Secret Tunnels at Elephant & Castle

An urban legend from South London.
See also: • A Nuclear Bunker at Ch...
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/jagohazzard
Patreon: / jagohazzard

[@minetogiveaway]

Jago is confirmed to secretly be a concrete structure

[@stephensaines7100]

You have reinforced my suspicions with your cementics.

[@minetogiveaway]

@@stephensaines7100 my assertions are concrete and my findings structurally sound

[@erejnion]

This was the concrete proof we needed.

[@minetogiveaway]

@@erejnion it's the aggregate of all our other proof

[@erejnion]

@@minetogiveaway The brutalist truth finally revealed in whole before our eyes.

[@rogerwhittle2078]

Apropos your remarks about extensive wartime tunnels under London, I have a short, but I think revealing tale from the early 80's. Long before 'The Churchill War Rooms' were opened to the general public (and little was generally known about them) it was possible to book 'private tours' of them, which were extensive and quite revealing. The tours were very limited, had to be booked well in advance and through a member of staff in, I think, the Treasury Office. I know his name, although i don't feel comfortable giving it on public media. This bloke was remarkable in all sorts of ways and I believe he was eventually awarded a 'gong' of some kind? MBE? Anyway, he not only organised, but acted as guide on the tour. (Two hours, plus?) The tour involved not only the publically displayed rooms of the modern tour, but literally miles of passage and special sites that are no longer included. One memorable example was passing under Downing Street, through the brick arched remains of the cellars of buildings that had been Downing Street before the existing buildings. These led into what seemed like a 'space', but which was clearly another, massive, passage that ran under Whitehall. We had all been primed to bring 'a torch', but I and my two colleagues had potholing lamps - ex NCB miners lamps - with short beam working lamps and 'high beam' searching beams. The high beam could easily light up objects and features more than a hundred feet away. Apart from close proximity, diagonal reinforced concrete beams (possibly installed post war) that crossed the space, the light from our lamps was lost hundreds of feet in both directions. Our guide told us this passage was part of a broadly rectangular 'circular' route from there (roughly Downing St/Whitehall junction) parallel to or under Whitehall to the Admiralty, (a possible branch to Buckingham Palace.) From Trafalgar Square it ran to the 'Deep Tube' site in Chancery Lane, which was a 6000 line telephone exchange called (I think) 'Rampart'. (I am pretty sure by personal observation, that this installation was still officially occupied in the mid seventies.) Our guide said staff would use these tunnels/passages routinely and travel along them on bikes. This tour was one of the most memorable visits to any historic site or artifact ever.

[@Nyctophora]

Thank you so much for sharing!

[@daispy101]

I wonder if this later became part of the bunker complex built under Whitehall in the late 80s or if that was deeper still?

[@cGousha]

I am a denizen of San Francisco area. I’ve been to London exactly once, and never beyond the South Bank. … and yet I find myself utterly fascinated by Jago’s videos… especially Elephant & Castle. This is a bright spot to my day.

[@colinpiper4386]

In the seventies I was a GPO telephone engineer, pre BT. I worked at the Post Office Tower in Howland St, London. I transferred to the maintenance section during which time I worked in the deep level tunnels running under central London. They were spotlessly maintained. There were telephone exchanges, accommodation, first aid posts. One weekend I was one of many other guys restocking the underground stores with new compo rations, blankets etc. These tunnels run for miles Under London. They were constructed in the 1950’s during the Cold War.

[@pilnes]

I think you may have just broken the Official Secrets Act. The address of the tower is an official secret!

[@eattherich9215]

I love the idea of Jago's being a sinister operative of a shadowy state. No-one knows what he looks like, so it all fits.

[@cornishcat11]

Ah but which state is he working for?

[@bentilbury2002]

He is a man of a thousand faces...

[@rjjcms1]

But I think he wears a certain style of hat.

[@brianartillery]

Jago Hazzard? A rum cove with a big hat. Sorry, I've been reading far too many 1930's detective stories recently.

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@cornishcat11 Not the State of Denial -- de Nile's in a bunch of African countries. State of Confusion maybe?

[@pibgorn9513]

5:52 "That bastion of level-headed reporting". That made I larf... :)

[@roseharvey2664]

They should have built tunnels on top of the shopping centre to conceal it.

[@General_Confusion]

It seems like you had more luck in finding some inspiration than I've had looking for my extension lead Jago.

[@stepheneyles2198]

Dear Sir, Your extension lead has been arrested under section 5.3 of the Official Secrets Act. Please apply to the nearest Police Station (in person, unaccompanied) to be reunited with it. Thank you.

