Earl’s Court | Hidden London Hangouts (S08E01)

The team return with an exploration of a busy station with a long history and plenty of hidden gems in both public and secret areas. Once the home of the busiest exhibition centre of London, the station has seen many rebuilds and reuses, revealed through a wealth of photos and posters in our collection.

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we’re back for series 8 of The Hidden London Hangouts today we’re at a station which opened in 1871 a station synonymous with its neighboring Exhibition Center a station that’s seen a great deal of change in its life today we’re at ort station in this week’s episode Chris has relinquished control today guys too many if you know what I mean wait a minute that’s not a that’s not a wall and here is your surprise holy moly you didn’t expect that did you oh my goodness it’s huge credit Hello everybody welcome back to series eight of the Hidden London Hangouts we had a message from shobon she said come on guys life without the hidden London Hangouts is killing me hurry back please or have my premature demise due to boredom on your hands love and kisses the four of you we are back at ear’s court today I don’t do this alone I’ve got fantastic people from the London transport Museum and indeed my friends first of all Mr Christopher Nicks series 8 welcome back you look like you’re on Safari watch it uh yeah well it’s been great having a break uh we really needed to recharge our exploring batteries after quite an epic Series S I think so here we are back to do some more good stuff she’s off the big screen now she’s onto a little screen YouTube screens it’s the gorgeous City holay hi sidles hello I know there’s a bit of safari theme going on here with me and Mr Nick Mr ni we’ve got sort of we’re we’re we’re ready to explore I love this and thankfully keeping the sorial end up Laura Hilton Brown she’s a special little tiger with her mock there welcome back tiger I like it um it’s a while since I’ve been satting this chair with my ironing board up and my iPad on and my lovely laundry rack behind it um it’s good to be back but it does feel a little bit strange okay without further Ado let’s get down and dirty as we always do on these episodes we went for a little look around elore we are dangerously close to a beautiful Pub but we’re here to talk about a tube station aren’t we we are and it’s one that’s been there for quite a while but not in its original in this form that we have it today uh 1871 was the first arrival of a station here uh on a route that previously just went from glester Road straight through to West bromton but they put a relatively small station here uh to begin with quite a humble beginning was it mostly because um the local residents didn’t want to station this is kind of becoming a bit of a theme in South Kensington Kensington and Chelsea um they didn’t want one but so they built a very small one very moderate one so it wouldn’t kind of disturb the local residents too much but that little station didn’t last long did it didn’t uh 1875 uh it burnt down or at least it was badly damaged by fire and it used to be just on the opposite side of the road to the uh the station today yeah uh so 1878 a new station was built the one we have behind us now well this has got some uh interesting things on there which show at least a modifications if you look on the right hand side Great Northern pican brumpton Railway well that didn’t arrive until 1906 15th of December uh so we know that there were some interventions between them and actually that that station design that we see today is by HW Ford uh an architect we haven’t talked about it’s quite a similar style to Les Green those Half Moon windows on the front yeah for a long time I thought it was like a modified version of a green station because of the half moon windows and the flat roof and everything but it’s not you can also tell I mean the design obviously looks quite early but you know it’s before the 1950s because ear’s Court doesn’t have an apostrophe on it and that wasn’t standardized on the TU until well you know what it also reminds me of uh Fulham Broadway station has a very similar design probably by the same guy now when you talk about um the central London Railway stations that were built was it that sort of color of exterior building those sort of biscuit tiles which you you’ll still see at the building at Oxford Circus uh yes it’s very very similar to that it’s interesting how there’s a a color palette of tube stations around that time isn’t there probably materials available it’s also interesting that these ones survive quite well because they’re Central London tiles to get that color they kind of half fired them so they they had a terrible problem of water Ingress and the glaze bursting but these seem to have survive quite well they are Gorge and actually when you look at the design L cuz this is your Forte completely you’ve got those lovely little bits of ornate work at the top also noting the if you look at the raw Iron Work above the underground sign over the canopy there it looks a bit like the original Metropolitan Railway Crest but what you think of the look of it cuz it is gorgeous isn’t it do you know what it’s not a striking as that Ox blood red tile but I love that you’ve just described as biscuit cuz that really hits the nail on the head and I do think I’m really enjoying the Aesthetics and the look and the feel of the exterior I like the mix of the tiles the mix of the design and how it looks I am really I’m finding it quite beautiful those those green TOS that we’ve seen before they look quite similar to the kind of ones that were on the early district line say Marlan yeah yeah they’re really beautiful shades of green so I think overall very handsome station it does have some bits that you can see in plain sights uh as being parts of original fabric of the station but also surprisingly to some there are some dises bits to have time to go right it is quite an impressive station when you walk in isn’t it do you know it reminds me of a preserved railway station you can almost imagine a steam train chuffing through yeah two two I feel like it’s just so big for two lines yeah it’s enormous like Cent garden flower market or something isn’t it yeah Mass mve place now normally we have a massive clock dangling down from the ceiling but today it’s pushing up this one’s stood on its end yeah stood up there’s so many stations on this line it’s giving me a little bit of anxiety there’s load there’s too many I me historically yeah this is sticker as well this is a stuck on one well there’s been much change of course you got things like the Elizabeth Lin um so the clock you mentioned I’m just going to single that out because it is a particularly nice self-winding Al saw the clock first I I always see the clock first yeah and it’s a big one bezel classic one you’ll see them it is beautiful isn’t so you mentioned that they’re normally a dangler yeah and sh a sticky upy this is a sticky upy well I’m glad we’ rinsed the joy out of that joke um I’ve got to say also if you guys look around the mount on which it’s sitting is like really ornate and beautiful so like very true very good bit of RW iron work there oh and there’s some there’s a little sort of