and the driver has omitted to take the necessary steps to prevent i
t. Blowbacks have been known to cause serious, even fatal injuries to the men on the footplate.

  Several of these blowbacks occurred, supposedly at the spot in the tunnel that was reckoned to be directly under the churchyard. It was easy, therefore, almost natural you might say, for the idea to emerge that the blowbacks were the work of the malevolent and indignant spirits of people whose remains had been disturbed during the building of the tunnels. This, of course, was their way of wreaking revenge on the living.

  There have been no reports of blowbacks in the Watford tunnels for many years. This is not surprising given that diesel and electric traction units have no fireboxes.

  8

  THE HAUNTED UNDERGROUND IN FILM, TELEVISION AND BOOKS

  SOUTH KENTISH TOWN

  In the short story, South Kentish Town, broadcast on BBC radio (9 January 1951), Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984) tells of a clerk who mistakenly gets off an Underground train when the doors accidentally open at a disused station. The train then drives off leaving the man standing there alone. Confused, he decides to climb the spiral staircase, all 294 steps. As he nears the top he bangs his head on the floorboards of one of the shops above the station. He calls out but no one hears him. The man then descends back down to the platform.

  It is a wonderful eerie story and is well worth the read. It evokes a terrifying feeling of being trapped as well as the fear of not knowing how to escape from an awful predicament. Reputedly based on a true account of a man who alighted on South Kentish Town Station in 1924, shortly after it was closed (although he quickly got back onto the train), the story reflects the way in which the London Underground has proved to be a fertile location for atmospheric and supernatural settings. Betjeman’s tale taps into our fears of the dark and of being alone with untold possibilities of nasty things lurking, particularly in the bowels of this labyrinthine network.