In the late 90’s , I was part of an acquisition survey for the deep shelter in Chancery Lane. During my investigations, I found 2 brand new mercury arch rectifiers beneath the liftshafts. They were still in their WD wooden crates. I bet they are still there now. One of the things I discovered was the old ventilation ducts with fans that hadn’t worked for years and were no longer functioning. We had only a narrow window of time before the oxygen began to get poor and it just shows the tunnels were heavily reliant on fresh air movement.
I helped to install and maintain a BT computer centre down there in one of the main tunnels in the 80's and a few years later helped to remove it again. It was a very poor decision to locate there, there was never enough fresh air so there was a constant problem with cooling the equipment.
@@andywarne963 The survey I was part of was for Data Storage, or so we were told. We were led into the tunnels where the Ipcress Computer was and generators- It was one of those war department offices and clearly lots of people had worked down there at some time. Although there were lifts down there that had been modernised- there was lot of water in the plant-rooms and at the bottom of the staircases- I was the only one who ventured into the deep as typically the others turned up in suits. I had a boiler suit over the top of mine! Very unpleaseant conditions after an hour or so. The generator and telecoms had been removed- but Id hazard a guess that it had been a BT instalation in the 1950's/60's.
@@patrickjmorgan The Icarus system was installed and removed in the 80's and was in the centre of one of the main long E-W tunnels. It was a modern fit-out with vertical false walls and raised floor. The southern part of the complex with the huge N-S tunnels was secret. At that time all the Kingsway Exchange equipment was being removed, hundreds of tons of it. One of the recent Urbex UA-cam videos shows it which brings back memories. There is still a magnetic tape control unit there which was not migrated to the later site which was a standard BT data centre. Thats likely because it was wired in with a huge 3-phase cable (which I connected!). There was no issue working down there for whole shifts but the computer equipment didnt like the environment at all.
Quite nostalgic to see my birthplace on screen. No, not the shelter (or the station), but the (ex) South London Hospital for Women on the other side of the road. Clapham South was my local station through my childhood, but somehow I was less curious in those days about the cylindrical brick building on the edge of the common beside it. Thanks for stirring the memories.
My daughter was born in the South London Hospital for Women in 1978. Some people (not me !)can be very embarrassed when their children start asking where they come from and answer with,for instance, "we bought you in Tesco's". Ironically the Hospital is now a Tesco's. It's a pity really. A Hospital run for women and run exclusively by women was closed by a woman. That's right, Thatcher.
"American know-how on how to provide rapid, efficient transport." Would you mind sharing that back with us? Seems we've long since forgotten all of that knowledge.
To add insult to injury,when the US government decided to fund highways during the 1920's,without even noticing that the areas that were built up were due to transit! Plus there was pressure from the bankers,oil companies,and automotive interests to sell more cars,so the traffic was induced,to the detriment of local and long haul transit lines! The Rockefeller fortune was founded on destruction of competition,so the same combine,mentioned above,also destroyed the streetcars,and Interurbans,which ironically made the production of WW2 possible,as it was impossible to manufacture automobiles,and tanks,airplanes starting in 1934,so now the US,is caught in no- win situation 😀! Thanks oligarchs!! Thank you for your diligence and persistence! 😇
@@thesteelrodent1796Oh, I don't know - LT didn't do too badly - in fact they did a fantastic job of unifying all the disparate elements of London's public transport, and would have been even better, had WW2 and austerity not gotten in the way. It's only now in the 21st century that commonsense has been thrown out, along with the baby and the bathwater, that we need reminding of "How to do it".
Yes it shows the real danger of governments trying to overpromote the 'benefits' of car ownership. Luckily although we'd started to seriously damage the railways during Beeching's first wave of cuts, thankfully we never followed his entire plan (If you want to know what railways would have remained after phase two, simply imagine an Inter City rail map!).
I worked on the deep underground shelter under Clapham North station 25 years (or so) ago. There is a sump under the central double helix stairs and central lift shaft. The steel pipe that took the small amount of ground water that seeps in and during the war the Elsan toilet discharge had corrroded and we cut it out and replaced it with a thick walled plastic pipe. You could go up some stairs to the Northern line platform and there was a grill where you could see out onto the platform. They had used the shelters for some filming and there was mock sandbag walls from vacuum formed plastic sheets. Some of the Elsan toilets were rusting away in some of the cubicles. I was reliably told by the boss of the firm we were working for there was a glass 'rectifier' with a mercury pan in the bottom. There used to one in the science museum you could see demonstrated before, I guess 'health & safety' made them remove it. Keep up your good work I love watching your videos and your narrration.
There are several URBEX (Urban Exploration) videos on UA-cam showing people unofficially going into these places. I have no affiliation with any of them as I no longer live in the UK, but a chanel here called "The Secret Vault" has a few.
It wasn't "health and safety", mercury arc rectifiers actually had a good safety record, it was the vastly superior in terms of conversion efficiency of solid state rectifiers, far cheaper, much more reliable, and a vastly lower 'insertion loss' produced by the forward voltage drop (only a fraction of a volt with silicon, vs some 300v in a mercury assisted vacuum tube), almost no sag to the supply source...and did I state "cheaper"? And solid state diodes have a lifetime (if used within spec) of thousands of years +.
Gosh - I think we're *both* showing our age as I can remember the mercury arc rectifier too ! In the 'Electricity Hall' as I recall before it was turned into the 'Space' section. And I could go into grumpy mode and say something about 'this being back in the days when the Science Museum was a place where you could actually learn something as opposed to it's current use as children's entertainment/theme park/expensive cafe/even more expensive shop .... but I won't.