like a little Sid plate there that says clock yes okay yeah click 09 the other thing which I really love about this platform is that it’s it’s got train describers on it so those blue and white stained glass boxes which tell you where the next train is going to and they really a they’re really popular as well because when they were out of service there was loads of talk on interest groups in Facebook about where have the bo where have the boards gone at ‘s court sorry they are they are uh they were originally fitted now these ones have been taken away and refitted so they’re now driven by modern systems but they used to be driven by really quite uh primitive but amazing Telegraph systems we’ve got examp a working example of that Depo at Acton wow uh yeah so uh it sort of transmitted bit code down a down a telegraph wire to the next station never knew that yeah the things you learn on these episodes and of course from up here this is one of two entrances there’s another on the other side of the road and but well below ground we’ve got the pickly dickly line haven’t we yeah there there are so many different places that you can go to from here aren’t there so look at all this lot I know so many branches as well Kensington Olympia the only tube tube line that crosses the river like several times anyone got a favorite station on this eastbound Lan there’s many to choose from that one’s got a bit of a soft spot really because that was where I went to University Temple it’s Kings I like Temple too we should do that at some point there you go it’s definitely worth visit good so you’ve got this incredibly complicated set of interchanges taking place here where you can go off to all of these different places think platforms there’s a favorite of mine on that platform which is the one above the train indicator is telling you which side is leaving first because of course all of the branches end here well I mean not all of them but you know and yeah I I cuz when I used to use this station daily you’d kind of get to ‘s court and you try to CR rank your neck to see if the one that was on already on the platform was leaving before this one I’m really interested this station as well because it is it’s I only ever come here really when the Exhibition Center was open I don’t come here anymore I don’t really change here anymore and it was one of those stations I always just went through it and very fast like the fastest route through it and there must be secret spaces because it’s a station that’s undergone so much change over time there are and and this end of the station still has that kind of old look to it but of course where we’ll finish is over at the other entrance to the station which is a much much more modern look to it uh the Exhibition Center is of course been swept away in recent years uh but we still have that entrance over on that side I think it’ be really nice now that we’ve had a look at the subsurface level to um maybe use an old bit of infrastructure to get down to line yes because unusually for you know when we did gluster Road remember they had the district line building and then they had a Leslie Green Building right next to it but here they actually integrated it into the existing fabric of the building so there’s no telltale signs I’m getting some gluster Vibes though to be fair mentioned that before yeah not surprisingly our first perhaps unexpected find in public space is just beneath these stairs come on tour gu take us us take us take us you know what I didn’t even know this existed I had no idea I didn’t either and this is a spiral yep right it is only 83 so it’s particular one of the not one of the deeper ones but there’s uh real joy to behold down here o even look at this this guys railing here yeah to it continues here oh this is nice I touched it when I do that old railing this is really cool though look it’s got that Twisted raw iron thing that goes on at the at thein spirals so perhaps the most obvious thing uh aside from your lovely Twisted mesh there is the tiles the tiles survive here like nowhere else uh in public view because they’ve all had modern replicas put in and as ever I think these originals are much much more nuanced than the new ones and actually they are so much nicer in their old color than they are in the replicas on the platform cuz I think the platforms out kind of a very flat color always uh on these replica tiles they’re almost they’re kind of close to Caledonian Road that’s a that’s a modation as well but if you look over here we’ve got some anomalies we’ve got a very minty color as well as the the green so that’s a replacement is it they’ve just been touched in you’re going to see a mix on the way down actually going to see more of the minty green I think than the dark green questioning this so there’s steps up here so this would have all just been closed cuz these are clearly modern ones oh can we do we have a key for that so is this the original entrance to the Picadilly Line station and then we’re basically just going we’re going down and down and down yeah well there we are perfect down and down and down and down and also yeah there’s a little VCH stack there in the middle but which has been cut off have a yeah could you just show I don’t really want to do too much of that that’s a long way down for a short spiral staircase it looks it looks further than it probably is we’ll be Hing down there right should you have a look up there then yeah let’s see if we’ve got the got the key for that of a look she’s got the key in the secret today C’s got the uh excitement level for this one she’s got my darling it’s open it’s quite plain isn’t it but unmistakably public original stairs stairs from the station in fact they’ got those oh they are they’re the proper cast iron tread you don’t see those very often barban London can you see that yeah that’s that’s tremendous very very unusual to see those so this would this sort of shell this fiberglass shell has been put on later to kind of provide a a corridor it’s basically turning it into a fire panel light up light up so so yes a nice little find and they’ve survived because they’re in a very dry space quite often they cor out but uh nice to see a Survivor brilliant the stairs after you madam your tile Queen I like it I like this combo not so much that the paler mintier the more that’s bad luck cuz I think you’re about to see the majority of it is there can see it’s look look there’s a change here you see actually those are neither the strong minty stuff that we’ve seen there which looks modern in retrospect nor is it the green they are their own thing this has a Bluer tinge to it pale blue tinge so just while we’re here you’ve got the more modern stairs which have being added in here so this is new stairs into an old shaft that’s right yeah but the tile is original which is lovely when that happens normally Mixie you can see that there’s a gap between this kind of structure and the original thing is that normal do you normally leave a gap there yeah so when they put in new stairs they’ll just separate them off from the wall to stop that original problem of the the water getting in and corroding fine the structure nice quite normal down we go are they sherb but limes oh oh are they sherbet limes the question you know the ones