Have you ever felt eyes on you as you ventured towards your hookup tube – maybe it’s because someone was watching you.
London is famous for its stunning skyline where the past meets the present, with world-famous skyscrapers and historic buildings located nearby.
The capital is also renowned for its vast and complex network of underground tunnels.
The various unused and forgotten tunnels are less widely shared, as hordes of passengers pass them unknowingly every day.
Since 2022, the public has once again been allowed to walk these ancient passages as the London Transport Museum began offering tours of the century, with one TikToker deciding to explore one of the ancient underground passages that time – and Londoners – had forgotten.
London’s vast and complex network is famous, but its century-old hidden tunnel in Shepherd’s Bush, which lets you spy on unsuspecting commuters, is not (pictured: Shepherd’s Bush).
TikTok user Dan revealed that Shepherd’s Bush has gray, dusty tunnels that have remained largely unused for centuries.
The content creator revealed that these dusty passages allow you to spy on unsuspecting passengers during their daily commute.
Venturing into the depths of underground London, content creator Dan Thomas decided to take a look at the dusty, unused floors of the hidden tunnels of Shepherd’s Bush.
Although the cobweb tunnels – which were closed a hundred years ago in 1924 – are largely useless, Dan revealed it was possible to spy on unconscious passengers through mesh doors.
The main use of these tunnels now is for storage, escape routes or to assist in rail construction work.
Giant industrial metal staircases, dangling cables and dark gray walls are a far cry from the well-lit white tiled tunnels that commuters navigate today.
Similar to its unused tunnels, Shepherd’s Bush station has a rich history, having first opened its doors in 1900.
It was part of the western terminus – a new section of the Central London Railway – better known today as the Central Line.
The station was a key part of London’s transport, connecting the western suburbs to the city.
At the time, commuters could also travel further west on the same ticket, which meant that Shepherd’s Bush station was one of the most important London transport hubs in the early 20th century.
Likewise, the ticket which allowed travelers to travel further west by tram at no extra cost paved the way for the Oyster card.
Shepherd’s Bush station was one of London’s most important transport hubs in the early 20th century, linking the western suburbs with the city (photo: Sherpherd’s Bush in 1900)
Shepherd’s Bush is not the only place in London with strange cobweb-filled tunnels that have been largely forgotten (pictured: disused tunnel in Down Street – Winston Churchill’s former bomb shelter)
The London Transport Museum runs tours around the ghostly Aldwych, Baker Street and Down Street tunnels (pictured: a disused tunnel in Down Street)
Currently, tours of the eerie unused Shepherd’s Bush Tunnels are not available, but the London Transport Museum runs tours of the forgotten passages of Aldwych, Baker Street and Down Street – which served as Winston Churchill’s bomb shelter for the Second World War.
However, these aren’t the only abandoned parts of the London Underground network with a rich history.
Brompton Road station was so rarely used by commuters that tube drivers bypassed it entirely.
Whether a train would stop at Brompton Road confused people so much that it inspired a West End play with a run of 174 performances.
The station first opened in 1906, but only three years later authorities began to realize that it was redundant.
But the abandoned transport hub, covered in oxblood tiles, is brimming with history, previously acting as a command center during the Blitz.
The station was taken over by Winston Churchill’s War Office and served as a base for the Royal Artillery to control anti-aircraft batteries to protect London from air raids.
Brompton Road (pictured) was so rarely used that tube drivers often skipped the stop altogether.
The confusion over whether trains would stop at the station was so great that a West End play was even written about it.
The station closed its doors for the last time in 1934. Since the war, it has been a base for military hopefuls.
In 2014 it was purchased by Ukrainian developer Michael Spink from the Ministry of Defense for £53 million. When he purchased the property in 2014, Spink said he hoped to renovate the building into a “very high-quality residential development.”
During the war, one of the station’s lift shafts had rooms built into it, which eventually served as a base for the Royal Artillery.
Gun sites across London were organized from the station as they attempted to shoot down German planes flying over the city.
Hitler’s right-hand man, Rudolph Hess, was rumored to have been interrogated inside by British authorities.
Among the maze of tunnels are converted bunkers with remnants of electrical equipment from the war.
The wartime telephone exchanges were left as well as a wartime oxygen purifier, which was present to purify the air in the event of a gas attack.
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