The Lost Tunnels of Finsbury Park | Hidden London Hangouts (S07E03) 

I was a Station Supervisor at this station many years ago. We had to do track familiarisation in the local area every six months and it is a complicated area. I love watching the Hidden Hangouts as it brings back so many memories of things I used to see and do every day.

This is brilliant

I live here and it's hilarious pulling faces at the people on the other train that you sometimes see when you go out of the station!

Become such a ritual watching you on Saturday Evening. You boys and girls have just the best job in London.♥️♥️

The northbound junction is very useful to know that we're just about to enter Finsbury park. Sometimes, you'll be running parallel with another train so if you're on the Victoria Line needing to change to the Picc. and you see the Piccadilly Line train out the window, it mains you'll definitely make it on that train as 2009 stock comes to a stop quicker than the 1973 stock thanks to the computer controlled braking curve. Usually the door are opened whilst the manually driven 1973 stock is still pulling up to it's stopping position. Stroll casually along the cross passage and hop onto the Piccadilly without needing to wait.

I loved this station. I worked there as a relief leading railman, then after the company plan 🤬 in the ticket office as a reserve station assistant multi-functional 🙄, then as a relief station supervisor 1 and after waiting for years, I eventually got rostered at Finsbury Park. I was home. I had the honour and pleasure of working with some of the best people I have ever known and eventually ended up as a customer service manager before illness forced me into retirement. I still miss the place and all the wonderful people I worked with every day.😢

I've noticed that if two trains leave the southbound platforms (Piccadilly and Victoria lines) simultaneously, you can shortly see one from the other in the tunnel, thanks to the gap in the tunnel walls to house the crossovers. A similar effect is obtained by two trains arriving on the northbound platforms together.

Long, long ago when I started work we were living in Winchmore Hill and had to travel to Moorgate each day, I travelled down these tunnels. And again when we moved to Hadley Wood in 1960, I travelled by the parallel route to Moorgate via Finsbury Park (on the Great Northern line). Sometimes I would travel to direct Moorgate via Kings Cross pulled by a steam engine, but it tended to be a bit smoky! An interesting journey down memory lane, thank you. Now living in Canada.

I was in my early teens when I first rode the East London Northern Line - would have been around 1964. I remember how "lost" the small standard stock trains looked in those large diameter tunnels! Their floor level was lower than the platfrom, so you had to step down into them.

John Stiles This is the first episode I have watched nearly live, now I have caught up on the previous one hundred odd editions over the last month and a half. Thanks for the great entertainment.

I only just Subscribed to this channel and I’m hooked!

I regularly use this changeover! I love it when I’m on the Piccadilly or Victoria line here and the trains are travelling past each other at that intersection so you see the other train - interesting to see it behind the scenes so thank you!

Great video featuring my manager as your PWT!

Another fantastic episode. How utterly interesting to see inside the tunnels in such detail. Thank you to the team and your honorary additional three team-mates (Chris, Neil & Amber) providing the critical support enabling your explore!

brilliant episode and so many innuendos, education and comedy is a perfect mix

Loved the balloon mosaic on this episode. Binge watching from Michigan, USA. Used to use the tube a lot in the '60's when I worked in London.

This is amazing. I use the Victoria line a lot and you don't really see this really because of how fast the trains run. It's crazy to think there's this much within the tunnels. Sometimes it's insane to think there's this much in the tunnels. Great eposide you guys. So awesome to see this behind the scenes. Legends.

That was a great episode !

Another great episode and you have to love a grease pot 😉 see you soon .warren.

The best episode of so far as I remember the old Northern City line The last train to Drayton Park was on October 1964. A shuttle bus ran between Finsbury Park and Drayton Park until the Victoria line open and the interchange between Vic and Northern City opened. When the original line opened in 1904 the line had a unique system of electrification. It had two outside conductor rails instead of a centre negative 210 volt rail.

Another great episode.

I thought this was the best one ever although I have a soft spot for Archway and Kentish Town. I don’t say this often but I am truly fascinated. Keep it up guys. So well done. Much love Alex xx

I enjoy these series, because you're right. I do feel like I'm there with you. Thanks seems lame, but truly I am thankful that you could make this series and share it. The history is amazing. With the "split-level" photograph, it does make you wonder about the spaghetti of tunnels under London and how different the underground would have been if it had been built on one level.

As a former railway worker (National Rail rather than TFL) and someone who regularly travels on the Victoria Line to and from Finsbury Park I love this.