Hving spent quite a few years in Clapham Junction and Balham - mostly without a motor car, because what' the point - all this is rather touching. Thanks. (Now in Edinburgh; no tube but a tram. When they finish the damn thing)
Thanks Jago. This brought back memories of the 8 years I spent in London from 1966 to 1974, where I lived at Mitcham for Six years and then at Tooting Broadway for the last Two years. I frequently travelled in the 'Misery Line' as the Northern Line was commonly called. This video has reminded me of the Clapham Common and Clapham North 'Island' platforms, which I was recently discussing with friends, on a day out in London. I mentioned the Island platforms to them, but couldn't remember which stations had them; nor how many had them. When I moved to London in 1966, all the tube stations on the Northern Line - South of Kennington and Waterloo - still had Wooden Escalators. If my memory serves me correctly, the escalators were still wooden, when I left London in 1974. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
They were only replaced after that tragic fire at Kings Cross. Wooden escalators were common across many of the older stations. A massive renewal programme which caused chaos at weekends on the network for what seemed like forever.
I seem to remember watching BBC Countryfile a few months ago and one of the Clapham deep shelters is now a farm growing Micro Greens using Hydroponics with LED lighting. In the right place for all the trendy South London restaurants. Almost zero food miles.
I used to live by the station. I can barely remember it because my family moved out when I was very small, but we lived in Nightingale Lane in an apartment right by the station. Very interesting to see this video.
Are you being served? has a tie into this! Mrs. Slocombe: "Some of us have long memories, you know--I haven't forgotten being flung flat on me back on Clapham Common by a landmine. And the German Air Force was responsible!" Mr. Lucas: "All the other times she was flat on her back, the American Air Force was responsible."
When going to a choir rehearsal I used to go to Clapham junction, our rehearsal room has changed and now I go to Clapham South, I’m fascinated by the fact that I’m travelling over WW2 air raid shelters.
I just realized through your opening comment that the original video was your first one... I never could have guessed it. For me, it was one of your best Tales of the Tube and certainly the most original one, at least at this time.
2018 went on the LT Hidden London tour of Clapham South. Well worth it if anyone gets the chance !! Was told the deep level shelter at Clapham North has racks of plants grown under red light to promote growth - I seem to recall the shelter from Clapham South to Clapham Common is 1180feet long complete with. 2 parallel tunnels Also inside the drum entrance is a gated service lift used for food and drink supplies only - no pedestrian access !! Thanks Jago another real interesting episode 👍👏
Whilst all your videos are fascinating (no, really, they are), this has to be one of the very best in quite a while, so thank you. I had cause to stay in London back in March, and stayed just round the corner from Clapham South (partly on purpose given its relative proximity to Battersea Power Station Station Station, and other tube stations I’d not visited previously), so it’s rather strange seeing places so fresh in my memory on a video. It was also the trip where The Dreaded Lurgy finally caught up with me, so bittersweet and all. I don’t recall you having done many videos exploring the 1940s’ Tube, so do feel free to make more: I for one would find them fascinating.
I seem to have read somewhere that the tunnels built under the South London Northern Line were part of a plan to extend the Northern Line from Morden to Sutton using the Wimbledon to Sutton Line (the two lines almost meet at Morden tube depot but were never connected). I presume the idea was to build a fast second Northern Line tube under the original with limited stops, a bit like the Piccadilly/District Line between Acton Town and Earls Court . This would have reduced congestion, sped up journey times as well as extending the Underground further south.
Jago,always the student,and open to revisions,updates,and reworks!! Thanks for the filling in,and expansion of old(?), material 👌! Thank you 😇 😊 🙏 👍 😀 ☺️ 😇!
Good followup video. Clapham South was my home station growing up. I once saw a Nightingale Lane sign in a roundel on the north bound platform. Someone had stolen the Clapham South sign that had been screwed on top.
The thing about "speculative tube lines" is always the question "would they have been successful"? If they existed today, would they be useful. This one seems worth a revisit. One of these days if I win a few gazillions on the lottery, it would be fun to make a what if? film. (I'll need to pick your brains though)
Walking between Kennington UndergrounD staion and Vauxhall, I noticed fencing between the road and council flats made up of wartime steel bedframes from the deep level shelters, also (as you say) re-used for temporarily accommodating the Windrush arrivals.
Great video. Brings back memories of when I was a student in London in the seventies and stayed at Halliday Hall (sadly now gone)oppoite the Windmill pub. Used to use Clapham South a lot, and the kebab shop round the corner, and the 'Hoover' Chinese takeaway across the road.
Goodge Street fortress was also where Colonel Lethbridge Stewart with the aid of Professor Travers and a mysterious little man known as The Doctor defeated the Great Intelligence and Yeti robots in the underground tunnels. Doctor Who the Web Of Fear was my all time favourite book when i was a kid.
I wonder if the Goodge Street shelter was remembered by the writers of The Doctor Who serial The Web Of Fear when they needed a location within the Underground setting as most of it takes place in "a fortress" at Goodge street
Just a clarification - these buildings were not built circular by mistake. The fact is that a direct hit by a bomb was thankfully unlikely (and impossible to defend from). The circular shape would disperse the force of an explosion, potentially compromising the structure entirely and requiring a rebuild. Like an inside-out tunnel.
There was, perhaps an urban legend, that underneath Goodge Street station was an MI6 office, which was entered through an adjacent small tobacconist/confectionery shop. It was supposed link up with its office in Curzon Street, I can't see how though.
I joined Mott, Hay& Anderson civil engineering consultants who looked after many of the famous London structures one being Tower Bridge and another the deep shelters. The start date of my assignment on the Cairo Waste Water Scheme was put back a month and so was given an Inspectors job on the deep shelters. Tarmac were carrying out joint sealing repairs to a shaft of one of the S. London shelters. This was back in the late 1970s/ early 80s. I met up with a Motts senior engineer outside the now Eisenhower US Army shelter and toured it, and the onto S. London one shelter was being used as a film set and all the others as storage facility's I was told the original idea was they would be turned into another Northen Line after the war. Why not try contacting Mott, Mac Donald's tunnel division in Croydon.