[@acleray]

I lost mine some months ago, still have no idea where it went!

[@brian9731]

@@acleray - just buy a new one and the old one is almost guaranteed to turn up.

[@davidjames579]

@@brian9731 But remember to keep the receipt so you can return the new one.

[@adonaiyah2196]

Im sorry I have no idea what that says

[@darganx]

Trainspotting is the perfect cover for an MI5 spy, I always thought.

[@thewantondogfish5088]

You're never allowed onto the roof of a high-rise. The perfect place to hide underground tunnels if you ask me.

[@izzieb]

Am I weird, I miss the old shopping centre? There were a lot of small businesses that effectively acted as hubs for the various communities that call/called the area home. The market was always bustling with life too. It's going to be rather devoid and characterless once the redevelopment is complete.

[@tardismole]

I agree. It was ugly, but it the centre of the community. And the people who worked there have not been offered or given slots in the replacement building. It's a scheme of gentrification to oust the locel population in favour of rich companies and their sleeping/overseas partners.

[@eattherich9215]

I never knew the centre in it's heyday, but I did visit a few times before it disappeared.

[@julianshepherd2038]

You are weird

[@brianartillery]

I only went there a few times, but it was always bustling with life, and you could literally stand and watch the world go by; and the little businesses there were fascinating, and dare I say it, rather cool. A bit of concrete brutalism every now and then is good for the soul.

[@steved8193]

The shopping centre looked more attractive than the flats they've built to replace it!

[@grahamstubbs4962]

A shopping centre disguised as... *a shopping centre* That is very cunning indeed.

[@johnbouttell5827]

I love a deep dive in a secret tunnel

[@roeng1368]

OOOH Matron !

[@simonwinter8839]

Sorry John Bouttell, clearly you were first,but I still beat Keith Barber,old blue drawers himself !!

[@simonwinter8839]

Ah,you're one of those too !!

[@davidjames579]

Always get permission first.

[@Bolivar2012able]

I AM! ;) WAS ONCE APPROACHED AND INTERVIEWED BY THE MERSEY TUNNEL POLICE FOR SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY (sitting in my car listening to radio 4). Apparently was parked over an emergency Pedestrian tunnel exit. :)

[@davidjames579]

Were you waiting for coded messages in the broadcast?

[@plainflavour]

In the village I used to live in there was a local legend that you could walk from one end of the village to the other through a network of secret tunnels. It's nice when villages have their legends isn't it? One evening, I happened to be first in the pub, (I was sometimes), and the landlord beckoned me. He led the way into the ladies toilets where there was a big hole in the concrete floor. A workman had been digging it up with a pneumatic drill and it had opened up beneath him. Looking down it, there was a circular shaft about 30 feet deep. Apparently, someone had been down it and found notches in the sides where spiral stairs had been, and at the bottom, yes the entrance to a tunnel, which was considered too dangerous to explore. The next day, the brewery had it all filled in, concreted over and gone. If anyone tells you, 'tunnels, what tunnels, people have tunnels on the brain, there's no secret tunnels', don't believe them - there are!

[@pilnes]

As a kid, I used to visit Chiselhurst Caves in Kent. There were always rumours of smugglers' tunnels all the way from the Thames. It's a very long way, so I guess it was just an urban myth.

[@karelius7085]

Someone who worked on the construction of the MI6 building at Vauxhall said there were a number of tunnels, the longest of which was the one under the Thames. It is said it connect to Millbank, which at the time housed some MI5 offices. Small tunnels connect to local government offices, which are the main entry points for employees.

[@PhattGreg]

Hi Jago Hazzard, regarding this secret tunnel that inspired the video, there was indeed a hidden tunnel running from what is Mandela Way, South East of Elephant Park, where the freight yards once existed, but were demolished to turn into a industrial park, that lead into a depo below the shopping centre at just over a mile in travel distance, with the full length probably between 1 1/8 miles and 1 1/4 miles in total length. The problem with exploring creepy tunnels back the last time I went, when it was partly being demolished, was you would encounter other creepy weirdo’s doing other stuff at these locations. So hiding and not performing detailed surveys was preferred. But there was a connection to what looked like a river boat interchange or flooded section, which I wish I had looked into further, but with the development of what was at the time the UK’s largest housing development, I think that connection to the river was severed making the cargo interchange, which is what I think it was designed for, obsolete. As in the depo like the aqueduct and overground station very close to the north end of Brick Lane, a few hundred meters to the west of the lane. The depo featured carriage lifts, lowering freight to the lower level track and allowing passage onto the depo under the shopping centre. There are other secret tunnels, around Whitehall and central London, and the UK, which you can find details about. But they are much more secretive in there purpose and I wont disclose more, besides this I believe is the secret tunnel a fellow viewer was referring to and Subterranean Britain might have some details on it. As the depo like the one near Brick lane, are Wow sites to behold, with a great example of the goods tracks, being publicly visible, when ever you go into St Pancras station, with the original columns with modifications, now publicly visible, that lead up-to the Grand Union Canal and also onto Camden market. One place I didn’t get to visit is beneath the Associated Press building in Camden, which has a canal boat only access to their freight loading docks in the basement of the building.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