Fantastic footage . as a kid in N8, Finsbury Park was our local tube station and I could never understand prior to 1969 how the Piccadilly line platforms got moved around during construction of the Victoria Line. The map and diagrams explain it all !

Always enjoy these video clips ....many thanks.

A favourite station of mine from going to the football. It will be fun to see behind the scenes.

So nice! Thank you all for making these video's.

Thank you so much.....your enthusiasm is certainly infectious....keep it up !!

Great video , the amount of hidden engineering we never see or even appreciate in our daily journeys on the tube👍.

Thanks Guys. I couldn’t watch live but am enjoying watching it now.

That was simply - brilliant! Not only are you the luckiest people to do this - what makes it nice, is that you know you were lucky and thus appreciated being there. Thank you very much, well done.

Brilliant another quality show and some very interesting detail cant wait for British Museum!!!!!!!🤩

Enjoyed the tour - team, I have been in the old tunnels at Drayton Park, could here the Victoria line trains coming to/from Highbury to/from Finsbury Park, the section between Highbury and Finsbury Park was the most interesting, I had seen the film about building of the Vic line before, some amazing complex engineering works from Drayton Park. Keep up the great work. Camden Town junction next please:).

Oh this is definitely my favourite episode so far but I suppose I am rather biased here! It was great to hang out with the Hidden Hangouts. The subterranean world is your oyster. xx

Fantastic episode

I am totally enjoying watching these episodes with my kids now! This was a truly exceptional episode today! Thanks to the Fab 4 for sticking with it! Tuning in from Long Beach, California.

Wow just WOW, Thank you so much for this episode, absolutely amazing, so much history down there. I love you guys, always make it so enjoyable, informative, humourous and educational. Thanks so much again x

Another fantastic episode, Can’t thank you (all) enough for taking the time to make these videos. (And undergo the training). They are entertaining and interesting. I also have another book to purchase now, so that’ll be an interesting read thank you.

Another amazing episode....thanks a million !!!

Loved this one guys, fascinating stuff! I literally sat on the edge of my seat waiting for your next video post! 😊👍

At 6:26 I thought for a minute Alex had a not so secret admirer behind him only to realise it's an advert lol

Amazing that the Northern City line terminus closed in 1964 allowing all these works. So what remains of the line to Drayton Park the temporary replacement terminus. Then in 1976 after moving from London Underground to BR the unfinished Northern Heights works were taken over to bring the line to the service for onward connection to National Rail. Wow what a busy set of complicated underground works.

Only discovered your channel recently and love how you get behind the scenes. Really interesting to see the construction methods used to build those old tunnels. Literally exploring a secret underground world.

Guys, thank you so much for another fantastic & interesting video.

Lov watching these videos

I live not far from the station. And use the Piccadilly line a lot. So it's good to know. The hidden bits of the line

Excellent video! The amount of history just this tiny section of our amazing city contains is extraordinary!

Loved it. Amazing space, amazing engineering, brilliant presentation as always. Oh and I’ve just picked up a copy of the same book for £5. 👍

Love these videos guys and girls, step plate junction is a part of history. The automated system on the Vic is amazing it was 60s tech. Would love to do a track walk must be so good to be in areas of historic London, keep up the good work guys 😁👍

Cracking episode - such a privilege to be taken along (via RU-vid). It's always fascinating and special to gain access to none public locations (I occasionally appreciate that on a photo commission). Thank you for all of your efforts to bring us these seemingly never ending locations, tunnels, etc ! (and to record for posterity)

Really Interesing Video Guys. :D

Nice video....as a long time driver on the picc' I still don't know why but, whenever I've stopped to take a look at it, there's something about that westbound crossover chamber where the old alignment meets the new that really puts the willies up me! It's an atmospheric place to say the least. Nice videos, keep up the good work.

I had the privilege of access to the back-of-house shafts and tunnels I used to enjoy poking my finger through the vents and asking someone on the platform in a Trigger Happy TV voice " excuse me, is this Victoria / Pimlico etc" Most people were always kind enough to answer even though they were taken by surprise ps: the dust is just good old-fashioned brake lining, silicate, vermin and human cells from the past 100 years

Just love Laura, Siddy and Chris. Thanks guys.

Great episode guys, well worth waiting for! And I really liked the studio 'top and tail' also. The old 1967 Stock on the Victoria line could cross to the Piccadilly line if driven manually and I was lucky to 'bash' both north and southbound crossovers at Finsbury Park on the '67 farewell railtour back in 2011. And with you mentioning the complex situation at Camden Town you really need to get down there and take a look in a future episode!

