Baker Street station, London: TfL Tube station’s 160 year history explored in new Hidden London tour

Calling all transport enthusiasts! A new hidden underground tour is set to launch next month uncovering the secrets of one of the oldest Tube stations in the world: Baker Street station.

Opened on January 10, 1863, as part of the Metropolitan Railway, Baker Street is not only one of the oldest stations but also one of the largest, with 10 platforms and five Underground lines: Bakerloo, Jubilee, Hammersmith and City, Circle and Metropolitan.

London Transport Museum’s Hidden Underground tours have been running since 2015, allowing visitors to access and explore the secret and “forgotten” locations of the London Underground.

Baker Street: The World’s First Underground is the latest instalment and is due to open to the public on September 6. LondonWorld were lucky enough to be invited along for a sneak preview.

On a rainy Tuesday morning in August a group of us gathered at the iconic Sherlock Holmes statue, ready to be whisked into the depths of the Underground station.

Led by Hidden London’s Siddy Holloway and Aaron Oliver, we were taken on an 85 minute adventure of secret tunnels, 1940s posters and disused lift shafts at Baker Street station.

First stop on the tour was a visit to see a set of toilet’s dating back to the 1860’s. We learned that the pipework from these lavatories flowed straight out on the train tracks and that by summer time the stench was horrifying.

We were played audio snippets from the transport museum’s archives, showing what the first passengers thought of underground travel in 1863.

Next we were brought to a disused lift shaft that hasn’t been seen by the public for 77 years and once belonged to the Bakerloo line.

At the bottom of one of the lift shafts is a faded beige and red poster advertising a play, Tilly of Bloomsbury, written in the 1930s.

We were then brought into what staff called “the cathedral”, which displayed remnants of the old Metropolitan line.

The tour ends with a visit to the London canteen training school and the offices where Transport for London’s (TfL) revenue team operate, which is a former rifle range.

This is an engaging and interactive tour which allows visitors to learn about the history of Baker Street station - and about how it grew over 16 decades.

Tickets are not cheap - priced at £44 - but tour groups are kept small to treat visitors to a more intimate, tailored experience.

The tour is for transport enthusiasts and tourists, as well as for Londoners who want to experience the history of their city in a new and exciting way.

The Hidden Baker Street tours will be running from September 6 to December 29, with the tours taking place from Wednesday to Saturday each week.

Hidden London offers a range of other tours of the city’s vast transport network.

Visitors can explore the original 19th century passageways and features at Shepherd’s Bush or the bomb-proof wartime corridors concealed at the now disused Down Street station on the Piccadilly line.

They can enjoy Euston’s secret 1960s gallery of advertising posters, and the labyrinth of underground passages hidden deep beneath Clapham South, built to shelter Londoners during the Second World War.

A new virtual tour, Hidden London: Discovering the Forgotten Underground, has been launched to celebrate the Tube’s 160 year anniversary.

The online tour is led by an expert guide to allow people from all over the world to discover how the London Underground network evolved over the years since its beginning on January 10 1863.

And those who want to stay above ground can choose the Secrets of Central London walking tour of Covent Garden, Kingsway, Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Victoria Embankment.

For more information on Hidden London tours you can read our full guide.