G cafe sell lovely veg samosa! There are two sidings beyond the southern end of the Bakerloo platforms. There is a timetabled move in the evening which takes a train in and out the sidings. I think it’s train no.251, well it used to be!!

[@JagoHazzard]

I’ll have to give them a try next time I’m in the area, which is likely pretty soon.

[@Recessio]

To be fair, when they demolished the shopping centre, they did accidentally uncover a tunnel... unfortunately it was a passenger walkway to the Northern line, hidden only from whoever was controlling the digger.

[@pashakdescilly7517]

When the Elephant + Castle shopping centre was demolished, a vast number of mice and rats were dispersed into the surrounding area. The local residents were not pleased

[@brianfretwell3886]

He also seems to have smashed a panel of the station building, the new cover doesn't match.

[@ninebangtrojan4669]

@@pashakdescilly7517 it was very common to see Rate inside the shopping centre, there was a Supermarket in the "basement" which had weekly visits from Environmental Health, I sat outside the Chaplin one night and was almost mugged by one for my crisps!

[@raheem201231]

@@ninebangtrojan4669was it Tesco or Iceland.

[@ninebangtrojan4669]

It wasn't Iceland, I'll say no more 😁@@raheem201231

[@cooperised]

6:32 Au contraire. If the shopping centre is capable of concealing its secret even in a demolished state then it's doing an exceptionally good job :-)

[@michaelpeters1644]

The underpasses at the Elephant and Castle were built around the same time as the shopping centre in the 1960s. Before this, there were subways which were deeper than the underpasses and resembled the tunnels of the underground system right down to the similar tiling on the walls. These were far superior to the underpasses that replaced them, I remember going through them to cross the roads as a kid, and you felt you were in a separate system to the underground and, unlike the underpasses that succeeded them, they were quiet and free of the noise of traffic. Whether these were filled in, or still remain down there somewhere I cannot say.

[@itsthatsebguy93]

Its nice to see London all summery now that its winter.

[@donaldasayers]

If you can, get yourself a copy of "Beneath the City Streets" by Peter Laurie, better still get a copy of both first and second editions to compare and find out what they made him remove. The secret services slapped him with a D-notice when he first tried to publish, because it contained 'secrets'. So he asked which parts he had to remove and they said they couldn't tell him because they were secret. So he threatened to spam them with lots of different version with different parts redacted, to see which were acceptable... I believe a compromise was arranged.

[@brianartillery]

A great book. Duncan Campbell's 'War Plan UK', is another worth reading, because of his account of his journey underground from a manhole on the junction of Sclater St., in the east, through to the centre of London. Blew my mind when I first read that. Also, being asked politely by a policeman to not photograph the odd door on the side of the ICA on the Mall. Now I know that leads somewhere secret. I was also asked why I should want to look through the door of the BT exchange in Craigs Court, off Whitehall - It's an entrance to the 'Q' tunnels, that's why.

[@mikusguitarius]

My understanding is that D-notices aren't, strictly speaking, legally binding?? More a gentlemen's agreement??

[@alanbg4722]

@@mikusguitarius exactly, and the agreements were with newspaper editors, not book publishers. Laurie's second edition is so defferent from the first because he got a lot wrong (how the phone network works, for a start) in the first.

[@donaldasayers]

@@mikusguitarius You are right. I think this may have been a little stronger than a D-Notice, it was a long time ago.

[@KravKernow]

@@mikusguitarius They were actually "D/A Notices" after 93. The 'A' standing for 'advisory'. Now they're got some longer acronym. But as the A suggests they're not actually binding. But if the editor wants an invite to the downing st xmas drinks party (not that there ever are such things of course) one can see why they might cooperate.

