“Husbands and wives, and even courting couples, were found wandering in the tunnels of London’s underground system at 2 o’ clock on Saturday morning.”
Well over a hundred years ago, the general public were already so fascinated with the labyrinth of Tube tunnels running beneath their feet, they’d signed up to nascent versions of ‘Hidden London’ tours.
The somewhat unlikely host of these early subterranean explorations was the Selborne Society, a conservation organisation formed in 1885, predominantly concerned with the study of natural history. But the Society also seems to have taken a keen interest in London; in 1916, it was advertising tours titled “An Afternoon with Pepys”, “A Dickens Ramble” and “Historic Southwark”. Given that the First World War was raging at this time, the Society also hosted “Flemish London” excursions, a friendly nod to the scores of Belgians seeking refuge over here.
That year, the Society also hosted at least two “Underground London” rambles. Someone at the Society must’ve had good contacts, because the tours went all over the place: exploring the signalling cabins and ventilating plant at Hampstead, the lift motors at Chalk Farm and the escalators and ticket machines at Paddington. “This visit to the subterranean secrets of the great tube system must have altered many fixed impressions…” gushed a report in ‘Field’. “…those who could recall the sulphurous horrors of the Metropolitan Railway in the early seventies could not but marvel at the strides that have been made in the application of science to the comfort and convenience of mankind in the last fifty years.”
A decade later, and the Selborne Society was still at it. “Ghostly Walk Through London Tubes — Men and Women in Queer Underground Ramble” ran a marvellous account from the Daily Chronicle in October 1926. This time, hundreds of urban explorers descended the spiral staircase at Strand station in the wee small hours, making their way up the line through Charing Cross station, while “jumping over switches” and “astonishing stray electricians”.
It’s wonderful to picture the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ of the lucky tourists echoing through the tunnels, while around them, workmen were busy signal testing, and clanking away as they fitted a new escalator. “But the strangest noise of all,” reported the Daily Chronicle, “was a woman’s laugh, which the tube magnified until it became a horse roar.” We can’t find any more reports of these tours after this; perhaps following the laughing incident, some of the workers had a word.
It’s particularly fitting that the 1926 tour went to Strand station; later renamed Aldwych — and closed in 1994 — this station was subsequently opened to the public by London Transport Museum, for Open House. The success of this led to more Aldwych tours, and, in 2015 the launch of Hidden London — now offering a smorgasbord of behind-the-scenes explorations across the network.
The Selborne Society is alive and well, though their upcoming events don’t mention any ‘queer underground rambles’.