with chocolate in them as well yes is that the sherbet lime col I remember those cuz I’m just I’m liking that it’s b s cooking apple green in it but as you say the the colors of modern tiles and we find this all over the network don’t we guys the when we get modern ones they just they just they don’t have that interest so this is here we are and it’s like that’s the color that’s the color that’s the color there’s no grading within the tiles they’re just solid BL color flat color isn’t it but um oh here we are now we have another unusual feature here one of only four stations that had this configuration you might realized we’ve come down in between the platforms so we’ve got the eastbound that side and the westbound just Q hello train nice breeze there he is and it’s because they’ve got the space in the ground to do that uh they could put both both lift shafts and the spiral stair shaft between the platforms so you go from Gra around to platform very unusual yep only three others that had this uhoh we’ we’ve been to what we’ve been to two out of well now three so we this is three out of four York Road York Road this one um cie that is the other one but we haven’t been there um and the one next door to it nope h Road King’s cross King’s Cross of course cross yeah but we couldn’t really see that in that episode because it’s just that little bit off the Picadilly line where we sort of had to duck under and find that day wasn’t it now the other thing I’ve noticed about this guys and I really like this is the is a little curvature on this this is I’ve never seen this before it’s very on that style with the kind of you know that but have never seen this also you know this is a nod to the to the tiling scheme like we saw at elephant and Castle they’ve got that red but then they’ve retied the whole platforms but here they’ve kept that kind of style good point yes it’s that a green color I think it was elepant castle where we actually noticed that that color scheme thing going on because before then it was accidental and now we’ve seen it we’ve seen it everywhere now of course as well as a spiral stairs surviving there’s also one of the lift shafts is still in use I think we should go and have a look at that um just right let’s have a looking early Coury this is really interesting right because this is obviously like many other stations this is a lift shaft lift entrances but look they’ve built it in and they’ve built it in much smaller lifts than they would have originally been bu it in up in so how many shafts were there so the originally two shafts each with two lifts of course and they would have been viottis style lifts 43 persons typically trapezoidal in shape but these much more compact ones don’t need as much space but they’re faster how many persons normally 43 43 and interestingly these ones uh were a very early automatic lift system which we know was experimented on uh Warren Street do you remember when we did that episode and they had a first automatic voice announcement to warn you to stand clear with the doors please but these ones they decided they they ran so fast they decided they need to shorten the message so it was an early use of photographic film with a photo cell to read the voice message and it used to say uh please stand stand clear of the gates please and they scrubbed the bit that said please and instead of that to speed it up but instead of that it say uh stand clear of the gates that was a sound sound no we did not have a f s which is the opposite of being polite yeah I think he is I want to know something cuz we’ve got more passengers coming so lift three lift four where’s one and two one and two well one and two just around here all right let’s do it I like that all that extra detail and of course this all makes sense now because the other side we saw that sort of longish corridor into the lift we’ve got the same here so in other words we’ve got two doors into the same two lifts haven’t we now this is just like York Road if you remember that where you’ve got that Atrium between uh the one at York Road I think is prettier in the way it’s done it’s bigger but you can see you would have had your entry way there and there but now there’s equipment in there now we can’t go into this bit cuz it’s the CE yeah there is another bit he’s got a little sneaky key somewhere we didn’t know about another secret exactly me Chris has relinquished control today guys o I like door this is the yeah I know they’re unusual AR they’re very heavy wooden fire door oldy looking doors [Music] inside now we’ve got painted over tiles I like it and uh and a light switch all right but check this out something smells I was going to say fruity but I’ve changed my mind fruity yeah I’m not smelling fruit love so this is gorgeous I’m going to step in first of all I have no sense of smell which is today doing us all cuz you just went I’ve just had a moment I took too big a lungful gagging this is used for store storing cleaners equipment so it has a too many notes if you know what I mean I’m so sorry you just hit on my Absolute Comedy Crut we don’t want to focus on your so funny anyway what I love is look down here you’ve got poster frame we have hey La have a look at this poster frame take your mind off your left an umbrella and maybe we can take a look at some posters that may have graced these frames back in the studio why is that ripped up well it’s because all of this area is been modified and you’ve got equipment room switch rooms CRS and stuff like that within the space uh so it’s just being modified to do all of those fun Ops but this bit has been left to store cleaners equipment original tiles there here have a butches at that and um this would have just been a cross passageway between the two platforms right uh into the lifts so the lifts would have been that way now I know we’d love to but we can’t go in there because of the equipment that’s in there right yes no that’s right and uh so we’ve done the lifts at ear’s court but of course ear’s Court got a first with something else didn’t it that replace the list absolutely in 1911 ortt station got the escalator and is it not the case that a man with one leg tested it to prove how safe it was is this not folk law this is true bumper Harris who was a one-legged engineer stood was rode on the escalator for a whole day on the first day of it opening to assure people that it was a safe mode of transporting themselves and it’s the of that first escalator still in use it is it is it’s where we’ll go now now before we go there cuz it’s going to be noisy when we go there I’ll just say this there was something else unusual about those escalators now uh escalators run on a 30° angle whereas back then they were using a design which I think it originated in Germany where they they had an angle of 262° okay so it’s a slightly different angle shallow shallower escalator sort of like and also um um they were kind of like a almost like a treadmill really so you didn’t really have that platform that we have at the top of the bottom so you sort of had to kind of jump off it so it’s in the same place going let’s do it it has a smell by the way the aroma I’m struggling with so it would be good if we could I’ll go out last cuz I can’t smell the TS have been lovely can’t smell a thing cannot