Secrets Of The London Underground | Series 4 (Yesterday)

Secrets of the London Underground is back for a fourth series presented by railway historian, Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway from the London Transport Museum.

Tim and Siddy visit Paddington and Waterloo, revealing the surprising pockets of history sitting side by side with the modern station, and get the keys to South Kentish Town – an abandoned station which closed to passengers more than a century ago.

At the London Transport Museum depot, Tim and Siddy explore the archives, and meet the people who bring the Underground to life, from a busker and a poet, to a volunteer working on an old signalling machine and a tunnel engineer planning the future of the Bakerloo line.

Episode 1 - Earl’s Court: Tim Dunn and Siddy Holloway explore Earl’s Court station – a busy interchange on the Piccadilly and District line. It’s a station that has always embraced innovation. It was the very first station to install a passenger escalator and the first to install automatic lifts.

Tim discovers how even today, the station is embracing the modern, with a re-design of the walkways created to fit in with its famous glass roof. Siddy visits Alperton, a classic example of the famous London Underground architect, Charles Holden, and the design was regarded as futuristic when it was built in the 1930s. And behind a locked door, Siddy reveals a hidden treasure – a legendary escalator originally built for and relocated from the Festival of Britain.

At the London Transport Museum depot, a dedicated volunteer shows Tim the restored inner workings of a 1930s platform indicator, which used a telegraph system to show passengers the destination of their next train.

Secrets Of The London Underground returns Tuesday 2nd July at 8pm on Yesterday.