Absolutely brilliant glad you guys get to explore things we can't and being a Islington boy and seeing loads of local history as well I can't see is brilliant and fascinating

Fabulous, what a privilege to see.

Finally connected back to the grid & net...what an episode! So envious! Thoroughly entertaining & educational. Thx much!

Another great episode....van we have an Alex and Siddy Guide to Greased Flanges Special soon? It looks like you all love innuendos. It is great giving one

Such a brilliant episode. Would love to see more abandoned running tunnels.there is a superb old bbc programme about the building of the victoria line that not only shows the train emerging from the tunnel as in the picture Chris showed but also a train on the old alignment using track that was supported on blocks after the old tunnel walls were removed.

Here is the step plate crossover, with the last train running along the old alignment, before they dismantled the track and changed it over on one night, referenced in this episode: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GwRRSJ_wtIg.html

Really looking forward to this one team. And I'll be sitting down to watch it while eating my favourite feast of 'ham and turkey sandwiches, bags of lettuce, heaps of tomato, hard-boiled eggs and lashings of ginger beer'! I'm sure Alex will get that reference! I'm still missing the 'Notes, Queries & Questions' slot as it does open up suggestions for future visits, questions about previous outings and it allows Alex to read out some really nice comments that come in from time to time. And while we still get the final 'have yourself a nice day and stay safe' goodbye from Alex I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses the 'I don't do this on my own' intro piece also. Look it's great that following the events of the last few years you can now visit sites in person but maybe you could top and tail the videos with a Zoom session to include an intro to the station, include special guests and showcase a 'Siddy Slideshow' or two? Then when we've seen the deep delve into wherever you've been the NQQ's could start along with a teaser for the next episode. Sorry for the long post but it's from the heart! Take care to one and all and all the best.

Loved seeing you all back in the "studio"!!!

Fascinating. I loved the tube when in England. I think the last time i rode was in 1983 when visiting. This prog is a real insight as to what goes on that the average traveller never sees. Thank you.

I live on an island in the middle off the South Pacific so small a dot on the map that like your tunnels you have to zoom right in close to find us. I plan to go to London for a holiday and in doing so researching have been looking at the London underground to see the best place to stay has lead to riding along up front [The London Underground] and now exploring the underground tunnels. The stories the findings and all the stuff happening underground is as much fascinating as the stuff above ground...I am getting to know more about London before we get there. Saving the money to take the holiday and pick what we need to see above ground...hat is nice is that when we take the underground, we know that history and the special points about it. Will make our (My because my wife is not watching)trip so much more special...just got to get there yet as we have to double our currency to plan what we can afford.

Absolutely fascinating.

Brilliant video and thank you, just found your channel, but brilliant

This is the first video from you that I've watched. I love the underground - I've watched the Ghosts on the Underground documentary so many times. Looking forward to diving into more of your episodes :)

The modern situation is that the Great Northern Enfield Chase line remains on the surface until just after Drayton Park, with Essex Road the first subterranean connection. The intermediate-level foot tunnels are seriously confusing, and are currently being replaced, as the cross-tunnel is dangerously narrow when handling crowds headed to the Arsenal Emirates Stadium, immediately adjacent to Drayton Park Station, which is closed on Match Days. The crowds can be disruptive to surface traffic, and in certain match combinations, more than a little potentially dangerous. Another station in the at-risk zone is the Piccadilly Line Holloway Road. A further abnormal load factor is that Finsbury Park serves as the emergency turn-around for Kings Cross Mainline, although there is limited scope for load shed in St Pancras.

Excellent episode once again when you think you cant top what you have already done you bring this to us thank you very much wow just wow ❤

gee, London without the Tube - unimaginable. It's such a part of the whole "I'm in London!" experience. A place where all social classes and suburbs mingle and get sorted. First time? Heathrow to Earls Court on my first OE. April 1981. Unforgetable, The Jam's Going Underground was HUGEE!!!

I have that book. Sent to me years ago by LT for free.

Can not get the reminders so had to watch on catch up but a brilliant episode thanks

Loved the video

A superb episode guys. Alex, I saw you taking photos in the tunnel (eg the AG sign). I’m wondering, when checking your photos back on your iPhone, is it giving you a GPS pinpoint? Showing exactly what’s above you…. That would be so cool!

