The Hidden Gallery at Marble Arch Station | Hidden London Hangouts (S07E06)

In this episode, the team explore the history of Marble Arch station and discover some hidden disused spaces - with posters!
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[@ramdynebix]

People like to complain about modern advertising, but the world was absolutely covered in it before the war

[@Lisbonized]

I worked in the signal cabin at Marble Arch years a go. It was at the west end of the station platforms. I never knew the next door down had so many secrets!

[@knownothing5518]

Hands down best show on youtube right now

[@bpb235]

A new hidden hangouts and Eurovision on the same evening, it's a good day 😊

[@BibtheBoulder]

Thank god for this video then.....at least we have one programme worth watching...

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

​@@BibtheBoulder [Draws huge intake of air in relief] At least there's a couple of us who are styling it out and not sucking on the teat of the EBU which seems to have been placed to make it even easier so to do than even Adam the Apple-eating sinner of old.

[@DavidShepheard]

I've been down that long skinny corridor that you showed, but didn't go down. It's connected to some sort of underground car park. I always got the impression that those other tunnels didn't belong to TfL, because of the decoration changing and changing two times. I think it's a shame that TfL has abandoned those tunnels, as it's good to be able to walk underground to the nearest station in bad weather. I loved it when all the shops near Picadilly Circus got reconnected to the station. I wish that Westminster would do a cut and cover excavation of Oxford Street and connect Marble Arch, Bond Street, Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road to all of the basements of the shops.

[@thomascook578]

We need a Hidden London Hangouts bingo card, so we can play along....anyyyyybodyyyyyy? Oh WOW!, and Tiles are a must

[@probewizard]

Invalid Port, generally retailed at about 4/- to 4/6d per bottle in the 30s, lots of ads in the British Newspaper Archive.

[@ForTheBirbs]

Just a thought regards viwing the posters - maybe Chris could get a UV LED torch to add to his favourite and mine Olight stable.

[@wubberlover]

Super episode chaps ,loving all the posters how many of them that you saw are in the museum ? . Warren.

[@Channel205UK]

Love these series, and tbh Chris Nix is eye candy! I would....

[@paullbennett2923]

That foot tunnel used to connect with the car park under Hyde Park.Seem to remember it had a very funky aroma down there !

[@wegladstone1967]

Yes I went down it not long after it was constructed about 60 years ago.

[@davidparker4652]

Great to see all of you together again, episodes just get better and better, thank you guys

[@tompierce5969]

Very cool, please keep sharing your underground adventures! 🔦👍

[@Schlipperschlopper]

That type of fan is called an "Exhauster" also often used in car wash dryers

[@chrisblay]

What a time capsule those corridors were. Love looking at the old poster advertising and how it would have been back in the day.

[@SamSitar]

historic things from other places interest me too.

[@sewelldel]

I love Hangouts its so much history. I love it

[@madhatter61]

I love those tile art

[@showmanpete2805]

such a shame to see those posters with names scratched into them, brilliant vid thanks for sharing

[@Blade_Daddy]

"Cob-webage" - love it!

[@bazmurphy7792]

Another great explore ladies and gents. I have always been interested in hidden places and the forgotten.

[@peterpetrou2466]

Thanks again to the team for another awesome dig into the ever fascinating Hidden London.

[@smaza2009]

After moving from the UK to Ireland I missed seeing series 2 of secrets of the underground and while looking for it I came across your excellent channel and have started working through from the very 1st episode in lockdown and catching up to the more recent episodes. What an amazing show you all bring us weekly, now I'm the house husband its been really fantastic to satisfy my homesick feelings sometimes while alone, keep up the amazing work and what a team you all are, many thanks to you all long may it continue

[@sgardoll]

What is it about you amazing peeps and these amazing videos?!? I'm completely addicted! I thought it was just COVID but life has gone back to (relative) normality here in Australia and I cannot stop watching.

[@Clavichordist]

I really enjoy this series. Thank you for making my weekend! There is the Northeast Document Conservation Center located across the pond here in Andover Massachusetts that specializes in restoration of documents and other papers. Perhaps they could recommend a process to preserve some of these posters that are in better shape. They have done work for various museums and organizations.

[@Big.Al.3]

Wonderful film. Getting to take more notes of the tiles, etc. when on the tube. Looking forward to your next trip.

