British Museum Tube Station - research needed for novel

[Jack D]

Hello all,

Bit of an odd question this. I'm currently working on a novel called Old Dogs which is set on the London Underground. The premise can be found below:

After a successful heist at the British Museum, a family of career criminals accidentally create a hostage situation on the London Underground's Central Line during a heatwave. Trapped beneath ground with the temperature rising and with the world watching the developing global news story, the family must put aside their differences to survive.

I am a fan of the London Underground but I am by no means an expert. Having said that I'm confident writing the hostage situation part of the story as that is set on the train itself, of which I am very familiar. The novel mostly takes place on a Central Line train (1992 stock) between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street and is similar in tone to The Taking of Pelham 123. It is the opening of the novel, the heist, which is giving me a headache.

The novel begins with the trio of criminals gaining access to the British Museum via the abandoned tube station beneath. While there used to be four lift shafts connecting the abandoned station to the museum all four have been filled up with concrete. In my novel I've used a bit of creative license to that one of the lift shafts is still accessible and reaches the bowls of the museum. What I'm struggling with is how the criminal reach the abandoned station and details of the station itself. In my first draft the criminals run down the line from Holborn station, between services no less, and enter the station that way. Realistically could this be done if each man was physically fit?

My second question where can I find out more information about the British Museum tube station aside from it's wiki page and that one episode of Secrets of the London Underground?

Finally, if a train load of passengers were taken hostage between stations is there a protocol on how the Met and Transport for London would react to this situation? Obviously the whole network would come to a halt to stop the movement of trains and the hostages would somehow need food/drink sent to them...

 

[The exile]

Finally, if a train load of passengers were taken hostage between stations is there a protocol on how the Met and Transport for London would react to this situation? Obviously the whole network would come to a halt to stop the movement of trains and the hostages would somehow need food/drink sent to them...

If there is a protocol, anyone who knows what it is is unlikely to post it on here!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

What I'm struggling with is how the criminal reach the abandoned station and details of the station itself. In my first draft the criminals run down the line from Holborn station, between services no less, and enter the station that way. Realistically could this be done if each man was physically fit?

I wonder if it might be better if they slip into the tunnel after the last service of the day, giving them more time? I'd think any one person, let alone a whole gang, slipping into the tunnels in traffic hours would be spotted instantly. At the end of service they could disguise themselves as a permanent way team and be more likely to get away with it.

Presumably they'd have to break into the museum overnight anyway - they could then halt / hijack one of the early services the next day?

 

[birchesgreen]

The 1935 British film Bulldog Jack has some scenes filmed at the then recently closed British Museum station. You should be able to find the film on YouTube (thats how i saw it anyway!)

 

[Gloster]

The 1935 British film Bulldog Jack has some scenes filmed at the then recently closed British Museum station. You should be able to find the film on YouTube (thats how i saw it anyway!)

A lot of the British Museum shots were done in the studio, although some were done on location.

There is the London Underground Railway Society ( .lurs.org.uk ) and there are also a number of books, often by J.E.Connor, on disused stations on the Underground…but check you get the right volume.

EDIT: name changed to J.E.Connor from Piers Connor, who I think writes on other aspects of London’s underground.

 

[Snow1964]

British Museum station was open from 1900 to 1935. It was like all the other Central London Railway stations. The platforms tunnels were glazed in white tiles. Some of these were still in use into the 1980s. I think Chancery Lane or St Paul's were refurbished with a modern high gloss version as a sort of nod to the architectural heritage.

All the station buildings were basically the same standardised design by Harry B Measures, with exteriors faced by large brown biscuit stone, with white stone ornaments, of cherubs or faces. Some of these still exist although many later had additional floors added above.

Inside the electric lifts all had wooden doors etc, and wood panelling and tiling was the principle decoration in the ticket halls.

Unlike the currently open stations its platforms weren't extended (at the extended ones there is usually about 1.5 car lengths with a kink in tunnel wall where it was dug around the original running line), presumably they remain as built with the white tiles. You can not really see them from a train as a wall was built (probably in WW2) when spare tunnels were used for bunkers

You need to read up on secret tunnels to know what happened after the 1935 closure, some of which was classified for decades, but in summary when world war 2 was starting some was turned into emergency bunker and a whole lot of extra tunnels were dug in the Holborn area for telephone exchanges and emergency communications, expanded into the 1950s for International exchanges. Obviously that old manual and electromechanical stuff is now obsolete, but what is down there now has not been released.

 

[Big_Gaz67]

Hello all,

Bit of an odd question this. I'm currently working on a novel called Old Dogs which is set on the London Underground. The premise can be found below:

After a successful heist at the British Museum, a family of career criminals accidentally create a hostage situation on the London Underground's Central Line during a heatwave. Trapped beneath ground with the temperature rising and with the world watching the developing global news story, the family must put aside their differences to survive.

I am a fan of the London Underground but I am by no means an expert. Having said that I'm confident writing the hostage situation part of the story as that is set on the train itself, of which I am very familiar. The novel mostly takes place on a Central Line train (1992 stock) between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street and is similar in tone to The Taking of Pelham 123. It is the opening of the novel, the heist, which is giving me a headache.