I went on a tour of the Clapham Deep Shelter. They told us 1 of the things it was now used for was growing salad for Marks& Spencer. They used the hydroponically so the drugs squad had to check they weren't growing drugs! Also someone received a mobile phone call. The tour guide laughed. She said what network they had!
I use to work on the original lift during the late 80s early 90s at Clapham common, Clapham north for the government dept PSA.The old boy I worked with also worked on the one's at Clapham common, Stockwell before being sold off in the mid 80s.
"Speculative Tube Lines" - the Gondor Line (from Minas Tirith to Pelargir), the Westeros line from King's Landing to White Harbor (temporarily no disabled access at Lannisport), and of course the Potter Line, from platform 10-and-three-quarters at Kings Cross (replacement hippogriff service beyond Azkaban).
Here's an interesting idea. Maybe you could do a video on the British museum tube station. there aren't many videos on the subject and the station has interested me.
After one of your earlier videos, I looked into the speculative tube line and other speculative lines that the aforementioned plan had, What I found the most fascinating and rife for any alternative history writers out there, wad the proposal to demolish the mainline viaducts that reach up to London Bridge station, and to replace them with tunneled mainlines. This would also have entailed the demolition of London Bridge station which would have been replaced by a vast underground interchange called Tower Bridge. On the site of the Shard, which could then clearly not have been built. How different would London have been?
Many skyscrapers have been built above underground stations around the world and some underground stations have been dug under existing buildings. In either case, two things are needed (besides permits): 1. Carefully constructed, placed and interlinked pillars holding up the building above while standing on layers below. 2. Putting the entrances either next to or inside the building above. This very video shows a round station entrance from the 1940s that has become part of the ground level of a later building.
@@mbrady2329 TFL step measurement territory to be precise. The idea being of course that the average person would be put off the thought of such a massive climb.
I’ve worked in tunnels near Brixton/Stockwell. I won’t say the name because sim not sure if I’m allowed or not. Identical tunnels and the old beds from the blitz are still in there being used as shelving for document storage. An old wire mesh lift shaft with the original lift still running inside goes down about 5 floors deep. There’s two levels at this depth. The tunnels go on for ages and I’ve been told do connect to the tracks at some point.
Could you look into the Sutton loop? I always thought of how out of place it is and how seemly underutilized it is when South London could use better public transport links.
I suggested stations at Colliers Wood High Street and Mitcham Lane but Mayor of London Office not interested. Also using Tram Train common running north of Wimbledon, but likewise no interest
I wonder if you could do a video on the nightmare that is the circle/district/metropolitan mess. Things like why most lines have a colour for them (the handrails etc match the line colour) but for some reason these 3 lines tend to just be a 'whatever is available, usually a yellow' train. God I miss those older metropolitan trains with the glass partitions and train style seating and if I recall wooden flooring. Was using district (so they claim but it wasn't green) earlier and thought you're the man for the job of investigating this :)
This is a coincidence, as I passed Clapham South this morning. It has to be said that the grass on the Common is now very yellow. Oh to have a month of rain!
Hi Jago, I've done a few measurements of the Stockwell Deep Level Underground Shelter. In a previous post I mentioned that the tunnels were definitely built to be used as a line after the War. The floor of the lower level has a split level floor, the right side is raised 12in above the left hand side. The raised side is 58in wide, the lower side 53in wide. The tunnel its self is toughly 200in in diameter, or approximately 5 meters. There is also strategic safe havens along the tunnels, at these points the diameter of the tunnel is increased by 25in either side, opening up the diameter of the tunnels by 50in, making the tunnel approximately 250in in diameter. Hopefully this will answer your question as to whether the London Underground did intend to create an express Northern Line after the War? Keep up the great work you do, between yourself, Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway of (Secrets of the London Underground), I'm totally hooked on the history of London's railway history and hidden secrets 😎
12:01 - Is this the train north from London? We took the trip from London to Edinburgh a few years ago and it looks familiar Greetings from Canada, your Newest subscriber!
8:34 With regards to the source(s) that suggest the tunnels were too small to be directly used as stations: there could be an element of truth to this, as the tunnels were 16ft 6in in diameter, whereas the existing tube stations were around 21 ft, though apparently they would have been a good fit for full sized stock. However this doesn't necessarily mean that they couldn't have converted them into stations if desired, just that the tunnels (at least the parts for platforms) would have required widening. I can see are a couple of advantages to: firstly the initial costs would have been lower, an important factor in wartime. Secondly, it avoided the possibility of going to all the effort and cost of designing and building a full station layout, and then possibly still having to modify it later anyway, or having all that effort wasted if it turned out you didn't want or need a station exactly there (which as it turned out was true).
i love your videos Jago...always something to learn even if it is a revisited topic. nothing is ever boring! i think you should put in a "dum dum dummmmmm" sound effect anytime you mention Charles Yerkes!
I used to live in London for 2 years. It has been the most glamorous two years of my life. Being away from the city during the pandemic, I suffered mild depression and anxiety. Your videos make me feel like I'm in London again and help with this reverse homesickness of mine. Thank you for making these videos. Please keep on what you're doing.