[@damiagunbiade]

Yeah love seeing you as a 4. Just makes it more fun and some of the stuff you lot discover is unbelievable. Wow again the tube has so much space that we don't about. Wow like it's weird when you use the tube that you then realise its a lot larger than what we get to see. You guys are always so fun and engaging as well. Just makes it more enjoyable too.

[@MrSteveBertone]

What an interesting snap shot of 1930s London, very interesting advertising for other Railway lines too. I love the fact that you can unlock the layers of history waking these disused areas. Keep them coming and have a great week guys 😊

[@bostonrailfan2427]

the advertisement in-situ was amazing, it at least leaves your museum able to return to either show the kinds of advertising through the years that can survive and give a template for how they look on the walls with the actual colors that Ingersoll advertisement is for the watch company, they opened up offices in London in 1904 to manufacture the company’s watches in the UK from imported US parts but eventually the UK subsidiary bought the original company making it a UK company…odds are, that’s one of the original wholly-owned UK advertisement that youbsaw

[@andyg6520]

Another Brilliant Episode superbly delivered😊

[@jontownsend8090]

Loving the retro ads. Sad that some have been defaced over the years. Since we are on the central line, how about a visit to the Old Ford fan shaft. Never seen it myself, but have heard of its existence for many years.

[@LordMattyA87]

It’s an annoyance that the Olympic way wasn’t opened on the 6th May. Might of reduced the congestion in Hyde Park. But cracking video guys. Please keep them coming. I love them!

[@ExcelsiorGamingUK]

Amazing video as always guys, been looking forward to this for ages..... and to top it off you couldn't have a Hidden London Hangouts without a Anybodyyyyyyyyyy 🤣🤣🤣😘

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

I long for that day, I really do. Time for bed for some of these under-whelming phrase structures, said Zebedee Pretty sure he would by now. Bit long in the tooths boyz, if I may make so bold.

[@theartisthawkins]

Just Wonderful.all this and Eurovision…! 😎🎨🙏❤️

[@wegladstone1967]

This Hidden Gallery looks to me veriy like what was built decades ago in connnection with fhe construction of the underground car park beneath the North East corner of Hyde Park, which was excavated for the purpose to an extent far greater than needed for the car park itself. If so I will have walked through the passage many times in my younger days as a short cut to and from school in the 1960s... It was very useful to me then even if not much frequented generally, The western part of the Hyde Park excavation was for other than car park use: some other undisclosed or secret purpose, probably connected with Government Security. It will surely be used for it yet.

[@YoRocky_YT]

Man, I love watching these types of videos of abandoned London it’s so interesting keep up the good work :)

[@user-gg4bu8qx5n]

i love your muesiam

[@timothyp8947]

Great show, team! Intrigued by the brick-arch shaped foot tunnels compared with the more normal circular style. In fact, one of the running tunnel portals at the end of a platform also seemed to have similar straight sides; not sure I’ve seen that on the Tube before.

[@Bobbiskit]

That was excellent. What a gem. More please. Robert C

[@martinwilson6684]

I seem to remember there was a direct entry from the platforms into the downstairs grill room of the Marble Arch Hotel or was I dreaming. You could certainly hear the trains in the tunnel when you were sat in the Grill Room and also feel the floor of the grill room vibrate. The grill room was below street leave and I recall there was a cloakroom and I think there might have been a barber shop for haircut and or a shave.

[@SiVlog1989]

I don't know if it still exists, but at the City end of the station was a signal cabin that locally controlled access to the reversing siding (in the times when Central Line had shuttle trains that ran between Marble Arch and Liverpool Street)

[@acernoks]

When I was last in London, weekend engineering work required Westbound trains to terminate at Marble Arch. I was lucky enough to be invited aboard for the shunting move (I work for a different transport agency) and was amazed by the tight clearance between the car body and the tunnel walls. Also, at least in 2007, one of the Central Line strip maps in a cross-passage had white tape over the last stretch to Ongar.

[@michaelmiller641]

Thanks for that! A fascinating episode!

[@BibtheBoulder]

Yet another quality video. I am going to London on Monday with my brother for an explore. I am definitely going to include The Arch in our itinerary....

