Into London for a fairly new tour, this time at the Piccadilly Circus hub. You start off by one of the least used exits and make your way into the concourse getting a history lesson along the way. There is an old map in the concourse area and directly opposite a tribute to Frank Pick.

Here I felt that we should have been shown around the concourse a lot better before descending down the stairs to the hidden tunnels. There is a fair amount of unique 1920s architectural features to point out. The tile work, pillars lights, a very unique world clock map was addressed. Maybe it would help to point out the location of where Stephen Bone’s mural was before it was lost. We then walked round to an area with a few small shops. However the majority of these seemed unoccupied, but the foot fall at the time didn’t look like it would help the matter.

The lead tour guide chose some steps next to a small shop and we descended down. This seemed mainly to not get caught up with other passengers. We made it down to the Northern Line platform where at one end we entered through a gated door.

This is where you enter and feel really off the grid, a feeling of, I shouldn’t be here. These tunnels and others around housed many of the peoples of London during the WW2 blitz. We were shown many photos of the people sleeping on the escalators as well. One photo looked a lot like St John Woods tube station. There was also a section of tunnel to house artworks to protect them from the bombing. These were transported from Dover Street (now Green Park) via a tube train for storage. Saw some abandoned lift shafts, round a bit more then the tour felt like it abruptly ended.

This is the first time I feel that a Hidden London tour needs to be adjusted. But nevertheless, it was an interesting experience. Not as good as their Aldwych experience which is the one I recommend the most.