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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Under London: Blitz experience tours of Aldwych Underground station

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, Londoners and visitors are being offered a unique opportunity to descend into a disused Underground station and experience first hand where thousands took refuge from the bombs that rained on the capital.

Actors in 1940s dress will lead tours deep into the Aldwych Tube station, which was used as an air raid shelter during the aerial bombing campaign on London.

The tours will offer the public a rare glimpse into what life was like for people travelling and sheltering on the Tube during the Blitz, when 50,000 bombs and millions of incendiaries fell on the city between 7 September 1940 and 11 May 1941. The station will be dressed to add to the wartime atmosphere and parked outside, at street level, will be a pre-war RT8 bus.

Tickets for this event must be booked in advance. Please note that tickets are limited and expected to be extremely popular so please book early to avoid disappointment. Telephone 020 7565 7455 to book your tickets now.

Tickets are £8.50 for the 45 minute tour.

LU are expecting tickets to be sold out by the end of play tomorrow - so hurry, hurry if you want to go along - and take a camera if you go please!

www.ltmuseum.co.uk


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Aldwych Station has had a chequered career, which Wikipedia has many details of.

It seems to have been expected to be the first stop on a branch going to Waterloo (and points South?) which never materialised. It was built with two lines like all the others but during WW1 the Eastern (Southbound?) tunnel was shut and and turned into a royal air-raid shelter (some say).

The Western tunnel remained open as a shuttle service, which I sometimes used, to Holborn with one train until 1994. The Eastern tunnel turned into a major secret site later on, and still is I believe.

The remaining platform was an obvious candidate for use as a WW2 shelter, though not many people lived nearby. Unfortunately, it didn't have to time to save any of the 450 casualties (46 dead) when a V1 fell on Aldwych at lunchtime on 30 June 1944.
Thanks Hugh - tickets booked :)
Do please come back and tell us about it.
Will do
Hugh,

Map of bombs in local area was on another thread, full list of first night blitz from fire brigade records here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/06/london-blitz-bo...
Thanks IJP
Oh thank you thank you thank you for alerting us about this - I've just got tickets!!!

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