[@raphaelnikolaus0486]

On the "For Hyde Park - Alight at Marble Arch station" poster (1983/4/2393): it denotes several spots of interest inside Hyde Park. Amongst others, it says "Diana Fountain", which I would immediately connect with the late Princess of Wales, Lady Diana. However, you state it's from 1928. So what about the Diana Fountain? Especially as the Lady Diana Memorial is also in Hyde Park.

[@jacksugden8190]

Enjoyed the tour, the same as old TIMEX watches, still learning about disused sections of tube stations, hadn’t been to that station for years, last time it may have had the original plain white tiles, those old 1992 trains, used to use the line with those silver trains with a guard, quite liked those new platform designs, these days seldom use Zone 1, so never see the changes, not even the new Crossrail stations.

[@islasandjessicas]

Having recently visited London, and been on the underground network for the first time in almost 30 years, I was travelling with a friend and we noticed a mouse scurrying around underneath the rails, and my friend commented about how the rodents have obviously learned not to touch the live rail, but this got me thinking, would it possibly be similar to birds sitting on high voltage power lines, that the rodents are too small to be electrocuted, it may be a silly question, but one that got me thinking, and I wondered if any of you knew for sure the answer.... - Jess

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

As you'll know, the electricity will take the path of least resistance, in the main. So if the mouse is in the way or has now by chance itself become the path, it will feel the force. Matters not what the size, only the resistivity counts. Could be a penny piece doing the job after all.

[@ulazygit]

Nice to see a station I’ve used quite frequently when I worked down the road at Stratford Place … it had been a few years since then, but not as long as those ‘galleries’ have been closed up! Keep them coming … anything worth looking at around Heathrow? If you time your filming for 3rd July, you could get me coming off the plane (yes, after 11 years I’m coming back to the UK!)

[@Prazsky_vlekar]

Love the video it was great ❤

[@timamor915]

I hadn't realised that the subway network at Marble Arch had even been closed down let alone closed down reopened for the Olympics and then closed down again. I probably last got disorientated down there in the 1990s.

[@risingchads]

One ad looks like Gilbey's Invalid Port! A strange product but widely advertised, not sure whether the Port caused the invalidity or was reserved for after its onset.

[@martynthomas7486]

Lovely episode as usual. I was walking through the 'poster & historic photos corridor' the other day as there is a nice lit up crown which has been installed opposite Marble Arch following the Coronation. For a future NQQ session- would you consider a video on the history of the DLR as it has had a very interesting past. Also it would be nice to see around a Tube depot or two, perhaps Golders Green or Northumberland Park. I was looking back at some earlier episodes and for me and the very epitome of a perfect format was the one looking at Wood Lane- a good lively Zoom chat, brilliant archive photos, a visit to the new station and the story of the vintage mosaic which now adorns the back window of the ticket hall. More like this please!

[@SaturnCanuck]

That was great. Nice posters. But, the man's name was Samuel Clemens -- his pen name was Mark Twain.

[@yorkiepudd2]

Brilliant visit. That's guys 👍

[@NapierNimbus]

Fascinating video, full of interest.

[@Toffeeabi81]

I love those posters and mosaics are lovely. Are the public to see them? I would love to go around the tube and look the art work. I love your shows. I would love to do. one of the hidden london tours. I found your channel during covid or helped me so much.

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

6:05 Bless you, yes it is.

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

After a bit of digging, the average London Labourer's weekly wage in '32 was just £1, 11s / 0d. The Ingersoll offer was about a day's wage therefore unless domestic staff or other 7days per week workers. This depends upon the watch now. Very coy about the original charges, as all companies of some age can be, there was advertised a Dollar watch with the line that you could do a day's work and buy a tough smart timepiece. A day's wage of $1 in exchange for a watch for longer than a day. You trust.

[@AndrewTempest]

I don't think it's to do with 5'/week but an advert for "Ingersoll 5'- Watch". Ingersoll was famous in the US for the "dollar watch" and if you Google for images of 1930 Ingersoll adverts, there a few that come up for Ingersoll watches at 5' (5 shillings) . 5 shillings would be abbreviated as " 5'- ", which in some typefaces looks more like " 5/- ". I assume a 5' watch was a good deal in the early 30s.

[@JustSomeBloke1]

"It's actually quite a large shaft"" Sure I've heard that before somewhere?