[@defender1006]

'The Daily Mail, that bastion of level headed reporting' LOL!

[@xxxggthyf]

How dare they close the underpasses. They were the base-line measure of my ECUUSS (Elephant & Castle Underpass Urban Scariness Scale). You know the sort of thing... A Glasgow council estate might score a ECUUSS of 3.8 while Henley high street scores ECUUSS 0.1... Probably... I've never been there. ECUUSS 1.0 is of course the E&C underpasses which were exactly the degree of scariness that I'd use them in the day time but not at night... Unless mob-handed as part of a bigger mob than any other mob using them or very, very drunk.

[@GWJUK]

I can conform Henley high st is a 0.1, peaking at 0.3 on a Friday night

[@xxxggthyf]

@@GWJUK I am indebted to m'learned friend.

[@wibblywobblyidiotvision]

Of course there's a secret cold war government tunnel there. Walworth Road was the HQ of the Labour Party, so obviously the Russians wouldn't bomb it. On the other hand, bombing the shopping centre would have been a bit of a mercy killing. Speaking of brutalist buildings and collapse, when I worked for Lloyds Bank in the late '80s it was "common knowledge" that Sampson House, their data processing centre (and staff members' bank branch) had been specifically designed to collapse /around/ the computer rooms in the case of nuclear strike, so that cashpoint could keep running post-holocaust. Utter bollocks, that was. All it took to knock out cashpoint was some poor sod sticking his pickaxe through the HT cables in the street. Oh, and a little programming error on my part took it down for the weekend once, too.

[@tardismole]

Oops. But big of you at admit it. :)

[@zorktxandnand3774]

O dear, one 1 stuck in a 0 and the whole system is F-ed.

[@bentilbury2002]

The Russians wouldn't bomb Labour Party HQ? Well, we are on the subject of conspiracy theories I suppose. 😏 Do you remember when the shopping centre was pink? My god that was horrific! Talk about putting a pig in a dress...

[@julianshepherd2038]

I'm no expert but I don't think Soviet nuclear missiles are that precise.

[@julianshepherd2038]

Also it was Southwark education HQ until 1980

[@harrybrown328]

There's a great trilogy of books "the rats" by James Herbert. the third (domain) is set in the holborn bunker and goes into great detail about the (then) secret tunnels at the telephone exchange. you can read it separately from the other two, highly recommend! Also loved that ending lol

[@poppedweasel]

I was just thinking about this series of books. It's been a long time since I read Domain.

[@MiceAndMinecraft]

I was thinking exactly this!

[@zoot3000]

I knew of the Rats and Lair, never knew about a 3rd book. Thanks!

[@andrewmonument8847]

@@zoot3000 I, too - have the first two books... must get my hands on the third !

[@MarkArnold-England]

I knew a lady who had worked at that exchange, and she said that he'd asked for permission to visit the complex as research for the book and was denied. Apparently his description of it was so amazingly accurate, her assumption was that he must have been inside unofficial somehow.

[@chrischibnall593]

The occult artist Austin Osman Spare used to have a studio above Woolworths' in Walworth Road before the war, but was bombed out and resettled in Brixton. I once tried to work out the exact spot where his studio had been, by looking at the numbering of the old houses at the end of the street that still stood, and pacing back. My route took me into the shopping centre and to the exact spot where the modern branch of Woolworths' was, inside the Centre: presumably they had still owned that that patch of land. Spare was quite obscure when I first took an interest in him in the 1980s, but has since grown into a VERY significant influence on modern occultism and even popular culture in general (think Death Metal album covers). He is now commemorated at Elephant & Castle by a collection of rentable studios under some railway arches, called Spare Street.

[@mryeti1887]

Somewhat related to rail transport, I had the pleasure of visiting The Bermondsey Beer mile a few weeks ago. I found it an excellent use of a railway viaduct.

[@simonjohns1453]

When I worked on the Bakerloo I was told there was an emergency stairwell from the end of one of the stabling sidngs which emerged inside the Shopping Centre. A graffiti attack on our trains in the sidings was apparently caused by people who used that access.

[@lawrencelewis2592]

the Elephant and Castle pub seen at 3:10 is a pretty good one! The pub that used to be there and the Charlie Chaplin pub across the road were both nasty places.

[@rachelcarre9468]

I love the interior of Bakerloo Line trains. They're so retro and gorgeous.