smell a thing so that was the spiral staircase that we went down first then we went into the lifts these are the escalators that take us back up the original location of those very famous escalators yeah so um this feels a lot shallower than most other escalators on the network so they they’ve kept the original 25 and a half 26 and a half I love you guys I never thought I would be chatting about the gradient of an escalator and enjoying it as much as I do it’s only a few degrees off but it’s enough to be noticeable isn’t it well if you think about like you know hob berau Angel when you look up it really feels like it’s Steep and also the Elizabeth line ones now some of those are really steep feel really steep totty Court Road totty Court Road cuz of course the to work here looks a little bit more reminiscent of the days of Charles holder well I mean it’s not just reminiscent of it absolutely is 1936 uh there was a a new set of uh passageways and treatment done here uh it was designed by Holden implemented by Stanley heaps and it’s the classic biscuit light biscuit and blue which we’ve talked about at many other station refurbs in the 30s the other thing is if you’re bustling through from the padil to the district well you’ll normally just go straight up those stairs or down that passageway and up those stairs and not think twice about it but there’s another secret of this station before we before we hit that secret I’m going with digestive biscuit at the front custard cream biscuit nice nice biscuit I would agree with your biscuit analogy work there I’m hungry now yeah shouldn’t have said that anyway back to the secrets so uh the secret was um this this re envisaging of the station down here thought well if you’ve come up off off the Picadilly line and you’re going to the exhibition why don’t we let you carry on down this way without going upstairs so should we head down that way let’s do it interesting you never been down here have you I don’t think I have I was just trying to place then if I have I’m going with a no there’s a lot little rooms around here aren there a lot of space I feel like I’ve kind of done El’s got a bit of a disservice really by writing off so this is why I wanted to come here because I knew it had some extra special Secrets wait a minute that’s not a that’s not a wall Alex is all over it well it is right first GL you wouldn’t notice it but it is actually a continuation of the passageway and did that lead did it lead to the Exhibition Center oh well stand by cuz you’re not going to believe where this key is going to let you into that’s a fancy key stand back stand back we’re going in we’re going in okay you know I don’t think that one wants to play so let’s try the other one H there we go time to go in oh it’s a bit Euro trash isn’t it oh whoa no way the front door all right oh open the front door look at this amazing this is pretty blue cool isn’t it Bright Lights by tube and bus there so much to go at I mean the posters that survive I don’t know we’ve used this at the museum for the Friday yeah yeah yeah you see it dates it cuz it’s the old uh May of London logo yes uh I like that 2003 yeah that’s really I want to photograph that before we leave quite handy is sorry how long is this well I mean the answer is as long as it needs to be to get it to uh Court Old special exhibition ticket Hall oh wow there so so I think it’s time we uh walk down and explore where this goes should we uh yeah let’s do it it’s um I mean imagine like the days of the ideal home show or something like that walking down here imagining I’m going to buy um a broom made of rubber tires or a is that really ideal or one of those um irons that you used to be able to do up do you remember you could iron clothes while they were standing up on uh hangers and stuff like that I have no idea what you’re talking about right now oh my good I love the idea home show oh you’re talking about the ideal home show oh I know that God this is absolutely freaky look at the bend on this tunnel it goes down and then goes back up again down oh hey look at this a young gr very young 200 Ruby wax next to him as well on the the poster but yeah it sort of dips down and then goes back up again it what’s love Alex I remember those not I used to clip these out of the newspaper and collect them I mean you would have thought that an valid thing would have been love is not riding nude on the tube wouldn’t you really oh yeah it’s a valid point it’s a child of its time to say so this is now storage area is it for work care like this so when did this Corridor actually close 200 2003 I think actually was 2005 there’s a sign there that says Rubble only no bottles oh my goodness it’s huge those the opening credit so see you see why I wanted to come down here for the start of series eight this is rather special this is Bonkers though isn’t it it’s absolutely Bonkers and this is a bit about the lowest bit of this u-shaped tunnel yeah so it heads back up a bit I rather like this kind of uplet ceiling it feels quite central line extension doesn’t it you kind of Moscow Subway V how are you feeling about the blue guys love it the BL always like that and in that color scheme cuz we talk about this upstairs wer we the black was a poster frame used as a poster frame cuz we always talk about the blue and the blue was for the border and the black was for the poster frames you can see actually they’ve been resized yes see now there is one truly special thing which I haven’t told you about which lives up at this end of the corridor oh are we now under what would have been the the Earl’s Court exhibition CER yeah you’ve just gone under the road basically look at the side hang on something lives at the end of this Corridor oh there’s a different time isn’t there yeah before before we licens buskers on the uh on the Underground a little photograph that I love busers on the Underground sometimes it really gives you that gooseb moment doesn’t it of like the amazing kind of sound and the Acoustics there was a guy at Baker Street the other day who was doing like gorgeous violin talented yeah moist oh no it’s like it’s like I bumped into something wet saying nothing saying nothing welcome to series a everybody I suppose Nixie this is your piesta resistance is it it is new bargain tickets but it looks weird that Bullseye is not got the right proportions no it’s not is it that’s a weird weird underground who will you see at the zoo a silhouette oh there’s a lot of zoo picture oh look hey look we’ve got do you remember we’ve got one of those where this remind you yes anybody which dis are you station t on Theon is all twitch all twitch all twitch I don’t believe all four of us have got that excited about a faded poster before no don’t I know what questioning the silhouette of going to say and I refuse well that’s a nice that’s a nice annotation isn’t it w and here is your surprise holy moly you didn’t expect that did you no we now this is a shut to the front door right now this is how you start a new series of the Hidden London Hangouts wow this is really cool hold on a minute this is this like Swiss Cottage Swiss Cottage St John W I could I couldn’t even say it so quickly so excited if I remember correctly these are ma type so originally because they were the very first