Underground London - Archive Articles

New South London tunnel completed with TBM breakthrough

The final section of a £1 billion tunnel has been completed under south London, when a tunnel boring machine (TBM) emerged into the Eltham substation.

The National Gallery is digging a tunnel next to Trafalgar Square

London is about to get a new tunnel, albeit a short one, as the National Gallery plans to link two buildings via an underground tunnel so the public can walk between them.

Rare film from inside the Tower Subway tunnel

A true hidden marvel of London runs under the Thames next to Tower Bridge, a very early railway tunnel, that's hardly ever been photographed or filmed.

See inside the St. Leonards air raid shelter in East Sheen

On a side street not far from Mortlake station is a set of 1930s residential flats and in front a curious brick building - the entrance to an underground air-raid shelter.

New tunnel starts digging under south London

A tube train sized tunnel has started being dug under south London running between Wimbledon and Crayford.

Tickets Alert: Walk through the Mail Rail tunnels

More dates have been announced for a chance to walk through the tunnels deep under Clerkenwell once used by the Post Office’s private Mail Rail trains.

Underground car park to be turned into a shopping centre

An underground car park just behind Oxford Street’s John Lewis store is to be turned into an underground shopping centre.

Take a drivers eye trip along the Mail Rail

While the Postal Museum is closed to the public, they've put a video of a trip down the mail rail tunnels on their website.

Huge tunnel to be dug under South London

A 20 mile tunnel almost as big as a tube tunnel is to be dug under South London, linking Wimbledon to Crayford near Dartford, via New Cross.

Go behind the scenes of Piccadilly Circus tube station

A hidden series of tunnels and lift shafts lie out of sight under Piccadilly Circus, and now tours are offered of these hidden spaces.

Visit the subterranean London Silver Vaults

Deep under a central London office block can be found a warren of shops -- all selling silverware in small rooms behind a bank vault of an entrance.

Repairs for a Victorian sewer running above a London Underground line

A Victorian era sewer running over the top of Baker Street tube station is currently being repaired even as it still carries away our daily waste.

Disused London Underground tunnel tours announced

The London Transport Museum has announced a new batch of tours in its Hidden London series of disused parts of the London Underground.

Tickets Alert: Tours of an underground farm

In WW2 tunnels deep under Clapham there’s a farm that’s normally sealed off for hygiene reasons, but now, small tours are being arranged.

Visiting a Cold War bunker

Down an unmarked gravel path behind a parish church in a small village in the countryside, can be found a nuclear bunker, and you can go inside it.

Thames Tideway’s tunnel boring machines lowered 53 metres into the ground

The first of the giant tunnel boring machines that will dig the "super sewer" underneath the Thames has been lowered into position, some 53 metres below ground.

Showing off the Thames Tideway Tunnel Boring Machines

A couple of weeks back the two cutting heads that will drill the new super sewer under London were shown off in a public open day.

Free tours of art in the Clapham WW2 tunnels

Following his six month residency at Growing Underground, a farm 33 metres underground in Clapham, Llew Watkins is presenting five sculptures in one of the uninhabited tunnels.

Photos from the disused tunnels now helping the Bank tube station upgrade

Deep under the City of London lies its oldest deep level tube station, in use for less than a decade before it closed in 1900, now it's about to get a new lease of life.

Exhibition – Welcome to the underworld

A basement off Tottenham Court Road is currently hosting a photo exhibition of other very much grander subterranean spaces from across the world.

Tickets Alert – Tours of Churchill’s abandoned WW2 bunker

Deep under a housing estate in North London lies one of WW2’s greatest secrets, the reserve Cabinet War Rooms that lay hidden and waiting, just in case the (now) more famous Westminster bunkers were destroyed.

One final chance to go on a Crossrail building site tour

The tours will be your last chance to get behind the hoardings, see the new stations under construction and experience this major infrastructure project at work.

Tickets Alert: First ever winter openings of Pope’s Grotto

An underground chamber only occasionally open to the public is about to have its first ever opening during the winter months.

Another tunnel boring machine prepares to dive under London

Tideway, the company building the super sewer under the Thames, has recently completed a key milestone with the excavation of its first Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) launch shaft.