Hi Jago, The tunnels were definitely designed to carry trains in at some point in the future, on the lower levels of every shelter there is a clear split level floor, having been down 6 of the 7, South Clapham being my 7th very soon, I can confirm that both the Northbound and Southbound tunnels have the step to the right and pit to the left, which were designed to take an electrified track bed. I will be down Stockwell shelter later this week and I can give you the pit measurement, see if it matches standard Northern Line track beds? I could also get a rough diameter of the tunnels too? 🤔 Keep up the good work 👏
Weren't some of those tunnels and steps used in an episode of Blake's Seven? The pattern of the cast iron segments looks the same and it was said an episode was partly filmed in LT tube station tunnels.
I lived in North London from the mid 80s to 2000 and the Northern Line was always my closest station (Finchley Central and then Belsize Park) so it was fascinating to hear the history of the southern part of the Northern Line. In 1988 my wife bought me a book for my birthday entitle London Under London by Trench and Hillman. It gave me a glimpse into the hidden depths of London. I was very interested. Years later, I live in a beautiful part of Yorkshire with a history as long as London's but nothing like as rich. London is a great city and I miss some things about it very much. There are quite a few things I don't miss though (air/noise/light pollution, traffic, cost, crime) so I'll be staying on t'moors.
I'm from Morden and I have spent MILLIONS OF HOURS on the Northern Line in my life. Literally, massive swaths of my adult work and social life would be absent from my existence had it not been for this immense piece of infrastructure. It's a 15 minute walk from the station to my Mum's house and although that always bothered me being at the bottom of the line a far walk from home (especially working bar hours) the alternative of not having anything was far far worse.
Clapham South is one of my favourite stations. It's got a bit of everything I love about the Underground. Plus the surrounding area is a nice place to stay for a trip. Clapham North and Clapham Common make me feel like I'm going to die though.
Got all excited there, thought I'd found a video all about my old stomping ground of Clapham South. Turns out it was all about the underground station, also turned out to be pretty interesting.
@@JP_TaVeryMuch I used to take my jeopardy negotiating walking down bank northern line platform to get to any other part of the station. Wonder when they'll fix Clapham?
Another great video, I still often wonder why they didn't use the tunnels between Clapham South & Stockwell to do a express line going into the city, something like some of the NY metro? anyways could you do some info about the line running around Loughborough Junction?
There were proposals to build and operate an express limited stop service with extra lines to relieve overcrowding on the southern Northern Line. I must re-read 'London's Secret Tubes' by Emerson and Beard.
I've seen speculative lines & highways built here were the builder, and/or their friends, would buy land around the stations or intersections and make a killing a few years later. There was also the cases where the lines and highways would pass through areas of land that would not sell to the builders and friends without a station or intersection - where there logically should have been one.
Obviously they were in cahoots with politicians who at the time were into double dealing, marples the transport minister springs to mind when he decimated the railways and built up his road transport business, alas that’s classed as business to them but illegal trading to the lower classes
In the late 90’s , I was part of an acquisition survey for the deep shelter in Chancery Lane. During my investigations, I found 2 brand new mercury arch rectifiers beneath the liftshafts. They were still in their WD wooden crates. I bet they are still there now. One of the things I discovered was the old ventilation ducts with fans that hadn’t worked for years and were no longer functioning. We had only a narrow window of time before the oxygen began to get poor and it just shows the tunnels were heavily reliant on fresh air movement.
I helped to install and maintain a BT computer centre down there in one of the main tunnels in the 80's and a few years later helped to remove it again. It was a very poor decision to locate there, there was never enough fresh air so there was a constant problem with cooling the equipment.
@@andywarne963 The survey I was part of was for Data Storage, or so we were told. We were led into the tunnels where the Ipcress Computer was and generators- It was one of those war department offices and clearly lots of people had worked down there at some time. Although there were lifts down there that had been modernised- there was lot of water in the plant-rooms and at the bottom of the staircases- I was the only one who ventured into the deep as typically the others turned up in suits. I had a boiler suit over the top of mine! Very unpleaseant conditions after an hour or so. The generator and telecoms had been removed- but Id hazard a guess that it had been a BT instalation in the 1950's/60's.
@@patrickjmorgan The Icarus system was installed and removed in the 80's and was in the centre of one of the main long E-W tunnels. It was a modern fit-out with vertical false walls and raised floor. The southern part of the complex with the huge N-S tunnels was secret. At that time all the Kingsway Exchange equipment was being removed, hundreds of tons of it. One of the recent Urbex UA-cam videos shows it which brings back memories. There is still a magnetic tape control unit there which was not migrated to the later site which was a standard BT data centre. Thats likely because it was wired in with a huge 3-phase cable (which I connected!). There was no issue working down there for whole shifts but the computer equipment didnt like the environment at all.
@@andywarne963 that’s the one! So, you know what I’m on about and yes, it’s a significant sized operations facility but 100 feet of do down!
Interesting information here, thanks Andy and Patrick
Quite nostalgic to see my birthplace on screen. No, not the shelter (or the station), but the (ex) South London Hospital for Women on the other side of the road. Clapham South was my local station through my childhood, but somehow I was less curious in those days about the cylindrical brick building on the edge of the common beside it. Thanks for stirring the memories.
My birthplace on Cable Street is just covered by the big stonking bomber at 5:18!
Actually, there’s an idea for a video series if anyone ever seems so inclined: former hospitals of London. Or, better still, Liverpool.
thanks for sharing, very interesting
My daughter was born in the South London Hospital for Women in 1978.
Some people (not me !)can be very embarrassed when their children start asking where they come from and answer with,for instance, "we bought you in Tesco's".
Ironically the Hospital is now a Tesco's.
It's a pity really. A Hospital run for women and run exclusively by women was closed by a woman.
That's right, Thatcher.
@@simonwinter8839 the hospital I was born at was pulled down and replaced by a retail ‘park’ so I can say I was born at JJB!
I always look forward to the Geoff and Jago show
And Bald and Bankrupt!
