Are there abandoned tunnels under London?

If you're anywhere near as obsessed with subterranean London as we are, you'll be bursting with excitement at the prospect of exploring London's abandoned tube tunnels. These disused stations and platforms spend most of the year in peaceful quiet, but on certain days, tour groups are allowed in to get a look.



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Our network includes 272 functioning Tube stations, but at least another 40 Overground and Underground stations exist that are no longer used for travel.

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Beneath London's bustling cities lies a mysterious world of Cold War-era tunnel systems and underground chambers - these number in the hundreds. Many of these are owned by the Ministry of Defense and have never been publicly acknowledged - and until recently authorities remained secretive about them.

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West Norwood and Brompton are the easiest to visit: at West Norwood, you can book a tour (fownc.org; you'll also have to become a 'Friend' of the cemetery for a small fee), and Brompton runs around four catacomb open days a year, when you can tour the atmospheric burial chambers for around £5 (brompton-cemetery.org.uk) ...

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The Kingsway Exchange tunnels, an expanse of 8,000 sq m of passageways several hundred feet below High Holborn, were shrouded in mystery for most of the 20th century with details covered by the government's Official Secrets Act, because of their wartime role as a base for MI6 officials.

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Group travel organisers, coach companies and tour operators can transport their customers to a secret side of London when they book a group tour of a disused Tube station with the Hidden London team at London Transport Museum. More information on specific tours can be seen on each individual tour event page.

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It was over 130 years ago that King William Street station was built in December of 1890. It was the northern terminus of the world's first deep level electric Tube railway, also known as the City and South London Railway (C& SLR).

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As visitors and workers flocked to the city, its central roads became increasingly congested. Underground railways were built in 1863 to relieve the choked streets. Not everyone liked the early metro system, particularly as its trains relied on sooty steam engines.

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Even though it's illegal to access parts of the catacombs other than the site open to visitors, there's a group of urban explorers called “Cataphiles” who navigate the tunnels secretly.

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1. The Catacombs of Paris. Among the most famous catacombs in the world, the Paris Catacombs are underground quarries, housing approximately six million human skeletons.

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These catacombs have a fascinating history, originally built as limestone quarries in the late 18th century, they later became the final resting place for millions of Parisians' skeletal remains. It's a unique blend of history and a bit of the eerie, which makes it a must-visit attraction in Paris.

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The Catacombs in New York have been a silent witness to more than 200 years of the city's history. If you are in New York, you should dedicate a few hours of your time to visit them. The Catacombs in New York are located underground, in the former St. Patrick's Basilica.

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Derinkuyu (also known as Elengubu, Cappadocian Greek: ?a?a??p? Malakopi; Turkish: Derinkuyu Yeralti Sehri) is an ancient multi-level underground city near the modern town of Derinkuyu in Nevsehir Province, Turkey, extending to a depth of approximately 85 metres (280 ft).

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It is easier and safer to dig at depth in London because of the nature of the soil and to avoid other infrastructure and the Thames. It also may result from the fact that London is quite hilly and trains don't like going up hills, so the tube goes through the hill. Some stations are above ground.

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The Royal Borough has two foot tunnels at Greenwich and Woolwich which are used by 1.5 million people a year to cross underneath the river Thames. From Greenwich, you can use the foot tunnel to walk to Island Gardens on the north of the river for the famous Canaletto view of Greenwich.

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London Underground train speeds vary across our network, from as slow as 15MPH, up to 60MPH. The speed of the trains can be impacted by a range of factors including the track infrastructure, the type of signalling system, the distance between stations, and the frequency of services in the timetable.

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