The Disused Parts of Holborn Station

Описание: Platform 5 ("Aldwych" Platform)
Up until recently, the now unused Platform 5 was visible through locked gates alongside Platform 4 (north bound Piccadilly) and served the shuttle between Holborn and Aldwych, which was discontinued in 1994. Doors have recently replaced these gates so the platform can no longer be seen from public areas. The platform is still there however and is still kept in very good condition and has changed little from when it was closed. Looking up platform (towards Aldwych), you could be forgiven for thinking that the platform was still in use. The other direction has had some building work done on the platform itself, which now apparently serves as a storage area for the escalator engineers.

I was amused to see that the advertisements up on the wall opposite the platform were still being updated at several points along the station wherever the public were able to peer through gates. Between these advertisements about 6 white boards had been recently erected/painted on the wall which served as screens for a new prototype video projection advertisement system which was being tested on the platform, the projectors themselves were housed in aluminium casings above the platform pointing out over the track-way. The projectors switch off automatically as a train approaches the station and then on again as the train departs using the same system that is used on other Holborn platforms to turn on the "mind the gap" announcements.

Unfortunately they were off when we visited so we didn't get to see them in action, besides, based on the tarnished appearance of the rails I suspect it had been a while since a train last came into that platform! [I've since discovered that a train is regularly run into and out of the station from the southern Aldwych end of the platform despite the tarnished look on the rails for various purposes including filming and maintenance. A train is in permanent residence somewhere between here and Aldwych

Another sign of the platform being used for prototyping could be seen on the ground. A slightly raised area on the platform could be seen, presumably spaced so that the raised area would meet with a door when a train was in the station. This I was told was a new type of platform design, to make disabled access to the trains easier and if it was ever used, a single raised area would be placed at a the end of a platform to allow easier access to the train.

Holborn, ancient & modern When removing some of the more modern signs and hoardings after the Aldwych branch was closed and the platform was no longer in service, some surprises were found behind some of the modern enamel panels including a roll of old tickets and a pre-Heathrow extension map of the Piccadilly Line. One of the maps can be seen in the photograph, are tantalizingly close to every day life at Holborn! Until recently, one of these could be seen through a metal gate on platform 4, but solid doors have now replaced these.Platform 6 ("The Hostel") All the walls had very recently been painted white (you could still smell the emulsion paint) and newly installed fluorescent lighting brightly lit the corridor.

Newly refurbished areaFew people realise that the Aldwych branch line was originally designed as a twin tunnel branch and Holborn originally had a sixth (western) platform to serve the second tunnel on the branch. Since the line was never very busy, in 1917 the eastern tunnel was closed along with the eastern platform at Aldwych and western platform at Holborn. It was this closed western platform that was our next unexpected port of call.

The locked entrance to the disused platform was hidden behind some grey panels at the end of the Piccadilly Line Platform 4 making it look like a storage cabinet. Immediately behind the door, I could clearly see some of the original brick and tiling overhead, now looking decidedly worse for wear. After a second door we entered an area that was clearly very recently renovated. As I walked down the original platform, the tiled wall to my right was obviously the original curved station wall, and to my left was a breezeblock wall, built at the point where the platform would have ended