Behind Closed Doors

At our meeting on 28th October our guest speaker Brian Hardy gave a very comprehensive talk, aided by slides, entitled “Behind Closed Doors”.

Now retired, Brian spent his career as a senior controller on London Underground and displayed a vast knowledge of the system from its inception to the present day through all its stages of development, describing the many changes over the decades.

Starting with the old City and South London Railway, now part of the Northern Line, he showed the many developments that had taken place including the change from lifts to escalators, changes to tunnels to accommodate new locomotives and rolling stock, new station entrances and closure of various sidings and signal boxes as the system developed.

It became apparent that rather than demolish these redundant parts of the network, the authorities chose to just shut them off behind closed doors and many still exist to this day. Of course they became useful during the Blitz in World War Two as shelters and meeting places for the various arms of government.

Brian dealt with the whole of the network, not just the deep Underground, venturing out as far as Heathrow and dealing with the closure of various stations over the years such Aldwych, York Road and British Museum.

Finally, he indicated how Crossrail and the Elizabeth Line were changing the system at the present time. A fascinating talk enjoyed by everyone.

Bob Horner