Hidden London Hangouts S2E10 - Trafalgar Square

[@davedee9350]

Great video guys. I remember travelling to Trafalgar Square on the Bakerloo line when I worked in the Admiralty in 1973 every day. Many many years later I saif to my wife we will pop over to to Trafalgar square and Ill show you wher I used to work only to find that I couldnt find the station on the tube map. How life changes.

[@srfurley]

Those lift doors with the cut-out flower designs in the metal panels are like the ones which used to exist in the long disused lifts at Broad Street station.

[@keithwebb658]

I remember the temporary 'umbrella' that was installed on the forcourt of Charing X in the early 70's. There was a ramp up in the corridors that led from the mainline concourse to the forcourt taxi rank which was on the umbrella. Little did I know what was going on under my feet at the time.

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

6:20 If only more UndergrounD station platforms looked like this. Not all, just a handful. It reminds me of parts of Maida Vale or indeed the stations either side. I hadn't been to Maida Vale for over a decade and had forgotten the clarity of vision allowing an appreciation of the architectural design of the end of the platforms: no ads, no apparatus, no beating them!

[@ianhelps3749]

Went on a school trip to the National Gallery in the early 1970s, and this involved a ride on the Tube to Trafalgar Square. The train would have been 1938 stock. At the time, there was no connection to Strand station. What is now Embankment station was called Charing Cross. So much has changed!

[@ljrigsbee]

It was truly a pleasure to see all of these hidden shafts!

[@alexgrundon2346]

I love your way with words.....

[@jimdarrell441]

So much great stuff in this episode! Thank you all so very much! Looking forward, as always, to the next one!

[@alexgrundon2346]

❤️

[@kangaroogroundboy]

Nice to see Charing Cross decorations, a carver mate of mine working at Westminster was the model for one of the stone carvers, he would frequently remind me... don't blame him, I'd feel pretty pleased too. Great videos, ever since I saw CSLR cast into the stair shaft segments at Old St I've been peering through grills on the Underground. Thanks guys

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

If you have run out of grilles to gawp through and other intriguing unlit and dusty passageways prohibited to the public, you _have_ to treat yourself to a tour or two (or ten). Worth every penny, I've just about exhausted my stock of superlatives because each one has had a good smattering of "What‽ / Oh my goodness! / That's unbelievable!" comment-enducing features. I suggest that you go with a fellow fan so that you can relive it all over a tankard or two afterwards. Glancing over an old plan or even an axonometric before you go can either help or ruin the surprise.

[@kangaroogroundboy]

@@JP_TaVeryMuch Agreed, definitely the tankards

[@alanthompson1806]

This was brilliant. I watched after being engrossed with the later edition on Kingsway Tram tunnel. Interesting, fun presenters. What a nice bit of relief.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Thank you SO much!

[@ApplianceHistorian]

Glorious to view those very early photos. And thank you for a very informative and entertaining hangout.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Thank you as always! For some reason when I saw your name I thought of the Russell Hobbs K2 x

[@ApplianceHistorian]

@@alexgrundon2346 🤓 A fine appliance!

[@djdubls]

Interesting about the different tiles in the lift corridors. I remember reading that originally one of the platforms had white glass tiles and the other had the coloured ceramic tiles too for the same reason.

[@PodgyAsthmatic]

Another great one guys, thanks.

[@unittaskforce]

Another great Hangout, thanks to you all for keeping us informed and entertained.

[@kevinreed9232]

Great episode love the noise in the background when you are all in the hidden tunnels. talking about haircuts I did not know another lockdown was happening until it happened.didn,t get the chance to have my hair cut.and won,t be able too, for a month at least. I will be looking like a hippie from the sixties. looking forward to next weeks episode. keep safe fantastic four.

[@longbranchmike7846]

Another awesome episode, cheers!

[@UndergroundEric]

Another excellent video guys. Lots of interesting stuff on here! :-) im so jel of the places you get to explore!

[@alexgrundon2346]

We are ever so lucky - and thank you for watching

[@nsholk]

Excellent episode. Well done bringing to life a station so many of us from afar know and have inevitably (but not like in a gloomy way) passed through. Our crew hotel was close by so it was always a no lose coin toss between jumping the tube at CC or Embankment.

[@stigroo9058]

thanks all-fwiw I was drinking a beer in celebration mode during this episode so will rematch later:)

[@ericadodd4735]

I’m loving rewatching these previous episodes. Does anyone know if the old bakerloo Trafalgar Square tiles exist behind the modern murals?

[@ianmcclavin]

Yes, they're still there. They've been covered over by the murals. Same at Embankment.

[@claudiocabraldias1153]

Great episode guys! Congrats ;)

[@mattkelly6463]

Shocked Alex didn't intro Chris' cat at the start. Tell us more please x

[@samanthaelmhurst8518]

Looking forward to another episode Where It's Warm And Bright...the company, the chat, the discoveries...

[@skyrules2007]

Caught up with this episode later in the week than normal, but it was another great episode. Charing Cross is certainly an interesting, but very complex, station, with a correspondingly interesting history. Feeling for you guys going back into lockdown in London, and facing winter, while here in Brisbane summer is making itself known and we have relatively few restrictions.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Yeah it’s pretty pants here to be honest. But the Hangouts are good for everyone as it gives us a focus and a smile. Hope you carry on enjoying them in the sunshine x

[@skyrules2007]

@@alexgrundon2346 we will. Just watched the Isle of Wight episode. Sadly the 1938 stock will be gone before we next visit the UK, when we’ll be in Southampton and would have been able to go over and go for a ride on it.

[@lmj9517]

and by the way, what's the main difference between getting to Embankment/Strand and Charing Cross/trafalgar Square?