[@simonwinter8839]

Rachel Carre You call these trains retro and they're a rebuild!! When the original trains,known as 1972 stock - I think,were refurbished they were given this look.The original design was a more brutalistic design (more1960s than 1972 but I suppose that's more or less the same era). The design of the Bakerloo line trains is more or less the same as the original Victoria line trains and plenty of videos exist on KZbin on the subject should you be interested.

[@raychambers3646]

I worked in the other tunnels you mentioned in 70s.

[@Unknownety]

To be fair here. Underpasses beneath roads seems like the wrong way to build cities. It is generally nicer to build the roads under the footpaths instead, it has many advantages. Firstly it keeps the roads clear of ice and snow. It gives people far greater access from one area to another without crossing streets. It takes away to need for cars and people to interact. And it also takes away the noise of all those cars. Downsides is fires due to accidents. Fires above ground isn't problematic, since the new square above ground can still be driven over by fire trucks, and one should likely still have low speed small roads for cabs, busses and the like to drop people off at various locations without an excessive reliance on stairs and elevators.

[@HonestMan112]

Are we not gonna talk about the elephant in the room?

[@millomweb]

All shopping centres have 'secret tunnels' - hidden in plain sight. How else do you think they can get the goods into them without anyone ever seeing a delivery truck on the streets near them !

[@GreenJimll]

Via ramps on to the roof in some cases!

[@sunjamm222]

I've always suspected Jago was a secret weapon for London Underground.

[@frasermitchell9183]

I wonder whether any of the complex tramway junction at Elephant and Castle is still below the tarmac !!

[@russellnixon9981]

Thanks for yet another deep dive into underground. Personally the wrecking ball couldn't come fast enough to the Elephant shopping centre. The only good looking building left is the tube station.

[@davidhughes7041]

Q connects to a tunnel under Colombo house this runs under the Thames BT has miles of tunnels.

[@DavidBromage]

This story might have elements of truth based on misunderstanding. There was a bunker in Brixton about half a mile from the station. It dated from WW2 but was refurbished in the early 60s for civil defence training. The entrance was a rather dull prefab where Lambeth Orchard is now. There is a much more interesting nuclear bunker hidden in plain sight in Lunham Road, Upper Norwood called Pear Tree House.

[@rebellion2054]

I used to deliver to the Elephant Shopping Centre. The underground goods-in area wasn’t a secret but it was virtually unnavigable in a 7.5 tonner. Glad to see you back at the Elephant, Jago

[@flemmingsorensen5470]

Absolutely brilliant video - you do a fantastic job, combining interesting stories with humor and great footage. Well done 👍🇬🇧

[@peter_smyth]

If there are no more Jago videos, we know he did find some secret tunnels and has now been silenced.

[@General_Confusion]

Personally, i would have started my investigation by asking the friend who asked me about the secret tunnels, what he knew about them. But thats just the amateurish sleuth in me.

[@zorktxandnand3774]

His "friend" asked him, just to verify he did not know things "they" don't want you to know.

[@WifeMamaArtist]

Your vids are officially the only thing that can lift my spirits any more. Thank you xx

[@TheAndrewJBaker]

I remember reading a small book by Nigel Pennick c1980 that said there was a parallel tunnel alongside the Victoria line for emergency use. Perhaps a memory of the wartime tunnels? And someone once told me of the exit of a tunnel on Theobalds Rd (Tibbles) from which he had seen a fleet of army lorries emerging - the Chancery Lane tunnel?.

[@Batters56]

I remember you mentioned the heavy duty doors at Embankment were for flood prevention. But there are also crazily heavy duty doors at Baker Street and there used to be what I called the blast doors visible on the entrances to Vauxhall tube station with the V patterns visible on the floor.

[@alanbg4722]

Vauxhall is also next to the river

[@nickbarber9502]

The story I heard was that a pilot tunnel was built for the Camberwell extension.Part of this was incorporated into the re-sited over-run tunnels. How much,if any,of this is true,I have no way of telling.

[@adrianrutterford762]

Thanks for an interesting video. German owned concrete buildings reminded me of the Red Barns built by the Dutch in Norfolk in the (I think) 1930s and the enquiry into them as secret Nazi airbases.

[@Kanbei11]

To be fair you wouldn't need to cover up any underground tunnels as the ground is already covering them up

[@johnnyhollis9977]

Jago, good one! Interesting to see an area that I worked in nearly 50 years ago......yikes! Yes I remember the smelly underpasses complete with passed out sleeping drunks that I needed to step over! Obviously an area badly bombed during WW2 and woefully rebuilt later apart from the underground station which amazingly survived! That little gem has seen buildings come and go over the years but remains a sort of a silent icon refusing to be given the modern make over! The area now looks even more densely built on although the shopping centre was never a marvel of design. Even the office block that I used to work in has vanished! Nice to see the long suffering elephant is still in the building! Nice video! JH

[@eattherich9215]

There is the modern steel box entrance/exit opposite the London College of Communication.

