Down Street Station - The Underground's Use in War
Sean Joyce, Spring 2024
Down Street Station was a station originally founded as a stop on the famous Piccadilly Line. Serving the London Underground from 1907 to 1932, the station saw very little foot traffic and closed after only 25 years of activity. In the decade following its shutdown, the Second World War broke out in Europe. Down Street was secretly reborn to house the top secret government organizations tasked with keeping British transport alive. Down Street Station shows how strong dedication to the war effort in every minute detail helped to secure victory for Britain.
Down Street began the top secret phase of its life after a “certain gentleman” requested via G. Cole Deacon, Railway Executive Committee secretary, that H.J. Green, chief engineer of the London Passenger Transport Board, to “arrange for the passage midway between the first and second landing to be converted for his use”. This certain gentleman was Winston Churchill. Churchill saw the potential that the abandoned station had as a home for the REC during the times of war where British rail was heavily targeted by German bombs. A few years into the war, another photo shows the executive board of the REC and a few guests. The REC’s staff of 40 people transformed this disused station to a headquarters from which all supply chains and rail services were organized during the Blitz. The station housed these employees on a semi-permanent basis, only leaving for short stints at home with family.
During a visit to the station in 2023, I found that the location still had much of its original wartime equipment still in place. I could easily tell what each room was used for; the bathrooms still had toilets and tubs, the kitchen still had gas pipes and vents visible, and the bedrooms still had some of their bedframes. The station is still up against the Piccadilly line, evident by the fact that you can hear the trains go by every couple of minutes. The station is now used as ventilation for the ever hotter Underground. Every time a train would go by, the wind would soon follow it causing the temperature inside the station to fluctuate by tens of degrees each minute.
Down Street Station represents British resolve during times of major crisis. Though it was a failed station on the Underground, it found use during the war effort thanks to Winston Churchill. An operational hub for coordinating British transport during the Blitz, the station greatly succeeded and now stands as a reminder of its effort. The tours that frequent the station teach a rich history and answer the deepest questions a tourist like myself could possibly have had.
Bibliography
Topical Press. Railway Executive Committee meeting in Down Street Underground station. Photograph. London, April 1940. London.
Topical Press. Meeting of the LT Executive in a room in the disused Down Street Underground station. Photograph. London, April 1940. London.
Deacon, G Cole. Letter to Mr. Green. “Conversion of the Passage at the Above Address.” London, January 20, 1941.
Nix, Chris, Siddy Holloway, David Bownes, and Sam Mullins. Hidden London: Discovering the forgotten underground. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.
Closing of Down Street station. Photograph. London, 1932. London.
London Transport Museum. “The Secret Wartime History of Down Street Station.” London Transport Museum, October 21, 2020. https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/war/secret-wartime-history-down-street-station.
Deacon, G Cole. Letter to Mr. Green. “Conversion of the Passage at the Above Address.” London, January 20, 1941.
Joyce, Sean. Down Street Station Facade. Photograph. London, March 15, 2024. London.
Joyce, Sean. Down Street Station Entry Tunnel. Photograph. London, March 15, 2024. London.
Acknowledgments
Funding for this Study Abroad class was provided by the UAH Honors College. Thank you to Reagan Grimsley, Charlie Gibbons, Gracie Jeffers, and all the wonderful tour guides we had in London.