[@SirSidley]

Another interesting video 😊 have you done Balham? I remember working at Balham telephone exchange in the 1980’s and there was a door down to an underground switchboard and access to the tube tunnels, you could hear the trains 😮 look forward to the next one ❤

[@309JT]

Absolutely brilliant! Please can you visit the disused subway at Stratford, i know its got original tiling and mosaics in!

[@sandrabennett6166]

Wonderful

[@watchmakersp9935]

Very enjoyable..but did you miss out the black panelling on wallside opposite the eastbound platform used as an air raid shelter in ww2? ...btw the entrance to stn as was hit by a bomb.

[@TheTimGowen]

I used to go to the Odeon around the corner so I love this station!

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

You should seriously go again and be bowled over by the extraordinary Frameless art exhibition in the former screen rooms. Sad that another cinema went, especially here at the Crossroads of the West and North routes in the capital. But if you've ever dreamt of swimming past Les Baigneurs or wanted to scream right back at Munch's bloke, do it. Do it now! Best way I spent a full afternoon all the last year. Brilliant!

[@marchampson006]

Another great video i feel a Phone in topic coming perhaps on Jo Good Radio show 'Salivating With Siddy' Alex. Marc in Bletchley

[@alexgrundon2346]

Not a dry lip in the house 😉

[@dianekivi5349]

The cobwebs are ceiling furniture!

[@richardsingh5827]

Good work

[@peterdawson2645]

I think (!) that I read a description in a book about the darker side of London life that the subways at Marble Arch and/or Hyde Park Corner became a regular spot for rough sleeping and also gang based crime and begging. Might be mistaken, but that would explain why a potentially useful link is left locked up except for special occasions? Can't remember the name of the book unfortunately, nor which of the stations it was!

[@AndrewTempest]

I think the Ingersoll signs are not about 5'/week but an advert for "Ingersoll 5' Watch" - Ingersoll being a watch company. I googled for images of 1930s Ingersoll adverts and there are few that come up for Ingersoll watches at 5' (5 shillings). Thanks.

[@stuartpalmer8233]

Another great episode, guys. One of my lesser-used stations. Question for you about wayleaves! Mention has often been made of the older lines following roadways (and the Central Line under Oxford Street is a great example) to avoid wayleave payments to building owners. But the newer cuts through the centre - thinking of the Victoria between Warren Street and Victoria, and the Jubilee between Baker Street and Westminster - are basically diagonals and must cut under myriad buildings. Has the law on wayleaves changed, or was it simply handed over to the legal department to get on with arranging all the wayleaves? If the latter, it must have kept the lawyers busy for a while!

[@SuperHonshu]

There is an Ingersoll, ON in Canada. Lol!

[@mikesnowden1054]

I suspect the reason is quite simple - that corridor used to be a vagrant sleeping location, stunk and was intimidating to use without continual security. Diverting people to the surface was safer.

[@simonbiggs9102]

1000 out of 10

[@stevepowell5921]

New to these very interesting and informative videos. How about St James’s Park?. On recent visits I’ve used it a few times. I remember shops and an entrance for London Underground office??. Keep up the great work. Steve.

[@TheMightyAntar]

If possible it would be nice to revist the walkthrough at some time in the future with a add-in showing the posters that you noted showing how they looked originally - assuming of course that a copy of them still exists in the archives

[@alexgrundon2346]

That’s the problem. Many sadly don’t exist

[@femcymoedd535]

The reference to Spalding - would it be a poster for an excursion to the tulip fields in Spalding in Lincs?

[@PDXLibertarian]

So, there's a super-long pedestrian subway between marble arch on the central line and hyde park corner on the piccadilly line, but it would mess up the tube map, so they closed the subway.

[@doublea06]

50/50⭐⭐⭐

[@johndavidbaldwin3075]

poster suggestion "Invalid Transport"

[@borderlands6606]

I think it's Gilbey's Invalid Port, a kind of tonic wine.

[@heckelphon]

@@borderlands6606 Absolutely! There was an enamel sign for it sold at a railwayana auction in November 2021, and the letter spacing matches pretty exactly.

[@lydialen6881]

I had a geography teacher called Mrs Brewood. Wonder if it's the same one as its not a very common name . She was a very good teacher.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Her first name was Elizabeth if that helps. God it’s a small world if it’s the same person. Great geography teacher. Inspired me to do a geography degree.