"American know-how on how to provide rapid, efficient transport." Would you mind sharing that back with us? Seems we've long since forgotten all of that knowledge.
once Yerkes went across the Atlantic all the know-how went with him ;)
To add insult to injury,when the US government decided to fund highways during the 1920's,without even noticing that the areas that were built up were due to transit! Plus there was pressure from the bankers,oil companies,and automotive interests to sell more cars,so the traffic was induced,to the detriment of local and long haul transit lines! The Rockefeller fortune was founded on destruction of competition,so the same combine,mentioned above,also destroyed the streetcars,and Interurbans,which ironically made the production of WW2 possible,as it was impossible to manufacture automobiles,and tanks,airplanes starting in 1934,so now the US,is caught in no- win situation 😀! Thanks oligarchs!! Thank you for your diligence and persistence! 😇
@@thesteelrodent1796Oh, I don't know - LT didn't do too badly - in fact they did a fantastic job of unifying all the disparate elements of London's public transport, and would have been even better, had WW2 and austerity not gotten in the way. It's only now in the 21st century that commonsense has been thrown out, along with the baby and the bathwater, that we need reminding of "How to do it".
Yes it shows the real danger of governments trying to overpromote the 'benefits' of car ownership. Luckily although we'd started to seriously damage the railways during Beeching's first wave of cuts, thankfully we never followed his entire plan (If you want to know what railways would have remained after phase two, simply imagine an Inter City rail map!).
You were taken for a ride. A long one.
Passenger: Are you going to Clapham?
Bus driver: Only if they're very good.
I worked on the deep underground shelter under Clapham North station 25 years (or so) ago. There is a sump under the central double helix stairs and central lift shaft. The steel pipe that took the small amount of ground water that seeps in and during the war the Elsan toilet discharge had corrroded and we cut it out and replaced it with a thick walled plastic pipe.
You could go up some stairs to the Northern line platform and there was a grill where you could see out onto the platform.
They had used the shelters for some filming and there was mock sandbag walls from vacuum formed plastic sheets.
Some of the Elsan toilets were rusting away in some of the cubicles. I was reliably told by the boss of the firm we were working for there was a glass 'rectifier' with a mercury pan in the bottom. There used to one in the science museum you could see demonstrated before, I guess 'health & safety' made them remove it.
Keep up your good work I love watching your videos and your narrration.
There are several URBEX (Urban Exploration) videos on UA-cam showing people unofficially going into these places. I have no affiliation with any of them as I no longer live in the UK, but a chanel here called "The Secret Vault" has a few.
Kempton Steam Museum has a working Mercury Arc Rectifier on display.
@@gslug1 Mercury rectifiers are actually impressive bits of kit, but all that just to get DC volts from AC. 😁
It wasn't "health and safety", mercury arc rectifiers actually had a good safety record, it was the vastly superior in terms of conversion efficiency of solid state rectifiers, far cheaper, much more reliable, and a vastly lower 'insertion loss' produced by the forward voltage drop (only a fraction of a volt with silicon, vs some 300v in a mercury assisted vacuum tube), almost no sag to the supply source...and did I state "cheaper"? And solid state diodes have a lifetime (if used within spec) of thousands of years +.
Gosh - I think we're *both* showing our age as I can remember the mercury arc rectifier too !
In the 'Electricity Hall' as I recall before it was turned into the 'Space' section.
And I could go into grumpy mode and say something about 'this being back in the days when the Science Museum was a place where you could actually learn something as opposed to it's current use as children's entertainment/theme park/expensive cafe/even more expensive shop .... but I won't.
I Never Thought It Would Happen With Me And This Girl From Clapham
Great Work Jago
Bless Up
Nice station. Too bad i didn't go there last week when i was in london myself. as always: Thanks for your videos!
Love your videos!
Used to work for Hidden London at the Clapham South deep level shelter. One of the most interesting places that I’ve ever worked!
A round of applause for Claphand, er... Clapham!
Hving spent quite a few years in Clapham Junction and Balham - mostly without a motor car, because what' the point - all this is rather touching. Thanks.
(Now in Edinburgh; no tube but a tram. When they finish the damn thing)
Thanks Jago. This brought back memories of the 8 years I spent in London from 1966 to 1974, where I lived at Mitcham for Six years and then at Tooting Broadway for the last Two years. I frequently travelled in the 'Misery Line' as the Northern Line was commonly called. This video has reminded me of the Clapham Common and Clapham North 'Island' platforms, which I was recently discussing with friends, on a day out in London. I mentioned the Island platforms to them, but couldn't remember which stations had them; nor how many had them. When I moved to London in 1966, all the tube stations on the Northern Line - South of Kennington and Waterloo - still had Wooden Escalators. If my memory serves me correctly, the escalators were still wooden, when I left London in 1974. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
They were only replaced after that tragic fire at Kings Cross. Wooden escalators were common across many of the older stations. A massive renewal programme which caused chaos at weekends on the network for what seemed like forever.
I seem to remember watching BBC Countryfile a few months ago and one of the Clapham deep shelters is now a farm growing Micro Greens using Hydroponics with LED lighting. In the right place for all the trendy South London restaurants. Almost zero food miles.
I used to live by the station. I can barely remember it because my family moved out when I was very small, but we lived in Nightingale Lane in an apartment right by the station. Very interesting to see this video.
Ah yes! Kennington, Clapham North and Clapham South, the love triangle of my salad days! Enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
Wasnt expecting this video, as I just took a tour around the bunkers yesterday with hidden london!
Are you being served? has a tie into this! Mrs. Slocombe: "Some of us have long memories, you know--I haven't forgotten being flung flat on me back on Clapham Common by a landmine. And the German Air Force was responsible!"
Mr. Lucas: "All the other times she was flat on her back, the American Air Force was responsible."