Love This Channel

love this series

Such a very interesting video thank you. 😊

Would love to see a video of the Elizabeth line after one year of running. Comparing what has happened over a years time with other lines and tfl improving other lines. Also hopefully London gets more trees and bike infrastructure.

Great episode, team, and a welcome Easter present! I was brought up on the northern stretch of the Piccadilly Line (so to speak), so Finsbury Park was always an important interchange station for me. I'm too young to remember the Northern [City] Line in operation at FP, but just old enough to remember all the excitement around the opening of the Victoria Line. I suppose there can't be all that many disused bits in FP station itself (the original lift shafts?), just a series of odd features caused by changes to the use of the platforms (and by the odd relationship with the GNR upstairs); the most interesting disused bits, as you showed, are in the tunnels approaching the station.

That photo being pointed out at 38:33, with the Piccadilly line train coming out the new tunnel, into the old alignment, also appears in the 1990 edition of "London's Underground", by John Glover, as does the diagram, which you were using with red arrows, to point where you were.

Awesome! Very interesting vid especially at the end where you show the old tunnel and the new tunnel although it was built back in the 1960s, i watched "how they dug the victoria line" a while back and wondered where that was and why they had changed the tunnels over and this vid just explained it all! You guys and girls are so lucky to have the opportunity to actually go down there and film these awesome vids!! Keep up the good work team.

Brilliant!

Engineering Genius. A quick squirt of lubricant .To ensure a well lubricated tunnel flange.👍

I was a bridge examiner based a Palace Gates back in the 1990's and Drayton Park disused tunnels Finsbury Park to Moorgate along with Finsbury park STation was on part of my area, If you go into the disused tunnels at Drayton Park you with find a mummyfied cat along with a soiled pair of boxers. Although they are not mine they belong to my assiocate who dropped his stomach because of food posioning on Saturday morning. But alot of Finsbury Main line station is behind closed doors with 1950 posters on the wall. If you walk through Drayton Park to Moorgate you will find some of the tunnels are wider because the used to connect to another service which was closed off and bricked up, Also Moorgate is shorter than it was orginally built for reasons which cannot be discussed.

They wouldn't dare go on to the stretch between Holloway Road and Caledonian Road, not around 3am time anyway. That was where on 31 October 1923 the last Piccadilly Line train of the evening, 10.53 pm, left Caledonian Road northbound, with the driver, guard and 5 passengers - and never got to Holloway Road. of course you'll see this reported as a tragic derailment, as there was no explanation as to where that train went. They handsomely compensated the 7 families involved, and kept them quiet. They never did find that train, except that around 3.03 am some nights the maintenance crews reported feeing a rush of very cold air and a noise like a train coming, except of course there were no trains then. Sometimes a light mist appears in the tunnel and then disperses again. The LT crews to this day won't work that bit of the tunnel after around 2 until 4am has passed.

Nice hats!

Thank you for keeping the camera steady, it makes a huge difference to viewing enjoyment especially at only 25 or 30 FPS (perhaps to let more light into the camera in a dark environment, as against the smoother 50 or 60 FPS).

What can I say rhis is awesome thanks for the tour.

the ttc in toronto needs a group like this great vids london transport museum

Plus you’re dealing with serious volts. 600+ to move trains, and i remember one episode of The Tube where he said if you stand on the positive and negative rails you’ll go up in flames

The first chappie speaking on the platform sounds very ex-Army!

You lucky, lucky people!

PS Regarding a couple of points that came up in the episode: As I understand it, it's not just the balloon flights but also the duelling that was supposed to have really happened at Finsbury Fields rather than Finsbury Park. (I guess the latter is so lacking in historical associations that they had to cheat a bit.) Also, another reason why the current 2009 Victoria stock can't use the Piccadilly tunnels (not even with battery loco haulage) is that it's just too big - it was built to take advantage of the slightly larger bore of the Victoria tunnels (this was alluded to in the episode but very briefly). However, the original 1967 Victoria stock (which was of standard LU tube size) could and did use the Piccadilly tunnels for access to and from Acton works. Possibly the 1967 stock was a bit easier to drive manually for long distances than the 2009 stock?

In South Australia in the 1950’60 there use to a migrant hostile and it had the name of Finsbury and my family and I lived there for about 19 months before moving into a new satellite city.

Any chance you could do an edition on the Camden Interchange? If not then the greased flanges of Arsenal would suffice.

Oh WOW ❤

Gosh Siddy - tidy your kitchen !! 😮 Blimey girl !

Good work