Down Street Underground Station
The residents of wealthy Mayfair were not keen on a Tube station being built on their doorsteps – they feared it would bring “undesirables” into the area. The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway had trouble purchasing land; instead of a station situated on Piccadilly itself, they had to make do with building on Down Street, away from the main road. This necessitated construction of longer passageways underground to bring passengers from the lifts to the platforms.
The station opened on 15 March 1907, immediately suffering from low passenger numbers; those living in the surrounding residential area could afford other methods of transport, and the station was close to Hyde Park Corner and Dover Street (now Green Park). By 1909 trains often skipped Down Street; by 1918 it was closed on Sundays. In 1929, with plans for extending the Piccadilly Line in progress, Down Street was marked for closure; the last official service was on 21st May 1932.
This was not the end of Down Street’s use though; in 1939 it was selected as the site for an underground bunker for the use of the Railway Executive Committee, from where they could control the running of Britain’s railways during the Second World War. The tunnels and platforms were converted into offices, dining rooms, bathrooms and dormitories; rumour has it the dimensions of the corridors that ran alongside were planned to be just wide enough for a tea trolley. The Down Street bunker was secure and “comfortable” enough that it was also used by Winston Churchill and other members of the government before the completion of the Cabinet War Rooms.
After the War, the station was given back to London Transport for engineering access and as an emergency exit point; as such, many of the offices in the tunnels were removed, though those on the platforms remain. London Transport Museum operates tours of Down Street, showing visitors down the dusty spiral stairs to the darkened corridors, where Piccadilly Line trains rush past just behind metal gates, their passengers most likely unaware of the ghost station