[@johnnyhollis9977]

@@eattherich9215 😀👍

[@MrGreatplum]

That’s the best 8 minutes of “no” that I’ve watched for some time :)

[@patcoen1113]

Great program & programs! You are truly a master of words, or a wordsmith!

[@brick6347]

There is a never complete underground station in the bowels of the Arndale Centre in Manchester. For an abandoned tube network that was supposed to be built in the 1970s. And I believe there are tunnels under Birmingham. I think this a sort of mixture of rumours. these urban legends seem to get spread around, localised, hybridised.

[@TheTwicezero]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_telephone_exchange

[@tomasjones3755]

Coming into a station faster, allows for a faster overall service. Running into a wall, at the end of the station, allows the train to stop faster; also contributing to a faster overall service

[@zork999]

However, cleaning up the mess after you have run into the wall will slow down overall service.

[@tomasjones3755]

@@zork999 Hmmmm. Transport Ministry hadn't thot of that. Thx, Mate

[@Ur11]

I will never look at a bag of ready-mix the same way again, thank you Jago! :)

[@roeng1368]

I see the architects are finishing off the work started by the Luftwaffe. If you pass a good taste test. you can by law, not be an architect.

[@qwertyTRiG]

I'd blame the developers and unfettered capitalism rather than the architects themselves.

[@robertskrzynski2768]

@@qwertyTRiG Have you not seen the buildings built in Eastern Europe under the the communist regimes.

[@simonwinter8839]

@@qwertyTRiG I knew a chap called Jim Bassett (RIP) who was an architect and was instrumental in the boom in residential tower blocks of the 1960s.I gave up arguing with him about the social problems that these estates caused. He always said that there was nothing wrong with them and it was the type of people that lived in them that caused the problems ignoring the possibility that those kinds of buildings actually create social problems. Anyway he now resides in that big tower block in the sky,except that they all are !!

[@roeng1368]

@@qwertyTRiG A trip to the council offices on Wood Quay, Dublin, tells me all i want to know about modern architects thanks. That design was cribbed from Hitlers Flakturm's.

[@qwertyTRiG]

@@roeng1368 The Wood Quay offices are a disgrace and a tragedy, and an affront to history and taste, but not because of the architecture.

[@jobell7356]

Love your tongue in cheek humour. I'm subscribed. Looking forward to each new video

[@Rschaltegger]

Switzerland: Bunkers...Bunkers everywhere you look. We...LOVE Bunkers.

[@stefienardelli6388]

good one. Jago, you crack me up - love, love, love your voice. it’s one of the highlights of my you tube experience. 🤩

[@Iamthelolrus]

Even more amusing than usual.

[@teecefamilykent]

Your sense of humour is awesome lol lol.

[@stevebluesbury6206]

‘Bastion of level headed reporting’… Love it. Keep up the good work Mr. H. 😉

[@brian9731]

I have it on good authority that there is access from the 3rd level basement at BBC Broadcasting House to a private platform on the Bakerloo Line which Churchill used during WW2.

[@brianartillery]

Nope. The BBC did have a large bunker under Broadcasting House, which was demolished several years ago, when the building was modernised. Underground trains could be heard from the lower level of that bunker, and a set of stairs leading downwards to a blank wall were visible, but no platform or railway egress ever existed. Considered, possibly, but never, as the BBC like to say 'realised'.

[@jamesharmer9293]

I took a wrong turn in Gatwick Airport a few weeks ago and then had to walk through a maze of tunnels for hours to find my way out again. All deserted due to covid, I'm still amazed that I managed to see the light of day again...

[@ZGryphon]

"Day 41. Supplies running low. Last night Masterman finally cracked; he suddenly ran off screaming that he could hear the announcement system in International Departures and hasn't reappeared. It's just me and Ericsson left now, and I fear the leg wound he suffered in our fight with the savages near the North Terminal skyway last week may be going septic, but we shall do our best to soldier on. Pray for us. God save the Queen."

[@dickiedavies6870]

Nice

[@mfaizsyahmi]

This video is the concrete structure to my Underground tunnel.