escalators those ones downstairs were a type and then they were modified to Mas down there they that’s what these are y so you would have had uplighter signs and probably two Street and then to trains at the top this is remarkable oh hello I’m staying in tonight this is absolutely brilliant oh oh oh oh oh we have that in our collection that’s so 74 the dates it so much I love it when it dates it what’s really strange though about this you know how we talk about told us about posters with the red surviving really well un faded but these all really faded AR yeah but the thing is that they’ve been stripped back I think so other I think other things have been post pasted on top of this oh like over yeah like where they’ peeled couple of other bits of detail before we dive fully into the escalators look at these curve tiles that they bed to do at the end I know we saw them back in the St really really fancy the way they’ve done I would never have imagined this would look like line of really fancy really fancy really fancy the way they’ve done that I’m I’m glad I managed to not spill the beans so you can have that surprise oh this is super cool it is like a proper secret Tu St are we allowed to walk up or is it to of course we’ve done quite a few old school escalators uh in recent series think alpon where we got the the wooden tread ones but here oh look at these I’ve never seen those before you’ve got the very fancy fluted bronze spikes to stop people sliding down the handrail also this is met is it it is so these wood so these have been changed out post 87 yeah cuz these are this looks like anodised aluminium to me and we have to explain 87 was when the king’s Crossfire brought in a lot of changes to safety on the tube and one of them was about taking wood off wooden escalator that’s right yeah getting rid of the wooden escalators and making them the metal I can’t believe this this is I’m so I’ve got to hold on because going to fall down the stairs this is phenomenal absolutely phenomenal 50p I’m just taking taking shots of your butts guys well you know it’s my best side so would you like to see my rubber gloves oh look look at that I knew you’d love that one premium bonds Julie Chambers and her band this is phenomenal isn’t it it almost looks like a set dressing you know it does it looks like a half built set or like a reconstruction or something like that yeah do you know it’s uh hats off to you Nixie I wasn’t expecting this God don’t it get warmer well there’s still a few Secrets I can keep this is like the Mari Celeste it’s really weird because look you’ve even got the ticket window yeah I mean assistance and tickets all that oh my goodness there’s sort of like a there’s an eeriness to not Chris that’s you sorry Sid and Alex are a little bit like weirded out at the moment they’re feeling they’re feeling some some energy some Vibes I’m loving the fact that we’ve gone very Blair Witch in the shooting style here so uh yeah but look at this whole Gate line I know well you know I was saying to Lauren Alex this feel quite apocalyptic these sandbags it does a bit doesn’t it because they’re probably just stopping a leak Wind Blows riveted beams which show some looking at the beam red be didn’t take long good good guide for showing you the age of something I do want to want us to cross the gate line cuz there are two things I spot I I I just over there shall we yeah do it all on the board look at this look at this it says oh look at that just tripped over the sand beware even ghosts need valid tickets on the Underground that is quality that is absolutely brilliant we’re all going to tourist that one AR wait La that’s very good and also guys in the corner old map because look the Jubilee line terminates A ching oh my goodness our first and last trains so it does oh that is that’s a seriously good blast from the past I mean it’s like we’re name checking all of our tours on this wait and also so the DLR hasn’t reached ktis SAR and depford and every grenage and dford so what is that that’s like the 80s so 8 look at the East London line oh oh yes of course it’s still we’ve got the dott we’ve got the Doty Jubilee line all right so that is that is ’90s it’s probably mid90s then but I mean seriously this is absolutely fascinating oh yeah now then that gives it doesn’t it open reopens early 1998 so this could be mid yeah so early early to mid90s in fact so yeah how fascinating is that oh I love this well it’s brilliant but of course we can’t go out this way anymore uh this isn’t the most Westerly exit and entrance anymore for that going to have to jump to the war road entrance so the one that’s got kind of a retunda that’s it yeah do we go down the escalates again we do we’ll see you there right do you know what when we filmed on that day this is the Instagram story I was putting together to trail series 8 which we are now doing so I just thought I’d show you that Lally doing as we walk around the station publish go and here we are in the station a long station I got some stuff to do this lots of tunnels and passageways it’s very industrial looking we were just saying it’s a bit High Gatey yeah it’s kind of that crle window Vibe window that’s got to be a substation oh Donuts and yeah it’s very much same uh same era same designers as uh as that now quite understandably I’ve not been down here since the elcore Exhibition Center shut so I’m not aware of the view that I’m going to see when I get here because for me it was always those big red letters Earl’s Court often the Brit Awards I used to go and be a producer at Brit Awards Brit awards were sometimes it was there was loads of stuff happened at El’s court and um um even the Royal tournament you remember the Royal tournament with all the horses you were the person about town he was a man about town I do love this rotunda though ooh nice why do you love this rotunda um inside I think it’s got a really nice color palette to it with that tiling the yeah little bit Leicester squarish isn’t it you know the entrances to Leicester Square station little bit like that with a bit of tooting CL was it which is the one I think it’s tooting Beck isn’t it it’s got that sort of runder at the entrance yes uh is it always Broadway look that’s where it used to be elot Exhibition Center y That’s the road that we just walked under thinking about it you know there is one possible reason I can think of that maybe why there were two exits out to um El Court this one and the the one downstairs was it and you can help us with this was it SS Court 1 and SS Court 2 were the separate exits for the days when SS Court one was separate to SS Court 2 two exhibition centers two exits it’s possible otherwise I’m a bit befuddled I think avoiding a road crossing is a is a good idea isn’t it and you just be able to go straight under there and to the other side it it is a handsome it’s cute isn’t it and if it weren’t for the fact that you managed to keep from it that amazing escalator shaft this would be a very pretty exit to finish the episode on but got to say this must be the weirdest underground that I’ve seen there like a little shop front sign or something yeah it’s almost like well I think it was a kiosk by a look of it they’ve just bricked it up at some point yeah uh yeah interesting amazing of chaos are we