The Story of St Paul's Tube Station | Hidden London Hangouts (S05E05)

In this episode the team explore a station on the Central line that has moved, changed its name and acted as a bunker during the Second World War. Behind the grime, they discover elegant designs, surviving tiles and beautiful posters in the Museum's collection.

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[epicridesandtours]

Nice to hear Alex remembers the power station in Greenwich. It was alongside Deptford Creek. As a nipper, my family lived in Thames St. My Father worked as a Steward on ocean liners until he married Mum. He told me that as the ships approached that power station, the Stewards would cover all the silverware, as otherwise the fumes from the power station would turn it all black. That station closed around 1975, I think. There was also a gasworks nearby. Remembering that, it's remarkable how London's air has become so much cleaner.

[andrewm]

Always great to see you feature a station which I've used on a regular basis myself. You'd think of St. Paul's as quite a small station with very little to reveal, particularly as it's not an interchange station. So to see so much behind closed doors was wonderful. Although I was very curious to know why there were so many social distancing signs on the walls of what are disused passages. Some of which look like they may have damaged some of the remaining poster fragments. But I wonder also how long they will stay undisturbed, only to be discovered and discussed by a future Hidden London Hangout team, say in 2092.

[risingchads]

Nice to see behind the scenes. A bit of backgropund... the CEB electricity control room equipment was moved from 85 Park Street SE1, built as the new National Control and opened in 1937. The control panel was already curved, so they managed to rejig it into the liftshaft. Wynford Vaughan Thomas visited and did a radio programme describing it all, which was printed as a book. In 1950 it was all moved just above ground to temporary buildings in Paternoster Square, still curved like the liftshaft! Replaced in 1958 with rooms at Bankside House (opposite Bankside power station, and now student accomodation) until a new National Control opened at... 85 Park Street, in 1967. It was all metering and phones, no actual controls as such. National spoke to the Area Controls, told them to generate less or more than their local demand, hence managed the bulk flow round the country without having to worry about the small detail. Very clever way of breaking a difficult task into a series of managable stages. I found photos of this at work for National Grid, a colleague retired and left a box of photos.

[ulazygit]

Thanks for this … like I said in the live chat, used to use this station regularly when I worked for BT - at 81 Newgate Street and 5 Cheapside.

[antonyj]

Another lovely episode.
Just some additional information for Alex.
The lifts went 82 ft to street level.
The 5th lift in the smaller shaft (the one Siddy called the spiral stair shaft), was actually only used for CLR parcel traffic that came from the General Post Office and transported by tube to destinations on the central line, another ingenious way to make even more money ! Once the general post office closed in 1911, it went to passenger use until 1939.
Regards and good luck cleaning those tiles!

[timothyp]

Another cracking episode. What really struck me with the wonderful relief tiles at the end — your programme shows such things spanning the whole history of the Underground, from early glass and ceramic tiling where we wonder about the craftsmanship of laying them, through to things like the beautiful relief tiles from later years but still long ago, and right up to date with the brand new Elisabeth Line and its equally stunning contemporary decor.

[Shalott]

Great broadcast, as always! This reminds me of how this station used to fascinate me as a child, on visits to the cathedral etc., because I found it difficult to get my head round how we had to go up two escalators to get out of the station, but only down one escalator to go home again. I'd never heard of wayleave at that point!

[djtwo]

It is interesting to see all the covid-era social-distancing signs now added to the station's archaeology. Presumably the passages are used often enough to make the signs needed, but not often enough to insist on a general clean-up of the dust on health-and-safety grounds.

[Toffeeabi]

Those picture on the relief tiles are beautiful. Was fifty Broadway on there as well

[daveharris]

Another regular station that I use myself, so I look forward to seeing behind the scenes.

[jacksugden]

Alex, Chris and Laura, I got a surprise seeing this, as I hadn’t seen a promo on YouTube to set to be reminded to watch, will watch this again, as after work, was on the computer, and could do two things at once…

[Blade_Daddy]

Crossley was a Cincinnati Ohio company that made cars, radios, etc., etc. Well known in the 20's and 30's. Also Cincinnati has the largest abandoned (and never used!) Subway system in the world!

[pbrton]

If I am counting correctly, this is video number 80 (unless "ANYBODY" would like to correct me)!
Well done to you all for still doing these!
I am loving these so much!😁😁

[mapala]

At 14.43 the station still looked in the 60's 70's, I can remember the corrugated roof still being in place.

[helenhickman]

Another brilliant episode so fascinating. I’ve come to realise that the muckier the station the more interesting it is. Also, I love it when you get a glimpse of 2022 when you’re exploring backstage. Keep up the good work.

[keith]

The Lifts on the underground deserves a video to themselves, they were quite fascinating the roping arrangement and design of them.

[ianmcclavin]

Sorry I had to miss the live premiere tonight, I remember the "St Paul's (Post Office)" sign, now behind Chris, when it was in situ on the station. It was at the eastern end of the Westbound platform, on one of the pillars! It was finally removed donkey's years after the name change, during the platform refurbishments in the 80's.

[mattdow]

Great episode as always, really enjoyed it. At first I thought Chris Nix was sitting in a toilet cubicle, until Alex pointed out the filing cabinets.

[unittaskforce]

Another great episode, great history.

[liamkenny]

This is a REALLY grubby, grimy place. But grimy history is just incredible and can be washed off afterwards 🤣 (The things you do for us. Thank you!)