Clapham North, Deep Level Shelters, 13/06/09

[Tankman]

One of 3 visits to closed off sections of the London Underground I visited along with other SB members on Saturday, was to the Deep Level Shelters under the running lines, of the Northern Line at Clapham North.

A far better original description of the construction of the shelters can be read here:

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/featur...ers/index.html

Clapham North is one of 8 Deep level Shelters built along the Northern Line. Originally 12 were planned but expense cut this back to eight.
It is now the only available shelter that can be visited, the others have been leased to Archive Storage companies and are now off limits!
Although the shelter has mostly been stripped of its fixtures you can still get a good feel of the place

Descending into the gloom through the original entrance that is located in a locked yard to the side of the station the first thing you encounter is the security desk! Once past this!



You descend down 2 flights of stairs to a double helix spiral stair case.



The stairs go around a service lift shaft (now abandoned). in total 179 steps to the bottom Apologies for blurred photo, I was hanging over the top of the shaft

The lighting in the shelter is intermitent so some big sections were in pitch black, adding to the atmosphere of this place The stair case had no lights at all and it was a good job that we had torches

Once down at the bottom we exited into the 2 main tunnels that are split with a false floor in each tunnel thereby making 4 levels for the 8,000 occupants



Side tunnels lead off at intervals to where toilets and medical facilities were once located. This pic shows a section of the mens toilets (markings on the floor).



Upper level of the North bound tunnel, there was more room on the top level



Lower level, North Bound tunnel, the red metal supports hold the upper floor up. Bunks were arranged in tiers along the left hand side of the tunnel.



It was easy to get disorientated in the tunnels A good job there were signs about to tell you where to go to!



Stairs leading up to platform level now blocked off!

Alot more pics can be found here:

http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/i...TER/?start=all

[boxfrenzy]

Nice on mate. This looks great. 4th picture is tremendous. I like it.

[KingElvis]

Fantastic work, I am more than a little envious.

[croiz]

Lovin your sub-london adventures!

[vanishing days]

looks good nice shots

[evilnoodle]

Really nice pics. I like the 4th one, too.