There is a locked door on the eastbound platform of Chancery Lane station on the London Underground. The door is plain, solid, and white.
Behind it is a set of wide stairs that lead to a roughly mile-long maze of tunnels, built in the 1940s originally intended as a World War II shelter and later used for espionage, storage 400 tons of government documents and telecommunications services.
Welcome to the Kingsway Exchange Tunnel, located approximately 100 feet below the streets of central London and extending beneath the Central Line of the Underground. Soon they can enter a new chapter: Angus Murray, the owner of the complex who bought the tunnels last summer, has applied to the local authority for planning permission together with construction company WilkinsonEyre to turn the tunnels into a A tourist destination that accommodates tourists. Millions of people every year.
Mr Murray’s London Tunnel Company plans to invest a total of 220 million pounds ($275 million) to restore and protect the tunnels and add technology for art installations and other attractions. Mr Murray hopes the complex will open in 2027 and said it would be able to host temporary art exhibitions, fashion shows and more.
Currently, access to the tunnel requires a ride in a small lift tucked behind a side door in an alleyway off a wide street in central London. (Visitors to the attraction will use a different, larger entrance, Mr. Murray said.)
When the lift doors open, you step into a World War II-era tunnel, one of 10 civilian shelters proposed by the British government after the start of the Blitz, the eight-month German bombing of London in September 1940. one. The tunnels were never used as shelter. By the time they were completed in 1942, the Blitzkrieg was over.
During the Cold War, the British government instructed its telephone division (which later became British Telecom) to build a secret communications system in the tunnels that could withstand a nuclear attack. The famous hotline between the Kremlin and the White House runs through the complex, according to the project’s website. Some of the telephone exchange equipment in the tunnel still exists today, although it has not been used since at least the 1980s.
“The idea is that it will provide a level of protection,” said Martin Dixon, a trustee of the company. Great Britain Undergrounda charity that documents and works to preserve underground spaces.
“If the Cold War became more serious, some level of exchange would continue,” said Mr. Dixon, who joined Subterranea Britannica about 40 years ago.
The tunnel beneath Chancery Lane Tube station is more than a mile long and is almost 25 feet in diameter in some places. Mr Murray said the dimensions made it one of the largest tunnels ever built for metropolitan residents.
“They have a fascinating history,” he said.
For a group of postal and telecommunications workers in the decades after World War II, the tunnel complex became a workplace, aspects of which survived. The stuffy smell of old carpet is unavoidable in a room. Another also contains the remains of a canteen. There is also a room with fake windows that frame images of nature as decoration. There are still offices, as well as rooms where workers can stay overnight.
Some parts of the tunnel are lined with false walls, with nothing behind the doors.The effect is not unlike watching a dystopian scene Apple TV+ show “Severance”“.
The bar where postal workers could drink is also still there, and Mr Murray said he hoped to revive it and make it London’s deepest speakeasy.
Communications operations at the tunnel were phased out in 2008 by British Telecom in 2008. sell the tunnel. As late as the 1990s, BT employees would still visit buildings to check fire safety and other conditions. Otherwise the tunnel is empty.
Many details of the new attraction still need to be finalized, but Mr Murray said the cost of the experience was likely to be in the same price range as other major London tourist attractions. (Admission to the Tower of London is about $40, and to Westminster Abbey about $36.)
Subterranea Britannica’s Mr Dixon said he was excited about the prospect of Kingsway Exchange becoming an attraction – as long as it was safe and the history was preserved.
“I’ve seen thousands of underground spaces, from the mundane to the spectacular,” he said. He added that the Kingsway exchange is particularly interesting because it has a variety of different features. “It served a role in World War II and was poised to play a role in the Cold War.”
