Inside Clapham South's deep-level shelter | Hidden London Hangouts (S06E08)
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- The team open the doors to the Museum's own disused site, Clapham South deep-level shelter, part of our popular Hidden London tours programme. We take you behind the scenes of the tour to reveal fascinating places too difficult to normally visit using 3D scans, Chris explains his role as custodian of the site and we meet Martin, the Conservation Engineer who has restored many of the original systems from the Second World War.
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Want to follow in the footsteps of the Hangouts Fab 4? Book a Hidden London tour of Clapham South deep-level shelter www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london/clapham-south
Much appreciated all!
Super episode,like the relay delayed lights ,nice to see the trades getting a look in on the show.
Guys, that was, as you would say, Brilliant. I know I’m Canadian and have been watching these videos for a bit now, but this one really hit home. My Mum was bombed out as a teen in North London and this is where she and my Nan and Grandad, aunt and uncles, would haver come (or the Tottenham equipment). The fact that they survived the Blitz is a miracle, and it’s places like this that made it easier. Thanks for showing this, and more so, for preserving this. Cheers.
The mercury arc rectifier at 23:47: Those things are amazing to see working! A whole lot more 'alive' and quite fascinating to watch than a dismal diode rectifier pack.
Brilliant. I'm somewhat claustrophobic but immediately tried to book a tour for next August (!), will try again closer. Appreciated Martin's contribution and intriguing specialist area of expertise.
I love these hangouts as being disabled i cannot do your tours. So i am gradually doing virtual tours
Thanks Peter. So glad you are enjoying these. A big part of our reason for starting the Hangouts and launching the virtual tours was to give greater access. Sadly there’s not much we can do with the in person tours but digital was one way we could overcome this. BTW if you haven’t already visited - the Hidden London exhibition at the Museum was also our way of making the subject more accessible. It’s open for about another 6 months so grab a visit before it goes!
@@chrisnix6352 thank you Chris for your reply
I'm from Dublin Ireland and the next time I'm going to the UK I'm going to have to take that tour and see all these places underground.🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂
Kudos for the pictorials of the infrastructure displaying the location of the point of discussion at the time. That's the first time I've seen that used in discussions of those tunnels and it makes mentally modelling vastly simpler. It's a 3D map.
I'm still curious as to the proximity of the existing Northern line to those tunnels.
As to the 'broken into' aspect, it's ironic that you raise that, as your last episode on Mark Lane had a lot of prior 'surreptitious' coverage on CZcams and elsewhere, in which on two occasions (and possibly more), the claim of 'it's unlocked and open' were made.
It defies common sense, let alone fact. Good episode. But I'm still hungry!
Thanks for the feedback on the 3D animations - I'd been planning those for this episode for a while! Glad they made the understanding of the site easier. The exact proximity of the Northern line is a guarded secret but you get some idea from the 3D model showing the stairs that used to go to the platform level. I can tell you it's closer at the Balham Hill end than the Clapham Common end. Glad you are enjoying what we do and this episode worked up an appetite - I recommend a tour for dessert!
Another fantastic video! I wish I lived closer and had more money so that I could do more of these tours!
I love the 3D site map with the arrows showing where you were - much better than my Aldwych attempt, using photo and a phone to produce the video.
Thank you once again for producing these videos!
Not sure if you're aware but Trains on the Mainline (ie BR/Network Rail) were hauled by locomotives with Mercury Arc Rectifiers right up until 3 Years ago in 2020 British Rail's Class 86 had a Mercury Arc Rectifier as part of its systems also many BR EMUs had them and on a few occasions they went "BANG" Too the Class 308s spring to mind! Love the hangouts you guys have got me through 3 Lockdowns and my mother passing away not sure on the new format but still full of facts! Please Please Please keep this going as I must have watched them all too many times to count! Thank You all from the bottom of my heart!
Fantastic episode, thank you all so much, your episodes got me through Lock down 1 and 2, since then you have continued to fuel my love for the fascinating engineering and ever changing fabric of the London Underground.
I hope to one day go on a tour, I visit the museum every time I come to London and bore my wife facts I’ve learnt from watching the four of you (and the TV Series with Siddy and Tim).
