The Lure of the Underground

(18 customer reviews)

Baker Street Underground station, London (Baker Street North exit)

Guided by Aaron or Anne-Marie or Fiona or Steven Sz

Walk Times

Day Walk Type Start Time End Time
Tuesday Weekly 10.45 am 12.45 pm Winter Reserve Online

N.B. this walk will not take place on the following dates:

23-04-2024 30-04-2024

Short read: Mind the Gap!

Awed walker: “There’s a whole other world down there.”

Long read: Down the Tubes. 150 Years of engineering and artistry from the inside. See things you’ve seen but not seen. Things you’ve not registered, not understood, not made sense of. We’re going places on this walk so get an Oyster Card or a Day Travel Card. Yes, some of the walk is outside but a lot of it’s down the Tube: inside stations, on platforms, in trains. Now a bit more background info. Not so very long ago the London Underground marked its 150th birthday. This tour explores that extraordinary “journey”, “trajectory”, “trip”, call it what you will. We explore several stations, inside and out. And bears repeating, this: you’ll see things that you won’t have seen before. Let alone things that you did see before but didn’t “see”, if you know what, I mean. I (David) went on this one with Fiona a year ago. It was a revelation. I’ve been taking the Tube for 40 years. She pointed out things that I’d never noticed – never noticed in stations that I’ve been in well over 10,000 times. Lots and lots of “well, I never” moments, jaw-hanging-open moments. The Tube. It’s a great London story. An integral part of the calculus of London life. So that in itself is a great foundation for a walk.

And while you’re at it, try this – it’s Fiona’s podcast of the walk. Makes for fascinating listening.

And to it you can add three great guides. Fiona, the Phi Beta Kappa of her Blue Badge graduating class (she won the Guide of the Year Award). has put this walk together brilliantly. And she delivers it with consummate artistry.

As do the other two members of the trio: Steven and Anne-Marie. This is a special couple of hours. Strongly recommended.

THE LURE OF THE UNDERGROUND – THE PRACTICALS

The meeting point is just outside Baker Street Tube, the Baker Street North exit (by Boots).  

LONDON WALKS SOUPÇON

“The Underground is still for me the most romantic and mysterious part of London”  David Piper, museum director and author of The Companion Guide to London, the finest guidebook ever written on London

West Ashfield Station. Heard of it? It sits on the third floor of an office building in West Kensington. A mocked-up station, it’s used as a training facility for London Underground staff. It’s fully kitted out with all the signage you’d find in a modern Tube station: LED displays, platform markings and a small section of Tube train.No trains enter or leave West Ashfield but you can hear them and feel them, thanks to the rumbling sound effects and fans that simulate a train’s arrival.

“With 11 different lines serving 270 stations [271 if you count West Ashfield], over 249 miles (402 km) of track, on which up to 500 t4rains can be in operation during peak hours, it’s a complex network that requires thousands of pairs of skilled hands to keep it running.”  Emily Kearns

A previously unknown breed of mosquito, adapted to life underground, was discovered living in the Tube network in 1998.

LONDON WALKS REVIEWS

“by far the most impressive series of walks that I have ever encountered are those offered by London Walks”  Travel and Enjoy

“the unfailingly fascinating London Walks… If you can’t find one [of their tours] that captures your fancy, maybe you really are tired of life.” San Francisco Chronicle

“Even jaded Londoners find these London Walks a source of astonishing gems of information about the city in which they live.”  Daily Mail, Top London Treats

LONDON WALKS PRIVATE WALKS

If you can’t make the regularly scheduled, just-turn-up, public Lure of the Underground walk do think about booking one as a private tour. If you go private you can have the Lure of the Underground – or any other London Walk – on a day and at a time that suits your convenience. We’ll tailor it to your requirements. And – always with private London Walks and tours – we go to great lengths to make sure the guide-walker(s) “fit” is well-nigh perfect. Ring Fiona or Niamh or Peter or Mary on 020 7624 3978 or email us at [email protected] and we’ll set it up and make it happen for you. A private London Walk – they’re good value for an individual or couple and sensational value for a group – makes an ideal group or educational or birthday party or office (team-building) or club outing.

GIVE THE GIFT OF LONDON WALKS

A private London Walk makes a very special (and unusual) gift – be it a birthday or anniversary or Christmas present or whatever. Merchandise schmerchandise (gift wrapped or not) – but giving someone an experience, now that’s special. Memories make us rich.

MIND THE GAP

It’s not even close

LONDON WALKS – STREETS AHEAD!

Don’t just take it from us

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING

“If this were a golf tournament every name on the Leader Board would be a London Walks guide”

18 reviews for The Lure of the Underground

  1. Edwin Robinson

    Lure of the Underground was a fascinating walk and I enjoyed it. Fiona is a wealth of information about the history and development of the tube/underground system and her method of imparting this information was well plotted. I enjoyed the stories she told about the first few years that individual systems operated and the “indignities” that commuters had to put up with. And some of the pictures she showed us were incredible.

    This is a walk that I quite enjoyed and would highly recommend.

  2. Debora Anderson

    Thanks Fiona for your lively & informative tour. It was a busy 2 hours with learning about the underground’s history, architecture & art from station to station.

  3. Judith Phillips

    This is an excellent tour; Fiona is fantastic in her ability to weave the history of the Tube, its architecture, and its art work all together into an enjoyable walk. I highly recommend it.

  4. Beate

    It was great to learn about the history, Metropolitan Tonics, the artwork in Tube Stations and lots of details. Fiona’s tour was a lot of fun.

  5. Arthur Churchill

    As a born and bred Londoner who has used the tube for 30 years the tour certainly told me a few things I didn’t know; Fiona was very engaging and knowledgeable and new her stuff ; liked some of the facts ie the depth of the lines and would have liked more of that type of stuff eg longest tube tunnel is on the Northern line ; overall very good 👍

  6. Tina Bonny

    Aaron made me look at my surroundings in a new light, and appreciate the beauty and elegance of so much of the architecture and decor. Thoroughly enjoyed this tour, and will definitely return for a 4th with you guys.

  7. Christa Williford

    I thoroughly enjoyed this well-planned walk and appreciate the Underground even more now that I have learned a bit of its history. Fiona was completely entertaining and added in some trivia to make things extra fun. It takes a gifted storyteller to tie together over 160 years of growth and change, pointing out unique details you wouldn’t normally notice along the way.

  8. Tony Dadoun

    Expert knowledge communicated well and with great humour. I learned a lot and enjoyed the whole experience.

  9. Julian

    Really must agree with all the other reviews of the Lure of the Underground!
    I took a small group on this walk and we were all fascinated and amazed by Fiona’s adventure!
    Take you friends and DO GO!

    Your Underground journeys will never seem rhe same again.

    So much history is down there…

    Truly special.

  10. Julian

    Really must agree with all the other reviews of the Lure of the Underground!
    I took a small group on this walk and we were all fascinated and amazed by Fiona’s adventure!
    Take you friends and DO GO!

    Your Underground journeys will never seem rhe same again.

    So much history is down there…

    Truly soecial.

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