[@1974cfjl]

The reason why one platform and lift passageway area tiled white and the other in Green, brown and cream is because When works started in 1898 by the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway it was intended to have all the station with White tiles the company ran out of money and works stopped in 1902 Trafalgar Square the northbound platform had been tiled, a year later when Charles Tyson Yerkes invested in the tube it was decided that all the tube stations would have its unique colour tiles on all the stations that the original section on the Bakerloo, Piccadilly and the Hampstead (now part of the Northern Line), it was decided to tile the southbound platform and the other yet to be tiled lift passageway in colour tiles and leave the northbound platform White.

[@SS-qo4xe]

First got to London in 1968. Was there not a pub underground at Trafalgar Square station

[@CharlieDanvers]

Ok but the imagery of the train opening by itself? On a dark empty tube station? Feels like the start of a spooky novel, like ive suddenly fallen into a gaiman story

[@marknewman8383]

Great episode and lovely to join in on the chat. Have been trying to work out exactly where the original ticket hall for Trafalgar square station was, I believe it was under what is now the traffic island just south of Trafalagar square. Is this right, and is it still in use? Or do passengers have to use the ticket hall at Charing Cross and walk the tunnels to the bakerloo platforms? Quite quite get my head around how it is all laid out now.

[@alexgrundon2346]

So I may be wrong and please correct me, lovely cheeky geeks, but having been to the station as it is now and visited the original lift shafts, they are capped off by the present Traf Sq escalators. If you can imagine, the lift landing would need to be vertically about a quarter way down the escalator. So I guess it’s feasible from the pics we showed the ticket hall could have been in a similar location but not exactly. Blimey this is very complicated to explain!

[@themistocleszammit]

One for Chris as I think he is your resident bus guy: in the top left of the shot of Trafalgar Square where the bomb hit, there is a bus - an St or an STL - which appear to have all its windows boarded up and/or painted white. I do know that during the war vehicles were pressed into service with the odd broken window boarded up but this looks like a more comprehensive effort. Any idea what this was? canteen? Uniform store?

[@alexgrundon2346]

Chris? Thoughts?

[@liamkenny6747]

@@alexgrundon2346 Hi Alex, me again... I wonder if it's this that covered the windows: www.flickr.com/photos/23875695@N06/6240723074/ A netting applied to bus windows, on the inside, to prevent glass flying around in case of blast damage. There was a little diamond shaped hole so the passengers could still see where they were. They also had to paint bus mudguards white and other stuff to be able to operate safer in the blackout of the war at night. I like the idea they did of painting a white circle on the back of motorbuses. This allowed the drivers of trolleybuses to know that they could overtake a motorbus without the risk of their bus becoming disconnected from the overhead wires. Everything was done with a purpose and kept very simple.

[@alexgrundon2346]

I love the fact between the team and our amazing viewers we tend to get answers to all questions!

[@jacksugden8190]

I remember the old Jubilee platforms from Green Park before the extension was built.

[@janetfryer4922]

Great episode - also loved the cartouche in the previous episode. Do you have an email address to which I can send some similar pics? I'm not on Instagram, thanks

[@robertward1701]

Evening everyone. Hope all is well?

[@mrcellophane99]

More videos of your cat please 😁

[@TheTimGowen]

I made the "Ten to seven" joke at the same moment as Alex

[@alexgrundon2346]

Schooling you cheeky geeks well, clearly! So good to have your support

[@alexmckenna1171]

I'm sure there used to be one or two other subway entrances to the station, further away from Charing Cross. Was one at Cockspur Street?

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

Mentioned at the beginning when showing the booking hall photos.

[@CLechleitner42]

Aother great episode, Thanks! One question though: You've mentionend several Instagram accounts. Could you please put up links to those somewhere? Say in the video description or an answer to this comment? It's difficult to find those without knowing the exact spelling of your names, and there are 10s if not 100s of "Chris Nicks" on Instagram ;-) Thanks.

[@alexgrundon2346]

@alexgrundon @ciphernorthsix @siddyholloway @hiddenlondonlau @ltmuseum

[@CLechleitner42]

@@alexgrundon2346 Thanks!

[@peebee143]

Yeah!, that would work. Hidden London Hangouts:- The out-takes.

[@ianjohnson2198]

Hey there Hangout Gang, here’s a question you might like to ponder on a future episode. If you had the power to create a brand new tube line in London, what route would you have it take and what would be the terminal points?

[@alexgrundon2346]

I LOVE THIS IDEA

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

My house, the pub, with a shuttle service to the church if needed.

[@rogermew5578]

Some years ago you visited the museum advertising and one of the products you did not know, a man in a top hat and you could not work it out, so here goes, "High o'er fence leaps Sonny Jim, Force is the food that raises him". We have the money chart with the old real money in it hanging on our wall. So there you have it. Sonny Jim wears a top hat, they were better than Kellogs that was maize or corn and not as healthy as Force!

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

3:20 Jump, jump Kriss Kross'll make ya...

[@bobcooper6528]

Places behind locked doors are not within plain sight.

[@alexgrundon2346]

The door is.

[@lmj9517]

this is weird... Why the Hell do some people get confused with Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square? What's the difference?

[@london52uk]

no one has noticed there is no ticket barriers @ 10:40

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

The time in history when you didn't cheat the system. Still used on buses in Germany.

[@alexandrcox1]

Archway

[@keithwebb658]

I think you guys need to let Laura have more screen time. Seems like you spring photos on her and expect an immediate response. Why not let her preview photos so that she has time to make serious comments rather than the superficial 'love this' which is all she can say in time she's given.

[@alexgrundon2346]

I would actually give Laura her own show