[@Djarra]

Hi Jago, there is supposed to be a spur of the tunnel system you mentioned to Buck House that runs under the ICA. In 1980 members of the band Einstrüzende Neubauten attempted to break into this with a jackhammer during a performance.

[@brianartillery]

I nearly went to that gig, (it was 1984) but could not get time off from work to do so. I would have loved to have gone, as I found out later that both the late Frank Tovey/Fad Gadget, and Genesis P. Orridge (Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV), were on stage with power tools. Hell of a gig.

[@Djarra]

@@brianartillery Yes, it does sound like it was one for the ages.

[@eimdeima]

Back in the late 80s I was in my teens getting the bus back from Southwark art college to London bridge, it had been raining heavily and there was lots of standing water. I was on the top deck and we were passing though The Elephant, there was this old lady tottering down the underpass, and the bus hit this large deep puddle, which in turn sent this tidal wave of standing water over the top and down the ramp of the underpass, completely drenching this old lady.... She'd be long dead by now, and I'm 50 next year. How time passes....

[@rmar127]

Loved that little comical bit at the end 🤣🤣 Or was it a comical misdirection 🤔 🧐

[@glenatkinson1230]

Ahhh. A nice hot cuppa and new video from Jago. It's Sunday morning. Lovely.

[@scottc1589]

Jago's alibi is as solid as the former reinforced concrete structure formerly known as Elephant and Castle Shopping Center. Or is it?

[@davidlynch5748]

I assume that the bit about the E&C shopping centre is someone misinterpreting the meaning of "cover," and the original version of the story was that the construction project could have been used to provide a way to make subterranean construction inconspicuous since there would naturally have been earthworks and deliveries of materials for the centre as well as anything that might be underneath, rather than the centre literally sitting on top of any other tunnels.

[@CJonestheSteam72]

Great video 👍

[@garymcguire8529]

You could been taken to tusk over the Elephant & Castle. Interesting to note that the MI6 building is very close to the Elephant & Castle, the Elephant & Castle pub in Vauxhall.

[@Fees-Shed]

You brighten up my day Sir 🤣🤣

[@AtheistOrphan]

A good (if outdated) reference for this sort of thing is Peter Laurie’s book ‘Beneath The City Streets’.

[@jackiespeel6343]

There are at least two editions of that book with different/updated information in the second version.

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@jackiespeel6343 - Thanks for the info, I’ll have to check which version I’ve got.

[@jackiespeel6343]

@@AtheistOrphan I deduce you might have the first edition - I read the second, which made reference to changes from the earlier version.

[@automotivel3501]

Great video Jago, I gave it a Thumbs up - or did i I?

[@andrewmawson6897]

But there is a BT communications tunnel from Columbo House in Joan Street heading north (ish) towards the river and I believe connecting with the rest of the BT network going up New Bridge Street to Ludgate Hill. It was an amazing construction done in the late 1960's that disturbed my A level studies at City College.

[@PlanetoftheDeaf]

If there is a secret tunnel under the old Elephant and Castle shopping centre, I'd like to think its entrance was via the Castle Tandoori restaurant, where I had many a nice curry during its 40 year life.

[@iancrawford1140]

great stuff

[@andrewpinner3181]

Thanks again Jago. Having a moment of nostalgia, l'm now craving a British Rail sandwich !

[@isashax]

The Daily Mail comment, LOL! Great video again, you made it sound very mysterious ;)

[@mancubwwa]

TBH while there is no reason to hide something that is deep underground more that it is hidden, there is no way to hide construction work happening. Even bored tunnels need entry shafts for TBMs, places to get dug up material out etc. So the story that canstruction of shopping center was in fact used to hide construction work for the tunnels, makes sense, and the center itself had to be built otherwise people would be asking awkward questions about it being under construction for x years and then never materializing. I'm not saying that it's true, just that it makes sense...

[@laurencefraser]

I had a similar thought. Honestly, reframe it from a conspiracy theory (with all the inherent logical flaws of such) to simply a historical curiosity and it suddenly becomes entirely plausible. You know, prior to Mr. Hazzard doing his research that indicates otherwise.

[@eekee6034]

There's another very interesting comment about something being built that no-one ever knew what it was. It sounds like a shopping center would have been a better cover-up than what actually happened, or something.

[@jamesduffin9417]

Yay Sunday Jago!!!

[@eekee6034]

"One with a more clickbaity title, anyway." Sounds good to me! XD And that wasn't even the best joke, I love it! :D

[@juliansadler6263]

In the early 1950s Camberwell councillors visited the site of the proposed Camberwell Gate underground station so it appears the tunnels were excavated at least that far.