When going to a choir rehearsal I used to go to Clapham junction, our rehearsal room has changed and now I go to Clapham South, I’m fascinated by the fact that I’m travelling over WW2 air raid shelters.
Lived above Clapham South for many years, many memories and nostalgia from this!
Ahh, what could better wrap up an exhausting week than some strawberries and a 12 minute Video from our fav underground nerd :)
Happy weekend!
I just realized through your opening comment that the original video was your first one... I never could have guessed it. For me, it was one of your best Tales of the Tube and certainly the most original one, at least at this time.
2018 went on the LT Hidden London tour of Clapham South. Well worth it if anyone gets the chance !! Was told the deep level shelter at Clapham North has racks of plants grown under red light to promote growth - I seem to recall the shelter from Clapham South to Clapham Common is 1180feet long complete with. 2 parallel tunnels Also inside the drum entrance is a gated service lift used for food and drink supplies only - no pedestrian access !! Thanks Jago another real interesting episode 👍👏
It's Clapham Common that has the underground farm but otherwise correct, fascinating stuff
Whilst all your videos are fascinating (no, really, they are), this has to be one of the very best in quite a while, so thank you.
I had cause to stay in London back in March, and stayed just round the corner from Clapham South (partly on purpose given its relative proximity to Battersea Power Station Station Station, and other tube stations I’d not visited previously), so it’s rather strange seeing places so fresh in my memory on a video. It was also the trip where The Dreaded Lurgy finally caught up with me, so bittersweet and all.
I don’t recall you having done many videos exploring the 1940s’ Tube, so do feel free to make more: I for one would find them fascinating.
“and after that it became archives. Something of an anti-climax!” Speaking as an archivist ‘I think not!’ It housed treasures of immense wealth!
I cheered when we had a Yerkes reference 🤣
I seem to have read somewhere that the tunnels built under the South London Northern Line were part of a plan to extend the Northern Line from Morden to Sutton using the Wimbledon to Sutton Line (the two lines almost meet at Morden tube depot but were never connected).
I presume the idea was to build a fast second Northern Line tube under the original with limited stops, a bit like the Piccadilly/District Line between Acton Town and Earls Court . This would have reduced congestion, sped up journey times as well as extending the Underground further south.
The idea of a Wimbledon-Balham fast tunnel exists as an alternative in CR2
🤔 Acton Town to Hammersmith, not Earls Court non stop. A similar journey is between Wembley Park and Finsbury Road non stop on the Metropolitan line.
Jago,always the student,and open to revisions,updates,and reworks!! Thanks for the filling in,and expansion of old(?), material 👌! Thank you 😇 😊 🙏 👍 😀 ☺️ 😇!
Good followup video. Clapham South was my home station growing up. I once saw a Nightingale Lane sign in a roundel on the north bound platform. Someone had stolen the Clapham South sign that had been screwed on top.
The thing about "speculative tube lines" is always the question "would they have been successful"? If they existed today, would they be useful. This one seems worth a revisit. One of these days if I win a few gazillions on the lottery, it would be fun to make a what if? film. (I'll need to pick your brains though)
The southern end of the Northern line is still subject to regular congestion, so the likely answer is that yes, they would have been useful.
Walking between Kennington UndergrounD staion and Vauxhall, I noticed fencing between the road and council flats made up of wartime steel bedframes from the deep level shelters, also (as you say) re-used for temporarily accommodating the Windrush arrivals.
It's a worthy update. You have enough to do, without remakes that don't need it.
While Morden may well have been somewhat rural, all the previous stops were firmly urban having been built up once the trams started running.
Great video. Brings back memories of when I was a student in London in the seventies and stayed at Halliday Hall (sadly now gone)oppoite the Windmill pub. Used to use Clapham South a lot, and the kebab shop round the corner, and the 'Hoover' Chinese takeaway across the road.
Goodge Street fortress was also where Colonel Lethbridge Stewart with the aid of Professor Travers and a mysterious little man known as The Doctor defeated the Great Intelligence and Yeti robots in the underground tunnels.
Doctor Who the Web Of Fear was my all time favourite book when i was a kid.
I'd forgotten the old vid, so this was a nice refresher.
Yes ! - Another great tale from the tube. - I would love to see a video or three on the never built tube/train lines... I love "What if " stories.
That is a definite. There must be so many stories like that to investigate.
I wonder if the Goodge Street shelter was remembered by the writers of The Doctor Who serial The Web Of Fear when they needed a location within the Underground setting as most of it takes place in "a fortress" at Goodge street
Tack!
Just a clarification - these buildings were not built circular by mistake. The fact is that a direct hit by a bomb was thankfully unlikely (and impossible to defend from). The circular shape would disperse the force of an explosion, potentially compromising the structure entirely and requiring a rebuild. Like an inside-out tunnel.
That original video was the reason I subbed. And I've been a fan ever since :-)
Brilliant, and fascinating. I love your self-deprecating humour. Thank you so much.
"American know-how on how to provide rapid, efficient transport." - I had to laugh at that one. How times have changed!
Another very interesting video about our tubes keep up the good work as I enjoy them
Once Jago inserted the picture of Charles Yerkes, I anticipated some remark "HIM AGAIN"just about summed things up :)
Thanks for the tip on the Hidden London prog, def want to see this
There was, perhaps an urban legend, that underneath Goodge Street station was an MI6 office, which was entered through an adjacent small tobacconist/confectionery shop. It was supposed link up with its office in Curzon Street, I can't see how though.
I joined Mott, Hay& Anderson civil engineering consultants who looked after many of the famous London structures one being Tower Bridge and another the deep shelters. The start date of my assignment on the Cairo Waste Water Scheme was put back a month and so was given an Inspectors job on the deep shelters. Tarmac were carrying out joint sealing repairs to a shaft of one of the S. London shelters. This was back in the late 1970s/ early 80s.