The novel begins with the trio of criminals gaining access to the British Museum via the abandoned tube station beneath. While there used to be four lift shafts connecting the abandoned station to the museum all four have been filled up with concrete. In my novel I've used a bit of creative license to that one of the lift shafts is still accessible and reaches the bowls of the museum. What I'm struggling with is how the criminal reach the abandoned station and details of the station itself. In my first draft the criminals run down the line from Holborn station, between services no less, and enter the station that way. Realistically could this be done if each man was physically fit?

My second question where can I find out more information about the British Museum tube station aside from it's wiki page and that one episode of Secrets of the London Underground?

Finally, if a train load of passengers were taken hostage between stations is there a protocol on how the Met and Transport for London would react to this situation? Obviously the whole network would come to a halt to stop the movement of trains and the hostages would somehow need food/drink sent to them...

Why don't you have accomplices on a following train who cause a distraction (perhaps a fake medical incident?) at the previous station - holding the train up to ensure the men at Holburn have time to get down the tunnels to the shaft entrance?

 

[Supercoss]

The “ money train” movie (1995) And “ The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 “ (1974) remake in 1998 and same title in 2009 demonstrate why it’s not wise to mess with Mass Transit
Gesundheit !

 

[norbitonflyer]

Although a number of underground spaces were created in the area during WW2, particularly around Holborn and Chancery lane stations, there are not known to be any passages connecting the station to the museum - but you're writing fiction, so you can have as many tunnels as you want. (I am reminded of Dorothy Sayers' comment when asked why she gave her detective such expensive tastes - it didn't cost her anything, and he deserved it)

The station was not directly under the museum, but about 200 meters away from the nearest (SE) corner. (To paraphrase a comment about the distance of Dent station from the village, they thought it best to put the station near the railway).

Artefacts stored underground for the duration were transferred from the museum by the surface - there was neither the time nor the resource to build tunnels particularly for that one-off purpose.

And by the way the next station west after Tottenham Court Road is called Oxford Circus, not Oxford Street.

 

[coupwotcoup]

Museum station is mentioned in the classic British horror film 'Death Line' but based at Russell Square.

#mindthedoors

 

[matthenj]

Siddy Holloway is pretty active on Instagram - could be worth firing her a message: no guarantee you'll get a reply, but might be worth a shot.

Never know, there might be a hidden london tour or similar going down there.

 

[bluegoblin7]

A HL tour to British Museum is an impossibility as the only access is via the track, and anyone attending would need to be certified to LUL’s track standards.

There is an excerpt of Siddy and @timmydunn ’s visit to British Museum for Secrets of the London Underground on YouTube, and I understand the Hidden London Hangouts team are also visiting soon.

Realistically, that’s probably your lot for things publicly accessible. Unfortunately I don’t feel comfortable commenting any further about access arrangements or the plot possibilities due to the aforementioned security concerns (sorry!).

 

[Taunton]

The station is (was) several streets away from the museum, on High Holborn on the corner with Bloomsbury Court alleyway. It's actually very close to the replacing Holborn station, as you stand on the eastbound Central Line platform there you can see approaching trains running through the level area of the old station, then descending, as stations on this line were originally built with tunnels rising to the platform, then going down again as they departed.

If further interested in "secret passages" connected to the Underground try and get hold of a copy of "Beneath the City Streets" by Peter Laurie, published about 50 years ago, or even better, "Bunkers under London" by Nigel Pennick, both of which contains an extraordinary number of accounts of otherwise unknown underground facilities in central London, amazingly discovered by the authors (but seemingly nobody else), many ostensibly connected to the Underground. Abandoned Tube stations of course had a particular fascination. We had a discussion here a while ago on how much these might be filed in the Fiction (or even the Humour) departments of a library! Link here:

Beneath the City Streets - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Bunkers Under London: Amazon.co.uk: Pennick, Nigel: 9781871401004: Books

Buy Bunkers Under London 3rd Revised edition by Pennick, Nigel (ISBN: 9781871401004) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[daveid]

Jago Hazzard did a YouTube video on the station 3 years back

 

[Dave W]

There are accounts - I won't link to them - on the internet of Urban Explorers gaining access to the Tube network at the start and end of day - including British Museum which from what I can see is considered one of the hardest, probably for the reasons outlined above. Happy to be corrected but from my reading, when the power is switched off, the tunnel lights come on, and that's the cue for these guys to get moving. They usually find a convenient hiding place somewhere inside an operational station and staying out of the way until end of service.

 

[Dstock7080]

Happy to be corrected but from my reading, when the power is switched off, the tunnel lights come on, and that's the cue for these guys to get moving.

Tunnel lights being on is never a guarantee that traction current is off.

 

[Dave W]

Tunnel lights being on is never a guarantee that traction current is off.

Fair one - I don't have any technical knowledge, it's purely from reading these people's "adventures".

 

[philthetube]

Tunnel lights being on is never a guarantee that traction current is off.

Tunnel lights being on is never a guarantee that traction current is off.

Both statements are generally correct but Dstock is right, tunnel lights can be switched on for other reasons

If the tunnel lights come on late at night then this is probably because the power is off, one other likely reason is that staff want to inspect the line prior to engineering works and so request the lights to be on for a ride through.

Idiots probably do rely on the lights but they are playing with fire.