The Hidden Gallery at Marble Arch Station | Hidden London Hangouts (S07E06) 

Yes I went down it not long after it was constructed about 60 years ago.

As you'll know, the electricity will take the path of least resistance, in the main. So if the mouse is in the way or has now by chance itself become the path, it will feel the force. Matters not what the size, only the resistivity counts. Could be a penny piece doing the job after all.

Thank god for this video then.....at least we have one programme worth watching...

​@@BibtheBoulder [Draws huge intake of air in relief] At least there's a couple of us who are styling it out and not sucking on the teat of the EBU which seems to have been placed to make it even easier so to do than even Adam the Apple-eating sinner of old.

historic things from other places interest me too.

I long for that day, I really do. Time for bed for some of these under-whelming phrase structures, said Zebedee Pretty sure he would by now. Bit long in the tooths boyz, if I may make so bold.

When I was last in London, weekend engineering work required Westbound trains to terminate at Marble Arch. I was lucky enough to be invited aboard for the shunting move (I work for a different transport agency) and was amazed by the tight clearance between the car body and the tunnel walls. Also, at least in 2007, one of the Central Line strip maps in a cross-passage had white tape over the last stretch to Ongar.

You should seriously go again and be bowled over by the extraordinary Frameless art exhibition in the former screen rooms. Sad that another cinema went, especially here at the Crossroads of the West and North routes in the capital. But if you've ever dreamt of swimming past Les Baigneurs or wanted to scream right back at Munch's bloke, do it. Do it now! Best way I spent a full afternoon all the last year. Brilliant!

Not a dry lip in the house 😉

I don't think it's to do with 5'/week but an advert for "Ingersoll 5'- Watch". Ingersoll was famous in the US for the "dollar watch" and if you Google for images of 1930 Ingersoll adverts, there a few that come up for Ingersoll watches at 5' (5 shillings) . 5 shillings would be abbreviated as " 5'- ", which in some typefaces looks more like " 5/- ". I assume a 5' watch was a good deal in the early 30s.

That’s the problem. Many sadly don’t exist

I think it's Gilbey's Invalid Port, a kind of tonic wine.

@@borderlands6606 Absolutely! There was an enamel sign for it sold at a railwayana auction in November 2021, and the letter spacing matches pretty exactly.

Her first name was Elizabeth if that helps. God it’s a small world if it’s the same person. Great geography teacher. Inspired me to do a geography degree.

@Alex Grundon I don't know what her first name was unfortunately. She taught me in 1979 and my school closed in 1981 so perhaps could have been her.

Which part of the country were you schooled? She taught me from 1988 onwards at secondary level

@@alexgrundon2346 Welwyn Garden City at Mater Dei School for Girls.

Just down the road from me. Bet it was the same person. What a small world

Yes, dad had one. May even still make them.

Is it possible that the passageways were still deemed essential after the lifts were removed? That would have required the lighting to be updated in due course. When did fluorescents become commonplace? I had thought it was mid-1930s, in which case that's a long time after 1932 to be keeping the lighting in the old lift access passageways updated unless the passageways were still in use for some purpose.

Do you mean in the disused parts of the station? They all remain in need of regular inspection so lighting and power circuits need to be safe and serviceable at all times for inspections to take place

@@alexgrundon2346 If the changeover to escalators at Marble Arch was in 1932, and fluorescent lighting didn't become a reality until around the mid-1930s, then those old lift access passageways would have still been lit with incandescent lamps. Were they really fitted out with fluorescents with the lamp unit frequency (i.e. how many per 10 feet or whatever) when the passageways were already regarded as abandoned? Or were those passageways retained for some emergency purpose, and thus they had to have the full lighting upgrade? How often is that the case elsewhere in the abandoned areas? And remember, we're talking about 1930s H&S equivalent here, not 2023! I can recall in the late 1950s many of the 1930s escalators still having those incandescent uplighters to reflect off the "vault" and much of the lighting still being much softer. Many platforms on the Bakerloo still had the pendant lights with octagonal (I think) sides to the shades. The gloom on those City Branch Northern Line stations like Angel with the very narrow central platform in a large cavern was positively stygian! Using those platforms in rush hour was really precarious.

In most, if not all of the explores we do, I hardly ever see a ‘light bulb’ unless it’s in a weather-proof bulkhead fitting. The rest are florries (as we used to call them on building sites) because although the corridors are not public, they are still property which needs regular inspection. Remember these passages are now effectively air vents so rather than thinking of them as “disused” or abandoned, “repurposed” is a better description - and as such they require specified lighting and fittings to modern standards

@@alexgrundon2346 Thumbs up for acknowledging the debate. How about the question be submitted to an historian at the L.U. Museum? It might 'light' a debate and a more definitive answer?

We mix it up. Sometimes two; sometimes four

Personally I disagree. All 4 presenters bring something different to the table. Great to hear from all of you.

Eric ❤️