I met up with a Motts senior engineer outside the now Eisenhower US Army shelter and toured it, and the onto S. London one shelter was being used as a film set and all the others as storage facility's I was told the original idea was they would be turned into another Northen Line after the war. Why not try contacting Mott, Mac Donald's tunnel division in Croydon.
I went on a tour of the Clapham Deep Shelter. They told us 1 of the things it was now used for was growing salad for Marks& Spencer. They used the hydroponically so the drugs squad had to check they weren't growing drugs! Also someone received a mobile phone call. The tour guide laughed. She said what network they had!
I use to work on the original lift during the late 80s early 90s at Clapham common, Clapham north for the government dept PSA.The old boy I worked with also worked on the one's at Clapham common, Stockwell before being sold off in the mid 80s.
that's the Clapham Common one.
"Speculative Tube Lines" - the Gondor Line (from Minas Tirith to Pelargir), the Westeros line from King's Landing to White Harbor (temporarily no disabled access at Lannisport), and of course the Potter Line, from platform 10-and-three-quarters at Kings Cross (replacement hippogriff service beyond Azkaban).
Here's an interesting idea. Maybe you could do a video on the British museum tube station. there aren't many videos on the subject and the station has interested me.
After one of your earlier videos, I looked into the speculative tube line and other speculative lines that the aforementioned plan had, What I found the most fascinating and rife for any alternative history writers out there, wad the proposal to demolish the mainline viaducts that reach up to London Bridge station, and to replace them with tunneled mainlines. This would also have entailed the demolition of London Bridge station which would have been replaced by a vast underground interchange called Tower Bridge. On the site of the Shard, which could then clearly not have been built. How different would London have been?
Many skyscrapers have been built above underground stations around the world and some underground stations have been dug under existing buildings. In either case, two things are needed (besides permits):
1. Carefully constructed, placed and interlinked pillars holding up the building above while standing on layers below.
2. Putting the entrances either next to or inside the building above. This very video shows a round station entrance from the 1940s that has become part of the ground level of a later building.
"If you don't mind stairs."
The equivalent to 15 storeys, to be exact.
Are we in Geoff Marshall territory now? 😂
@@mbrady2329 TFL step measurement territory to be precise. The idea being of course that the average person would be put off the thought of such a massive climb.
I’ve worked in tunnels near Brixton/Stockwell. I won’t say the name because sim not sure if I’m allowed or not. Identical tunnels and the old beds from the blitz are still in there being used as shelving for document storage. An old wire mesh lift shaft with the original lift still running inside goes down about 5 floors deep. There’s two levels at this depth. The tunnels go on for ages and I’ve been told do connect to the tracks at some point.
Of course I enjoyed this video. You have a knack for finding and researching obscure facts. Then you present it with class. Love ❤️ them all. CHEERIO!
I'm doing the tour on Sunday, cant wait.
Fascinating! - I knew almost none of this. Yes, please do update any of your older videos that you have discovered this much extra detail about.
Thanks for sharing. I like your presentations. Greetings from Australia.
Thanks Jago, one of your best.
Could you look into the Sutton loop? I always thought of how out of place it is and how seemly underutilized it is when South London could use better public transport links.
I suggested stations at Colliers Wood High Street and Mitcham Lane but Mayor of London Office not interested. Also using Tram Train common running north of Wimbledon, but likewise no interest
Also its highly worrying nickname the "Wall of Death Line"!
I wonder if you could do a video on the nightmare that is the circle/district/metropolitan mess. Things like why most lines have a colour for them (the handrails etc match the line colour) but for some reason these 3 lines tend to just be a 'whatever is available, usually a yellow' train. God I miss those older metropolitan trains with the glass partitions and train style seating and if I recall wooden flooring. Was using district (so they claim but it wasn't green) earlier and thought you're the man for the job of investigating this :)
At one time the Met and the District were both Green on the map
Well worth my time, thank you Jago.
This is a coincidence, as I passed Clapham South this morning. It has to be said that the grass on the Common is now very yellow. Oh to have a month of rain!
I always wondered what that building at Clapham South was.
Hi Jago,
I've done a few measurements of the Stockwell Deep Level Underground Shelter.
In a previous post I mentioned that the tunnels were definitely built to be used as a line after the War.
The floor of the lower level has a split level floor, the right side is raised 12in above the left hand side.
The raised side is 58in wide, the lower side 53in wide.
The tunnel its self is toughly 200in in diameter, or approximately 5 meters.
There is also strategic safe havens along the tunnels, at these points the diameter of the tunnel is increased by 25in either side, opening up the diameter of the tunnels by 50in, making the tunnel approximately 250in in diameter.
Hopefully this will answer your question as to whether the London Underground did intend to create an express Northern Line after the War?
Keep up the great work you do, between yourself, Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway of (Secrets of the London Underground), I'm totally hooked on the history of London's railway history and hidden secrets 😎
12:01 - Is this the train north from London? We took the trip from London to Edinburgh a few years ago and it looks familiar
Greetings from Canada, your Newest subscriber!
Clapham South is so special it earnt an original video and a sequel!
8:34 With regards to the source(s) that suggest the tunnels were too small to be directly used as stations: there could be an element of truth to this, as the tunnels were 16ft 6in in diameter, whereas the existing tube stations were around 21 ft, though apparently they would have been a good fit for full sized stock.