Please keep up the great work and of course preservation of these historic sites :)
Another brilliant episode guys. Doing a fantastic job of returning original features like the lightning. Hopefully no more break ins. I still can't believe the idiots that would do that. 🤬
Another great episode in your series. Thank you for all your efforts in these. Because of your Elizabeth Line series of shows I had a day exploring the line and stations, well worth it. I even won Slough and Windsor Railway Societies photo competition with a picture of an Elizabeth Line Class 345 at Slough station. Thank you, Rob.
Thank you. Glad if we’ve inspired you to explore the network too!
Saw this location on the secrets show, so this should also be really interesting. Looking forward to it.
I’ve done the secrets of the London Underground tour for this site at Clapham South and it was fantastic and I’d recommend it to everyone!!
Brilliant video and despite going on the tour still learnt some new stuff
Keep up the good work
I love this. So now it's all filmed on location. Yay. This is awesome. I'm happy this series is still going on. Loving that your whole eposide is now on location. Amazing. You guys are doing a fabolous job. Also don't break into the TFL premises, shame on those people who broke in, just ruining it for everyone else. Nicely done Alex, Laura, Siddy and Chris.
I’ve always fancied going to the relevant tube stations and discovering/photographing the closed-off connections between the stations and the shelters.
It would be great to be able to do that.
Great episode. The florescent light effect down the tunnel is cool. The LED and relay delay solution isn't the same. Guessing it needs to be faster
Cor this a trip down memory lane! I was part of crew who worked down the bottom of that shaft tunnel grouting the rings to try stop the amount of water ingress. About ten years ago long before they refurbished that place. It’s was dark and full of water when I was there 😂😂
I worked in those tunnels archiving in the 90s, brings back great memories
Fascinating place - several slices of history from its start as a shelter, it’s use as hostels and then an archive. Have seen it pop up previously on the hangouts but somehow this episode gave much more of an idea of the immense scale of the place than anything I’ve seen before. Many thanks, Team!
i only found you guys 2 weeks ago, im so close to watching all the ep just season 6 left, i joined the pateron so more content after that and i got the book. i love you guys energy and it makes me smile. so thank u
Glad you found us and thanks so much for supporting us on Patreon. Hope you are having fun binging the extras!
@@chrisnix6352 i been loving it, i was struggling to find the discord and left a message on patreon thanks again chris
Love you x
Was a storage site for the storage company I worked for from 98 to 2001. Queen's archive was there and the lift was in use
OMG ⋯ welcome back
Took part in a tour of Down Street Station a few years back . Highly recommended . Your work and interest is much appreciated .
40 m below ground - isn't that four metres lower than the Cross TfL ElizzaRail stations (or at least one)?
Also: 180 steps is the equivalent of a 10 storey building (on the nose actually). Oddly that only adds up to 30.6 metres according to my lists (based on Geoff's 15 Storey Building video).
You can hear the trains… but nobody can hear you.
I lived in Battersea back in the 80's, and drove past that structure on the corner hundreds of times. Never occured to me to wonder what it was, and I most certainly would never have dreamt that it led down to that massive complex. Just goes to show what wonders we must pass by daily in a place like London, never even knowing that it's there.
Really enjoyed that episode.
There should be fluorescent paint on the floor as a backup for lighting failure. That would be low tech, too.
We need it to stay illuminated for 3hrs, tried to keep original where possible. 👍🏻
Great to have you back, what a great episode! I’ve had to start watching the from the beginning…….it’s addictive, currently looking forward to NYC! A thought for you…..are the train depots both current and historic worth a look? There must be a wealth of stuff there.
They are but Depots have a lot of hazards and require training and licence to access them and a specific licence for each on on top. This is a time consuming thing to get and keep up so likely to be a while!
Great episode 👍👍
i loved the bit " how many steps ?" i loved the siddys glum answer ...180......
Not "bulk headlights", but "bulkhead lights" ! :-)
There are a lot of them. Perhaps it’s bulk-buy bulkheads
Can't believe I've only found this channel a couple of days ago! Am fascinated with disused underground and overground train lines and stations. Have spent the last 20 years manufacturing signs for road and rail although not done much for the underground unless its signs for works unfortunately.
