London Transport Museum has released new tickets for its exclusive, award-winning Hidden London guided tours, running up to the end of March 2025
This includes tickets for a revamped tour of Clapham South’s deep-level shelter, a wartime air raid shelter located 11 stories underground
This new tour will be hosted by two guides, with one guide portraying a 1940s warden to bring history back to life
Visitors will be able to see the site as it looked in wartime, thanks to meticulously reconstructed spaces such as the warden’s booth and the canteen – all based on archive pictures and extensive historical research
They will be able to interact with authentic Second World War artefacts, sourced by the museum’s historical experts
Tickets will also be on offer for signed British Sign Language (BSL) tours of Aldwych, Baker Street, Charing Cross and Clapham South for deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors
New additions have also been made to the Down Street: Churchill’s Secret Station tour to reveal more first-hand accounts of what it was like to live and work there when it was home to the Railway Executive Committee
It will be the last chance to see Down Street, before the tour will be retired for the foreseeable future at the end of September
Additional dates are also now available for tours of Baker Street, Euston, Aldwych, Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Clapham South, and Holborn
· Tickets can be booked via London Transport Museum’s website: www.ltmuseum.co.uk
· Profits from the tours are used to fund London Transport Museum’s charity and to continue conserving and sharing London’s transport and design heritage.
Tickets are now available for tours running up to the end of March 2025 for London Transport Museum’s award-winning Hidden London tours, giving ticketholders an exclusive chance to step behind closed doors and explore the locations where London Underground’s history took place. Hidden London guided tours are the only ones in the city that grant guests access to these locations, which are usually off limits to the public.
A revamped tour of Clapham South:
Visitors will now be able to step back in time on a brand-new, enhanced Hidden London tour of Clapham South, one of the eight deep-level shelters built in London during the Second World War. Opened in 1944, this secret underground maze was designed to protect over 8,000 people, featuring canteens, medical stations, and sleeping quarters—all hidden beneath the streets of London.
Over its 80 years of existence, it sheltered not only wartime Londoners seeking refuge from the air raids above ground, but also in 1948 became home to Caribbean migrants arriving on the Empire Windrush, and later visitors to the Festival of Britain.
The new tour will be led by two expert guides, including one portraying a 1940s warden to share a first-hand account of what it was like to work and shelter there during the war, and to place guests in the footsteps of wartime South Londoners spending their first night there.
Along the way, guests will get a sense of what the space looked and felt like 80 years ago thanks to meticulously recreated spaces such as the warden’s booth and canteen, which have been newly reconstructed based on historical photographs and extensive archival research.
Visitors will also be able to handle authentic wartime artefacts sourced by historical experts, discover what an Anderson shelter looked like, handle genuine Second World War torches, and experience sitting on the bunk beds turned benches that families would spend their evenings on during air raids.
This tour will be the most immersive Hidden London experience to date. Chris Nix, Director of Content at London Transport Museum, shares:
“It’s incredibly powerful to present such a unique history in such an authentic setting. Our decade-long research has ensured that we honour those who lived and worked here, delivering their story with the utmost respect and accuracy. We’re looking forward to delivering Clapham South’s story in a new and engaging way to the public.”
The new tour of Clapham South will start on 16 October 2024.