[@likklej8]

In the 60s and early 70s the Londoners urban myths was these ‘supposed secret’ tunnels were used by the MOD in the war effort during WW2. I lived in SE London and many of the war vets I worked with swore it was fact.

[@trevejenkyn9888]

Once again thank you for something very interesting

[@jennyd255]

Overtones of Yes Prime Minister in that ending Jago. Director of MI5 talking to Jim Hacker about Sir Humphrey Appleby : Geoffrey - Director General MI5: Personally, I find it hard enough to believe that one of us was one of them. But if two of us were one of them, ... or two of them, then all of us could be, ... um, could be... James Hacker: All of them?

[@iankemp1131]

And in an earlier episode, Sir Humphrey giving Jim Hacker the official Government disinformation that MI5 does not exist/ Which they seem to have given up on now. David Niven said in his autobiography that the London taxi drivers knew where it was, as he discovered when he was called there.

[@richardgadsby9060]

I'm glad you mentioned Q Whitehall as my dad worked there back in the 1950s while working for the Post Office. There was a very high security vetting process to get a job there.

[@davidjames579]

I think it seems safe to assume there's a private section of the Tube running from Buckingham Palace and from The Houses Of Parliament. Possibly also MI6 and MI5. In the event of an incoming Nuclear Attack you wouldn't want to evacuate overland.

[@ZGryphon]

In the late 1950s/early 1960s, the US government fooled around for a while with the idea of building a national command bunker--which some bright spark at the Defense Department decided to name the Deep Underground Command Center, because who doesn't want a response to the threat of nuclear annihilation to have a cute acronym?--about three-fifths of a mile underground beneath the Pentagon, with underground rail links to the White House and Capitol. The idea was that everyone important to "continuity of government" would go there at the first alert, without ever having to travel aboveground (the most prominent flaw in the _other_ emergency government bunkers then existing or under consideration, like the Greenbrier and Raven Rock), and because it was still in greater Washington they'd be able to get there fast. Eventually someone realized that no existing technology could provide a way for the president et al. to communicate with the outside world from a deep bunker at the center of the most thoroughly destroyed part of the country, so the DUCC would be worthless as a command center, nor would they ever be able to get _out_ of it once the entirety of the District of Columbia and northern Virginia was reduced to radioactive cinders above them. The government would still cease to function at the very outset of the war, and its members would still all die, only now they would starve to death weeks afterward instead of being killed in the first strike. In a rare flash of sense, the people responsible for the project decided that outcome wasn't worth however many billions of dollars and canceled the project. I mention all this because I suspect what you just described would do basically the same thing as the DUCC--not that that would necessarily have stopped Her Majesty's Government from building it. :)

[@davidjames579]

@@ZGryphon My supposition wasn't that the tube lines would take them to another part of London, but out of the city. As I understand it, there was an underground bunker for VIP's, the government and the Royals built somewhere north of London. So presumably they would have gone there.

[@ZGryphon]

@@davidjames579 Fair enough. Still probably not an amazingly good plan, but then again, in a full-dress nuclear war, it's not as if there _are_ any good plans.

[@sambill2045]

Nice, thanks!

[@LeeSmith-cf1vo]

I knew the shopping centre was due to be demolished, I didn't realise it had finally happened

[@michaelodonoghue7464]

There was a Plan to Evacuate the Royal Family from Buckingham Palace to a ‘Secret’ Underground Bunker facility, via a number of Known Tube Tunnels and a few Nonpublic Tube Tunnels. Whilst I did once see the Bunker facility, including Pub, I have absolutely no idea where it is located (distance and direction is a little hard to reckon underground.

[@rommee]

PLUS the shopping centre was BRIGHT PINK - hardly inconspicuous 😂

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

I used to work at the elephant, in the days of pedestrians under the roundabout. The shopping place was truly horrid. What happened to the elephant? That was good. Perhaps it was the MI5 lookout place.

[@annother3350]

The wonder years eh?!

[@davidjames579]

A Stool Elephant?

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

@@davidjames579 A bit more serious than a pigeon crapping on you.

[@theghostofsabertache9049]

Used to travel through elephant twice a day for 8 years so have seen all the changes happen but never knew this about elephant.

[@seanbonella]

Great video

[@WilliamHBaird-eq2hp]

The mysterious ELEPHANT & CASTLE Tube station name intrigued me a wee-boy... Then later I heard it was named after a pub :-( Not sure what is true?