The biggest losers
the London Underground network – some in the most expensive parts of the capital, such as Mayfair – and have been frozen in time. There are 49, some are overground and many are minor.
But the main ones have buildings above ground – often with characteristic burgundy-glazed tiled frontages from the early 1900s – while others have only underground structures. Piccadilly 1907 1932
Second World War history attraction. The station played a key role in the war effort. Served as the protected underground headquarters for the Railway Executive Committee throughout the war and is thought to have been used by Churchill and the War Cabinet while the Cabinet War Rooms were being prepared. Part of it is now a retail outlet.
YORK ROAD Tube line: Opened:
Piccadilly 1906 Some parts of the “ghost network” can only be glimpsed as bricked-up, dusty platforms by Tube passengers aboard moving trains. Many of the stations were closed due to low levels of passenger usage rendering them uneconomical.
Others became redundant after lines were re-routed or replacements were constructed. The remainder were planned as parts of new lines or extensions but were later abandoned. Many are still owned by TfL, others have been sold.
Mr Chambers began working on a scheme in 2009 to re-open redundant stations as tourist attractions, retail space, bars, restaurants and venues for live music and events.
He said he worked directly with then Mayor Mr Johnson presenting his detailed costed plan to TfL’s Graeme Craig showing how to make £200 million by turning the many disused stations into tourist attractions that could operate out of hours because they were underground.
In May 2015, the scheme was finally opened to tender by TfL, which published
Closed: Potential use:
1932
HIGHBURY AND ISLINGTON (OLD STATION) Line: Opened: Closed: Potential use:
1872 1968
space and retail
STOCKWELL DEEP-LEVEL AIR RAID-SHELTER Opened: Closed: Line:
1942
1944
Adjacent to 1960s Victoria line station Entertainment
Potential use:
a glossy brochure advertising one of the ghost stations, Mayfair’s Down Street, as “an extraordinary world of unexplored and untapped potential, right beneath the surface of the most diverse, vibrant and exciting city in the world”. Mr Chambers’s venture, The Old London Underground Company, submitted a bid to develop the station but to his shock,