[@lydialen6881]

@Alex Grundon I don't know what her first name was unfortunately. She taught me in 1979 and my school closed in 1981 so perhaps could have been her.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Which part of the country were you schooled? She taught me from 1988 onwards at secondary level

[@lydialen6881]

@@alexgrundon2346 Welwyn Garden City at Mater Dei School for Girls.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Just down the road from me. Bet it was the same person. What a small world

[@simonbiggs9102]

Posters 🥰

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

No Wet wipes? (20:45) (Grr) anybody? An instantly sackable offence. All assuming that the other had brought some. Always look up and Never assume.

[@jamesbalchin4640]

Morden would be a good one

[@eatinghealthy2893]

grea vlogt❤❤

[@nixmixes770]

The Hyde Park subway was inhabited by a lot of people without a roof over their head and certain aromas made it not a pleasant stroll.

[@RaggyAl1971]

Didn't Ingersoll make watches back in the day?

[@madhatter61]

Yes, dad had one. May even still make them.

[@louise.saunders100]

Could you take us to Paddington Station when it was Build. And why it is Called Paddington Station.

[@stephensaines7100]

Perhaps because I'm an electronic tech, and it's glaring at me...but you're missing the fluorescent elephant in the tunnel: The lighting! Something might be amiss with your dating of events, albeit there's a *slim* possibility you have it right, and if so, all the more reason to point out the fluorescents must have been just installed, perhaps within weeks or months, of that tunnel being abandoned. You might want to run that past one of your electricians or technical historians.

[@heckelphon]

Is it possible that the passageways were still deemed essential after the lifts were removed? That would have required the lighting to be updated in due course. When did fluorescents become commonplace? I had thought it was mid-1930s, in which case that's a long time after 1932 to be keeping the lighting in the old lift access passageways updated unless the passageways were still in use for some purpose.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Do you mean in the disused parts of the station? They all remain in need of regular inspection so lighting and power circuits need to be safe and serviceable at all times for inspections to take place

[@heckelphon]

@@alexgrundon2346 If the changeover to escalators at Marble Arch was in 1932, and fluorescent lighting didn't become a reality until around the mid-1930s, then those old lift access passageways would have still been lit with incandescent lamps. Were they really fitted out with fluorescents with the lamp unit frequency (i.e. how many per 10 feet or whatever) when the passageways were already regarded as abandoned? Or were those passageways retained for some emergency purpose, and thus they had to have the full lighting upgrade? How often is that the case elsewhere in the abandoned areas? And remember, we're talking about 1930s H&S equivalent here, not 2023! I can recall in the late 1950s many of the 1930s escalators still having those incandescent uplighters to reflect off the "vault" and much of the lighting still being much softer. Many platforms on the Bakerloo still had the pendant lights with octagonal (I think) sides to the shades. The gloom on those City Branch Northern Line stations like Angel with the very narrow central platform in a large cavern was positively stygian! Using those platforms in rush hour was really precarious.

[@alexgrundon2346]

In most, if not all of the explores we do, I hardly ever see a ‘light bulb’ unless it’s in a weather-proof bulkhead fitting. The rest are florries (as we used to call them on building sites) because although the corridors are not public, they are still property which needs regular inspection. Remember these passages are now effectively air vents so rather than thinking of them as “disused” or abandoned, “repurposed” is a better description - and as such they require specified lighting and fittings to modern standards

[@stephensaines7100]

@@alexgrundon2346 Thumbs up for acknowledging the debate. How about the question be submitted to an historian at the L.U. Museum? It might 'light' a debate and a more definitive answer?

[@dgattenb]

im still surpusrise you folk dont wear masks .. all that dirt and grime.... your lungs must feel like they have had a big smoke !!... fab vids !!!

[@IndaloMan]

Please go back to the two presenter format as they are much more informative because there is no 'Competition' regarding who speaks the most. Four presenters is too many and unnecessary.

[@alexgrundon2346]

We mix it up. Sometimes two; sometimes four

[@JustSomeBloke1]

Personally I disagree. All 4 presenters bring something different to the table. Great to hear from all of you.

[@alexgrundon2346]

Eric ❤️