Another great video guys! So will all future videos be 'totally outside broadcast' or will there still be Zoom bits at home with the odd 'Siddy Slideshow' thrown in and the ever popular 'Notes, Queries and Questions' section?
A couple of ideas for future episodes- Liverpool Street with a preserved signal box and disused platform on the Met & Circle platforms and the heavily modified Central line station.
Marble Arch, another station originally with lifts and since converted to use escalators.
Camden Town must have loads of hidey-holes and of course one of the most complicated junctions anywhere on the Underground.
By the way, with this re-visit of Clapham South is there a plan to do other 'deeper digs' at stations covered in the early series but that you were not able to visit due to the pandemic?
Hi Martyn. We’ll still do occasional studio based stuff with site recording. Coincidentally our next episode will be one of those.
Great Chris, do I sense a Christmas special in the offing?
@@martynthomas7486 it’s just possible😉
My Grandparents along with my Father lived in Hazelbourne Road almost opposite Clapham South Station and my Grandfather worked building this project.
This was terrific. Hopefully I will be able to take a tour during my next UK trip.
Wasn’t this the one used in the seventies for filming an episode of Dr Who and Survivors?
This was a really great episode on one of my favourite tour locations. Great to see and understand the work ongoing on site to restore it to near original condition. I love the care and attention to detail.
And seeing the areas not accessible on the tour is fascinating. The 3D distance was really good, is it available online?
Thanks to you all for carrying on delivering such great content.
I was a CSA for Hidden London a a years ago. Once when walking through Clapham I kicked a piece of plaster (or something) and it freaked me out massively! 😅
Wow. I only live up the road on Mitcham common. I am over that way regularly. I knew the place was a WW2 shelter but had no idea it was so massive.
Plugs and Sockets are great.
This is a great tour, do not do the tour if you are not fit, the only access is via the stairs and it is a a long way back to the exit.
Thankyou for sharing.
Great episode. Was sad to hear about the break in, a quick search showed they were stupid enough to explore abandoned buildings etc near Porton Down - the police stopped them a few times while they were driving around
16:00 Considering Belsize park and Camden are much more intact that Clapham south, it was a ridiculous delicious to make Clapham south the museum bunker. Why not have used Belsize park instead. Also, I am one of the very few urban explorers that has managed to sneak into all 8 bunkers, and I can tell you that Clapham south is no way the most original one to preserve compared to some of the others.
The plant room/s are my interest.
When I was a child in the 1960s those sirens were still, terrifyingly, regularly tested.
The Bulkhead lights, you may need to see the original procurement contract, some would be Swan I think from the Midlands, Thorn might have done others, it is possible some were the same standard that would be supplied to the National Coal Board ( and presumably Ministry of Supply before that)
The fire system would have had a glass tube which would automatically caused the CO2 to discharge in the vent of a fire.
Seen these on a daily basis in my day job.
When she said delivering I thought she meant babies!
What is the status of each of the other shelters now? I believe that other ones which were used for acchival storage have been vacated for this purpose.
The mercury arc rectifiers at Belsize Park were still still working not so many years ago. There are some pictures on, I think, Nick Catford's Sub Brit site. I thought all of them were removed when the original lifts were de-commissioned.
So the bomb in the road went off towards the end of 1940 &, as a result LT were asked to build these deep shelters -- How long did it take to build? It's vast. How on Earth did they dig this out? Who did it? -- The men were all away fighting. And where did they move all the soil to ?
When is our next vlog?
Not sure why a shelter made of concrete and steel needs such an extensive fire alarm system.
Is it me did siddy not look happy doing this episode?
I’m sure she’s happy judging by the ring on her finger ❤️
@@davidhamm7909 true.. but Alex was in his happy world. He was loving every minute of being down there.
Always very happy Simon :) we didn’t have a lot of time to shoot this so didn’t want to speak over anyone 😊
@@siddyholloway8404 that's good. Day made you replying 😀
Just think … could be reopened and used to process and house boat migrants!