The Hidden Gallery at Marble Arch Station | Hidden London Hangouts (S07E06)



In this episode, the team explore the history of Marble Arch station and discover some hidden disused spaces โ€“ with posters!

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38 thoughts on “The Hidden Gallery at Marble Arch Station | Hidden London Hangouts (S07E06)”

  1. Nice to see a station Iโ€™ve used quite frequently when I worked down the road at Stratford Place โ€ฆ it had been a few years since then, but not as long as those โ€˜galleriesโ€™ have been closed up!

    Keep them coming โ€ฆ anything worth looking at around Heathrow? If you time your filming for 3rd July, you could get me coming off the plane (yes, after 11 years Iโ€™m coming back to the UK!)

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  2. After a bit of digging, the average London Labourer's weekly wage in '32 was just ยฃ1, 11s / 0d. The Ingersoll offer was about a day's wage therefore unless domestic staff or other 7days per week workers. This depends upon the watch now.

    Very coy about the original charges, as all companies of some age can be, there was advertised a Dollar watch with the line that you could do a day's work and buy a tough smart timepiece. A day's wage of $1 in exchange for a watch for longer than a day. You trust.

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  3. I've been down that long skinny corridor that you showed, but didn't go down. It's connected to some sort of underground car park. I always got the impression that those other tunnels didn't belong to TfL, because of the decoration changing and changing two times.

    I think it's a shame that TfL has abandoned those tunnels, as it's good to be able to walk underground to the nearest station in bad weather. I loved it when all the shops near Picadilly Circus got reconnected to the station.

    I wish that Westminster would do a cut and cover excavation of Oxford Street and connect Marble Arch, Bond Street, Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road to all of the basements of the shops.

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  4. I really enjoy this series. Thank you for making my weekend!

    There is the Northeast Document Conservation Center located across the pond here in Andover Massachusetts that specializes in restoration of documents and other papers. Perhaps they could recommend a process to preserve some of these posters that are in better shape. They have done work for various museums and organizations.

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  5. So, there's a super-long pedestrian subway between marble arch on the central line and hyde park corner on the piccadilly line, but it would mess up the tube map, so they closed the subway.

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  6. This Hidden Gallery looks to me veriy like what was built decades ago in connnection with fhe construction of the underground car park beneath the North East corner of Hyde Park, which was excavated for the purpose to an extent far greater than needed for the car park itself.

    If so I will have walked through the passage many times in my younger days as a short cut to and from school in the 1960s… It was very useful to me then even if not much frequented generally,

    The western part of the Hyde Park excavation was for other than car park use: some other undisclosed or secret purpose, probably connected with Government Security. It will surely be used for it yet.

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  7. Lovely episode as usual. I was walking through the 'poster & historic photos corridor' the other day as there is a nice lit up crown which has been installed opposite Marble Arch following the Coronation.

    For a future NQQ session- would you consider a video on the history of the DLR as it has had a very interesting past. Also it would be nice to see around a Tube depot or two, perhaps Golders Green or Northumberland Park.

    I was looking back at some earlier episodes and for me and the very epitome of a perfect format was the one looking at Wood Lane- a good lively Zoom chat, brilliant archive photos, a visit to the new station and the story of the vintage mosaic which now adorns the back window of the ticket hall. More like this please!

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  8. Please go back to the two presenter format as they are much more informative because there is no 'Competition' regarding who speaks the most. Four presenters is too many and unnecessary.

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  9. I suspect the reason is quite simple – that corridor used to be a vagrant sleeping location, stunk and was intimidating to use without continual security. Diverting people to the surface was safer.

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  10. I hadn't realised that the subway network at Marble Arch had even been closed down let alone closed down reopened for the Olympics and then closed down again. I probably last got disorientated down there in the 1990s.

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  11. If possible it would be nice to revist the walkthrough at some time in the future with a add-in showing the posters that you noted showing how they looked originally – assuming of course that a copy of them still exists in the archives

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  12. What an interesting snap shot of 1930s London, very interesting advertising for other Railway lines too.
    I love the fact that you can unlock the layers of history waking these disused areas. Keep them coming and have a great week guys ๐Ÿ˜Š

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  13. After moving from the UK to Ireland I missed seeing series 2 of secrets of the underground and while looking for it I came across your excellent channel and have started working through from the very 1st episode in lockdown and catching up to the more recent episodes. What an amazing show you all bring us weekly, now I'm the house husband its been really fantastic to satisfy my homesick feelings sometimes while alone, keep up the amazing work and what a team you all are, many thanks to you all long may it continue

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  14. I think the Ingersoll signs are not about 5'/week but an advert for "Ingersoll 5' Watch" – Ingersoll being a watch company. I googled for images of 1930s Ingersoll adverts and there are few that come up for Ingersoll watches at 5' (5 shillings). Thanks.

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  15. New to these very interesting and informative videos. How about St Jamesโ€™s Park?. On recent visits Iโ€™ve used it a few times. I remember shops and an entrance for London Underground office??.
    Keep up the great work.
    Steve.

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  16. Another great episode, guys. One of my lesser-used stations. Question for you about wayleaves! Mention has often been made of the older lines following roadways (and the Central Line under Oxford Street is a great example) to avoid wayleave payments to building owners. But the newer cuts through the centre – thinking of the Victoria between Warren Street and Victoria, and the Jubilee between Baker Street and Westminster – are basically diagonals and must cut under myriad buildings. Has the law on wayleaves changed, or was it simply handed over to the legal department to get on with arranging all the wayleaves? If the latter, it must have kept the lawyers busy for a while!

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  17. Loving the retro ads. Sad that some have been defaced over the years. Since we are on the central line, how about a visit to the Old Ford fan shaft. Never seen it myself, but have heard of its existence for many years.

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