going to eat and drink at any point I think it’s definitely time to to go and try out the staff canteen isn’t it oh I was thinking the pub that we start oh well that was pretty cool right that was like um a film set at the very end of those films and I think sidles we were all a little bit Blown Away by that because we kind of knew it was there but we didn’t really know what was there but it was so intact wasn’t it oh yeah and I mean I think um you know Old Court like we said in the film has always been like a it’s it’s a grand it feels Grand in in certain regards because that big you know big rail shed that you go into and that kind of as you descend into station and then when we went down below ground into the lift shafts uh I thought that was it really I thought you know we’d go and have a look at the other entrance and that sort of was all there was I mean Chris really really kept that one uh from us until really we just walked in through it so um yeah just extraordinary it’s gorgeous and we have some pictures and in fact we’ve got tons of pictures to show you so we’ll rattle through these because they are all C and some posters that for some of our um patreons as well you’ll know about the hidden London hangups which are our patreon service there’s an extra episode about ‘s court just for you guys more details about that on the London transport Museum’s website but look at that already I mean this is the view that we had presumably guys from across the road from the pub is this is this the same Frontage so this is the building that opened after the first one burnt down right so the one that opened in 1875 and then caught fire that one is that on the other side of the road where we stood by the pub that one burned down this is the one that opened so this is in in the place where the current facade is now but they rebuilt that when the as you say the pickly dickly line yeah and I mean Lord look at the brick work and everything else it is it’s a very elegant looking station a bit sort of a bit malur Road does that make a bit of sense a little Bish yeah I was just about to say that I like everything that’s going on the brick work the um tall kind of archways the lights that you can see there those three lovely lights at the front the Earl’s Court um lettering the pillars on top um I’m just I’m loving it it’s a it’s a it’s a gorgeous picture gorgeous Chuck another us Nixie I was just about to say it’s giving me slight Vibes of gluster Road uh remember the the two buildings when we went to when we went to that although I do think gluster Road station’s chaotic to look at you’ve got so many bits and Bobs stuck together but I mean at least that looks I think it looks really cool it’s almost like a little castle um let’s have another oh speaking of chaos I have a look down on the platform so this is somewhere between in the early 1900s this shot and uh we talk all time about this on the hang about the chaos of advertising back then but that one’s a particularly good example how cool is that close close well I love it it’s beautiful on we go then let’s have a look at another building so here we are 1907 uh it’s yeah it’s quite a simple Affair this end of the station isn’t it so which end is that that would be the Exhibition Center end that’s right yeah wow what a because that’s now the Char holding end isn’t it that sort of I don’t know like a flying sourcer shaped thing isn’t it Road end but actually it does have some quite Posh bits to it those lamps are quite fancy and that on the entrance where the big sign say ortt station District Railway in padilly tub is that’s arm Works fairly Fancy on the end of it but it is just about to say the same thing Chris and what do you know what I like about this as well like normally I like things that are kind of quite matchy matchy but the lamp’s kind of uh triangular and then you’ve got the triangle of the leftand building with the lovely kind of fancy iron work and then you’ve got the curvature of the ear Court station side and even though they’re kind of like really different shapes I actually think it really works really nicely together and you’ve got this really lovely comic chimney as well that looks like it’s off some sort of cartoon doesn’t it yeah it looks a kebab shop to me that one yes so uh here’s another view of uh the entrance way that’s the one we recognize now really isn’t it that’s you can see it’s actually pretty authentic today isn’t it when you look at that West End Railways is that right West where are you looking at the very top at that hoop oh yes yes West End Railway what’s that I think it’s City and west W end Railways is what that looks like is that new I’ve never heard of that they’re trying all sorts of things aren’t they I love also the fact that the name Thomas was always um shortened to THS it’s um this one is a shot from 1916 and it’s although the businesses have changed uh since then that facade is still recognizably very similar isn’t it yeah you can still get your packet sandwiches in Boots so that’s all good uh lovely oh my goodness right great to include this just to see the sheer volume of people but do you notice if we just zoom in do you see what it’s advertising there moving Stairway to Picadilly Railway they were referred to as escalators that’s that’s your escalator isn’t it amazing as well how they never lost a trick when it came to advertising they’re literally under the platform as well they could not literally have given you any more promotional messages in one eyeball is that it’s incredible yeah yeah and also um this just reminds me of when you try to get home after work and there’s no Wimbledon line on Wimbledon train at but shutle that never turns up the Olympia shuttle we’re still waiting for the Olympia shuttle I thought the Northbound Northern line from London Bridge at 7:30 a.m. was bad this is amazing I’m also just going to point out on the advertising front a welcome return from our friend Bal those of you who like to play bingo with the advertising uh we know who you are Laura um yeah I love that I love how smart they look so smart in their coats and hats it’s just an era that I just like the fashion fascinates me yeah it’s beautiful isn’t it what a moment in time next yeah so this is the this is the entrance that we went in first wasn’t it yeah head headline Advertiser cold colar soap gets the over the pimer advertising absolutely love it next well we’ve got a cheeky little um oh illustration here just to give you a sense of what it might have been like in color it’s beautiful isn’t it a nice fine City that one Addison Road was that Olympia what was that’s right yeah so it’s had a few names in its life yeah Addison Road Addison Road Olympia that’s amazing so the out to the theater yeah look at the pink outfit she’s wearing in fact she looks like she’s wearing the plastic off the dry cleaners outfit the top bottom this is her her finest West Theater show that is gorgeous so this this dates from 1912 um and by an artist called yio Marino and uh it’s it really does capture the moment doesn’t it the uh if you look on the right hand side the the train gives you a clue as well with those older style Wen bed clery roofed uh cars there next so we of course uh mentioned on the film that El court is known for being uh a station