However this doesn't necessarily mean that they couldn't have converted them into stations if desired, just that the tunnels (at least the parts for platforms) would have required widening. I can see are a couple of advantages to: firstly the initial costs would have been lower, an important factor in wartime. Secondly, it avoided the possibility of going to all the effort and cost of designing and building a full station layout, and then possibly still having to modify it later anyway, or having all that effort wasted if it turned out you didn't want or need a station exactly there (which as it turned out was true).
i love your videos Jago...always something to learn even if it is a revisited topic. nothing is ever boring! i think you should put in a "dum dum dummmmmm" sound effect anytime you mention Charles Yerkes!
Nice update, thank you!!
Today's shelters could be named after UA-camrs: Jago, Clive, Marcus, Geoff, etc!
Interesting video (with added Yerkes!) I'll be in London next month and may pay the Clapham South shelter a visit.
A station I've actually used! I stayed nearby at a hotel one a visit to London. It's a very nice station, and the headhouse fronts to near the Common.
I used to live in London for 2 years. It has been the most glamorous two years of my life. Being away from the city during the pandemic, I suffered mild depression and anxiety. Your videos make me feel like I'm in London again and help with this reverse homesickness of mine. Thank you for making these videos. Please keep on what you're doing.
Hi Jago,
The tunnels were definitely designed to carry trains in at some point in the future, on the lower levels of every shelter there is a clear split level floor, having been down 6 of the 7, South Clapham being my 7th very soon, I can confirm that both the Northbound and Southbound tunnels have the step to the right and pit to the left, which were designed to take an electrified track bed.
I will be down Stockwell shelter later this week and I can give you the pit measurement, see if it matches standard Northern Line track beds? I could also get a rough diameter of the tunnels too? 🤔
Keep up the good work 👏
Interesting video, thanks for posting!
Weren't some of those tunnels and steps used in an episode of Blake's Seven? The pattern of the cast iron segments looks the same and it was said an episode was partly filmed in LT tube station tunnels.
I lived in North London from the mid 80s to 2000 and the Northern Line was always my closest station (Finchley Central and then Belsize Park) so it was fascinating to hear the history of the southern part of the Northern Line. In 1988 my wife bought me a book for my birthday entitle London Under London by Trench and Hillman. It gave me a glimpse into the hidden depths of London. I was very interested.
Years later, I live in a beautiful part of Yorkshire with a history as long as London's but nothing like as rich. London is a great city and I miss some things about it very much. There are quite a few things I don't miss though (air/noise/light pollution, traffic, cost, crime) so I'll be staying on t'moors.
We MUST get proper picture of Charles Holden..... come on team, he's worth it
Brilliant video, I've really wanted to go down the deep shelter at Clapham south. :)
Morden was a small village in 1926, just a small village in Surrey, then! And there was plenty of open countryside around it, too!
Fascinating topic Jago. Had no idea of your previous video on the subject. Thanks for sharing. Roy
I've always liked the famous naval hero Medical Aid Station. 😁
Good one Jago 👍
Making use of an excellent Hidden London tour
Winning guess for today's Yerkes Bingo was 1:22
I'm sure someone could actually devise a board game featuring CTY. (Sorry, computer game. Showing my age).
@@jerribee1You are probably right.
We could make predictions on each video as to when his name in mentioned on the next one
Soon newspapers will print a CYT sweepstake kit like they do for the Grand National.
@@66PHILB can we trust Jago to be impartial?
@@jerribee1 nah, all the cool kids are playing board games again these days, it's very retro
Oh, I’d love a Nightingale Lane roundel!
“The Combine”
Ah, so that’s why I keep being asked to ‘pick up that can’.
When the 12 inch cut is superior to the original 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Have you ever spotted a Yerkis doppelganger in your tube travels?
Thanks for another super video ♡
Well done Jago, It must take you ages to find all this information. Thank you
You are the salt to may daily meal... Spice up and recycle them all - Ok by me. Thanks Jago!
I'm from Morden and I have spent MILLIONS OF HOURS on the Northern Line in my life. Literally, massive swaths of my adult work and social life would be absent from my existence had it not been for this immense piece of infrastructure. It's a 15 minute walk from the station to my Mum's house and although that always bothered me being at the bottom of the line a far walk from home (especially working bar hours) the alternative of not having anything was far far worse.
YES. My station gets some recognition once again by Jago 🔥
Clapham South is one of my favourite stations. It's got a bit of everything I love about the Underground. Plus the surrounding area is a nice place to stay for a trip.
Clapham North and Clapham Common make me feel like I'm going to die though.
Interesting stuff. I'm glad you remade it.
Got all excited there, thought I'd found a video all about my old stomping ground of Clapham South. Turns out it was all about the underground station, also turned out to be pretty interesting.
"It was massively over crowded" scary island!!! Glad I don't have to travel from them
@@JP_TaVeryMuch I used to take my jeopardy negotiating walking down bank northern line platform to get to any other part of the station. Wonder when they'll fix Clapham?
Just in time. 👍🏻🇬🇧
Very interesting. Thank you as always. 👏👏👍😀
Another great video, I still often wonder why they didn't use the tunnels between Clapham South & Stockwell to do a express line going into the city, something like some of the NY metro? anyways could you do some info about the line running around Loughborough Junction?
There were proposals to build and operate an express limited stop service with extra lines to relieve overcrowding on the southern Northern Line. I must re-read 'London's Secret Tubes' by Emerson and Beard.
Any idea where I could find a full (enlarged) image of the map at 9:30?
Ask a toddler with coloured pencils
I've seen speculative lines & highways built here were the builder, and/or their friends, would buy land around the stations or intersections and make a killing a few years later. There was also the cases where the lines and highways would pass through areas of land that would not sell to the builders and friends without a station or intersection - where there logically should have been one.
Obviously they were in cahoots with politicians who at the time were into double dealing, marples the transport minister springs to mind when he decimated the railways and built up his road transport business, alas that’s classed as business to them but illegal trading to the lower classes