that you used to go to the Exhibition Center when it was there and uh I really like this map because it it gives you a sense of the scale uh as well as the position of the ortt uh Exhibition Center there sort of caught between the various tracks and depos of the underground in that triangle um it is yeah but it’s also the shape of the I never knew the Exhibition Center was effectively a triangle yeah and you you may remember that when we were down at the station I mentioned one of the famous uh Skyline landmarks that was there briefly at the at the Exhibition Center and C managed to find you a photo of it oh the great wield it’s from 1906 great picture great um this is that great wheel and this is as you’re descending into ‘s court basically you’re going coming from Baron Baron’s Court in West Kansas into o court and you can even see the back of those houses today when you travel through that which is amazing but this is just before that wheel gets um gets demolished so it’s it’s demolished in the end of 1906 because of the presence of the Exhibition Center it meant that ‘s Court was a great Muse for poster artists for the underground so we’ve got a wealth of posters in our collection that um that refer to exhibitions that were going on at at the center there nice big Dunlop Tire yeah this is a friend that we know well on the show Edward mcnight caler um one of the poster Legends uh for the underground and a very striking bit of work as usual from him and he and he did law manag to create artwork that look like photographs I mean that tire looks like a photo yeah it’s exceptionally clar isn’t it and I like the uh kind of sense of depth and perspective that you get from this as well so you you kind of feel the movement of the tire even though it’s you know a 2d picture um and I I do like the use of color as well um I think it kind of makes again adds to that sense of depth in the in the overall poster from sorry I was just going to say it’s extraordinary that this is from 1937 isn’t it this one’s 37 isn’t it it is 1937 yeah that’s so modern looking to me do you know what I mean like that I if somebody told me that’s from 1978 I’d be like yeah you know and that’s exactly right the technique that you’ve picked up on there we’d refer to today as mixed media where you’ve got uh the illustration and then the photo in there but that was actually quite an advanced technique it uh in the 30s when a lot of um Eastern Europe artists were fleeing uh the rise of of Nazism in that part of the world a lot of those artists came to to Britain and brought those ideas with them so this is uh this is a classic Advanced bit of work from the 30s uh of that photograph as part of an illustration and look it’s that whole thing about purity of color again isn’t it the way that also there’s no apostrophe on El’s cour a spot but also the tube the the actual round all red and blue is it feels fresh doesn’t it that poster yeah I mean if if you yes I do you know what I like that two very good words fresh and pure um there’s really only kind of like four colors in it um and the yellow really kind of makes it pop as well but it looks like some kind of silk skem like prints doesn’t it it looks like um a kind of print rather than um paint butth lithographic print there you go there you go word yeah the the kind of use of minimal color but um the colors that have been chosen just it’s really easy to read um but then really kind of enjoyable to look at too yeah yeah if you if you like that and you want to know more about that printing process of lithography um it it’s and also learn how to say it’s uh we’ve got our new poster gallery opening uh at the Museum uh so go along have at it uh um that’s our new uh changing temporary exhibition I like that phrase have at it uh meanwhile at the war Road ends this is that entrance when it was it was you know really brand new this is uh 1937 uh and looks pretty pretty slick doesn’t it you know what shows us how long it is as a station because you’ve got the engine shed then you’ve got that extended bit that where you can walk on the balcony bit then you cross over and come down to War Road it’s a huge station isn’t it massive footprint one sole person in front of the the posters as well just to give you a bit of kind of perspective on size as well just making a decision as to whether or not he was going to have the Gin then have a rigless to clear his uh breath yeah I think that that’s the best way around the before taken is Morris for yeah it was a different time so now of course this is 1937 uh and it’s not many years after this that uh any underground spaces that weren’t being used were going to be needed for wartime effort for Sheltering or for other purposes now uh all the while that we were down uh looking around the station there was one little secret which I didn’t let on which was actually my reason for wanting to go there because uh about 18 months ago I came across set of photos which showed how those passageways that were built in the 30s were were reused during war time now you remember the central line wasn’t finished during the war and that got used for the pley factory to build Electronics particularly for aircraft what ear’s CAU they did something similar they set up what was known as a spare time Factory where uh staff from London transport who had spare time um people working in reserved occupations during the day would um come and give their free time to make things for the war effort I think that’s SP binding that photograph I mean sidles this is as as Nixie said this was more than one location where this was going on but people could basically go along when they had some time and help out in the war effort making stuff fixing stuff whatever yeah I mean I I would imagine the people there having you know be working for some sort of you know air craft manufacturer or something like that but it’s just extraordinary because I was going through all these images yesterday and Chris hadn’t told us anything about it when we were visiting and then as I was sort of scrolling through I went what is that a central line one and and just because I saw a little small vignette of it and then this is what it is it’s just extraordinary the it it never ceases to amaze me how I think I actually know pretty much all there is to know about something you know like we where’re the underground was used during the second world war and then you find something like this it’s extraord it’s gorgeous it’s gorgeous and we’ve got one more to look at haven’t we we do I I think the thing which I found remarkable about these is that usually when you see wartime production factories of course it’s almost all women working in them because U you know the generally the male Workforce was off fighting but if you were either not a fighting age or in a re reserved occupation of course you could come along uh and work here and so here you’ve got a great shot obviously in that passageway we were in where you’ve got both male and female workers busy at the at the voices making things incredible we moan about going to work on a Monday morning don’t we we are we don’t know we’re born we do not know we’re born um it’s very sort of makeshift as well lore isn’t it lot of wires and lights hanging down off Hooks and things like that it’s it’s it’s so temporary but yet it was serving such a vital purpose in the war yeah I mean you’ve you’ve just hit the nail on the head that’s exactly what I was going to say it’s got a very temporary feel to it but thank goodness it was temporary because obviously it means that kind of we came we came out the other side positively but it’s it’s so like cyy was saying before it’s so strange sometimes and I I can’t quite articulate um into the words that I want how it makes me feel that we’ve stood in some of these spaces and what’s kind of happened before for and the poignancy and importance of what’s happened before as well I know we were joking about the platform being really busy um earlier on and that it was you know equally as busy then as well but then you know you you see a shot like this and it just it just makes my heart feel like how the sense of camaraderie and pulling together and how amazing these people were at this time and you see this like shot and that just oozes out of it it’s just it’s got that feeling of of um just pulling together and getting stuff done and I just I absolutely love it totally totally and it’s only now we know how long that tunnel is and if you imagine that was entirely full of people working that’s that’s pretty mindblowing isn’t it really it’s epic it’s just epic yeah gorgeous stuff what a beautiful set of photographs see I was wrong yeah well done you to people gorgeous stuff okay well thank you very much indeed for coming back for series eight uh as you know at the end of some of our episodes we have um I can’t believe it eight series eight I know I was just like eight and I I’m on screen but I’m still doing it um we’ve got notes queries and questions so if you’ve got any questions about the tube or any comments to make about the episodes right below on YouTube and then we can read out some of the most wonderful ones I Sasha X you’ll love this kids wow I’ve now discovered these after being a secret of the London Underground fan sidles now I need to watch as much as I can good stuff indeed thanks from Valencia in Spain who found that’s so cool um I Ben and I secretly want to move to Valencia in a few years do you know secret okay well it’s not a secret anymore I just told you guys say we’ve got more series to do on this one love don’t go anywhere yet it’s bad enough I’m in Portugal and I might be missing out she’ll be doing it from her little uh her place in Valencia be in Portugal to Madrid and Barcelona to to bring us some underground yeah Madrid there’s even there’s a metro in Valencia I can’t imagine there must as much disused there but you know it’s gorgeous um kiwi hiking Club says walking down those tunnels is like all the horror movies ever made combined into a single scene the tunnels you visit are scary it’s absolutely true isn’t it I sometimes we do if you’re pardon the expression give ourselves the Willies by what we see and where we go it can be very dark very gloomy but also kind of really EX exciting at the same time thinking about South kentish Town or something like that that really made the hair on the back of your neck stand up didn’t it yeah incredibly dramatic Lively space isn’t it gorgeous stuff gorgeous stuff loads of other comments we’ll come to them through um the uh course of series 8 as well as I say keep comments coming down below um thank you very much as always so that was first episode back and of course one final thing over the summer the four of us took to the boards we were on stage uh for a very very special hidden London hangout uh at the London transport Museum’s own theater who knew they’ve got a theater down there and um some of our uh lovely loyal fans came along and watched us um muck around on stage as we T around Liverpool Street which in itself is an amazing station uh La it was quite an experience for all of us really wasn’t it I think it well it definitely was and I know um it was a little bit of a kind of um leap of faith which we’ve referenced to the Hangouts kind of before we didn’t know if the format was going to work or if people were going to buy tickets um but it was a really really special evening and I think um from people arriving at the beginning to the four of us kind of doing a live what we’re doing now like Zoom recording but it was on stage and then meeting and chatting to people afterwards it was um it was a really really lovely evening and I just hope the people that were there enjoyed it as well and you never know we might do another one oh my goodness the the the round we’ve got a Hangouts round made by AJ Wells it’s so exciting and cityy I mean you are the expert of treading the boards you are the Celeb kitten even you were a bit kind of like oh what’s this going to be like yeah well I think it was just um you know you always kind of you hope that people gonna enjoy what you’re doing and we’ve never done that before so there’s just a lot of um I didn’t really think anything would go wrong and I really thought we would um we would really enjoy it and the audience would enjoy it but um I didn’t quite expect it to be as exhilarating and as kind of intimate and feeling like a family as it was it felt like just sitting around with a group of friends which was really lovely gorgeous wasn’t it and I we were saying on at the time normally when we make these episodes for you we don’t know what you find funny we don’t know what you go wow to it was so nice to have our audience there going wow and smiling at what we say that was really lovely and Nixie our mole on the management um apparently they were quite happy and we’re up for doing more of these oh yeah definitely uh definitely have a redo uh and if you didn’t get to come along on this one well keep a lookout for it next time and uh if you would like to join our patreon uh scheme then You’ be able to catch up with that one uh at a later date uh and also if you haven’t heard your fill of Earl’s Co well we’ve got more stuff for the patreon hangup um so head on over to the patreon site and enjoy some more of us Fab stuff all details are on the London transport Museum website that is episode one for series eight done and dusted thank you very much indeed Mr NYX you are fantastic as ever well thank you great to be back uh onwards into ever more exciting places sidles I don’t know what that poster is on your wall but as gorgeous as you are too thanks so much I really LED this so happy to be back and what a banger we we started with a banger absolutely and Laura Hilton Brown thank you as always gorgeous you are wonderful toting I know I haven’t I haven’t had it up there for ages it was it was actually a little nostalgic which sounds like ridiculous to be putting the set back together because it’s been a while um the four of us have luckily hung out a little bit over the summer recorded some episodes did the hangout live Etc but I am enjoying seeing your faces on my screen again what a nice way to start my day as always find us on Instagram Alex grunon Chris Nick City holay hidden London law and at LT Museum you found us on YouTube thank you like subscribe and comment down below and we’ll read those out in future notes queries and questions and we’ll be back somewhere really really cool very very soon indeed in the meantime have yourself a great day and stay safe [Music]