British Museum tube station
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British Museum was a station on the
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
, located in
Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its roots ...
, central London. It was latterly served by the Central line and took its name from the nearby
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in
Great Russell Street Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It runs between Tottenham Court Road (part of the A400 route) in the west, and Southampton Row (part of the A4200 route) in the east ...
. The station was opened by the
Central London Railway The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...
in 1900. In 1933, with the expansion of
Holborn station Holborn ( ) is a London Underground station in Holborn, Central London, located at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. It is served by the Central and Piccadilly lines. On the Central line the station is between Tottenham Court Road an ...
, less than 100 yards away, British Museum station was permanently closed. It was subsequently utilised as a military office and command post, but in 1989 the surface building was demolished. A portion of the eastbound tunnel is used to store materials for track maintenance, visible from passing trains.


History

British Museum station was opened on 30 July 1900 by the
Central London Railway The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...
(CLR; now the Central line), with its entrance located at No. 133,
High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and Sou ...
(now Hogarth House, a co-working/workspace venue), near the junction with New Oxford Street. In December 1906,
Holborn station Holborn ( ) is a London Underground station in Holborn, Central London, located at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. It is served by the Central and Piccadilly lines. On the Central line the station is between Tottenham Court Road an ...
was opened by the
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London.A "tube" railway is an underground rail ...
(GNP&BR; now the Piccadilly line) less than 100 yards away. Despite being built and operated by separate companies, it was common for the underground railways to plan routes and locate stations so that interchanges could be easily formed between services. This had been done by other lines connecting with the CLR stations at
Oxford Circus Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station. The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash, ...
and
Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tub ...
, but an interchange station was not initially constructed between the GNP&BR and the CLR because the tunnel alignment to British Museum station would not have been suitable for the GNP&BR's route to its
Strand station Strand Station ( no, Strand holdeplass) was a railway station situated at Strand in Bærum, Norway, on the Drammen Line. The station, located from Oslo West Station, was served by Oslo Commuter Rail trains of the Norwegian State Railways. Ramsta ...
(later renamed Aldwych). The junction between High Holborn and the newly constructed Kingsway was also a more prominent location for a station than that chosen by the CLR. The possibility of an underground passageway was initially mooted, but the idea suffered from the complexity of tunneling between the stations. Holborn station was, in any case, better situated than British Museum, as it had better tram connections (Holborn had a stop on the now defunct Kingsway tramway subway). A proposal to enlarge the tunnels under High Holborn to create new platforms at Holborn station for the CLR and to abandon the British Museum station was originally included in a
private bill Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...
submitted to parliament by the CLR in November 1913, although the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
prevented any work taking place. The works were eventually carried out as part of the modernisation of Holborn station at the beginning of the 1930s when
escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...
s were installed in place of
lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
s. British Museum station was closed on 24 September 1933, with the new platforms at Holborn opening the following day. British Museum station was subsequently used up to the 1960s as a military administrative office and emergency command post, but the surface station building was demolished in 1989, and the platforms could no longer be accessed from street level. The platforms have since been removed, thus lowering the entire tunnel floor to track level. A portion of the eastbound tunnel is used by engineers to store materials for track maintenance, which can be seen from passing trains.


In popular culture

* In the
Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...
novel ''
Neverwhere ''Neverwhere'' is an urban fantasy television miniseries by Neil Gaiman that first aired in 1996 on BBC 2. The series is set in "London Below", a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as "London Above". It was d ...
'' the main character, Richard Mayhew, a Londoner, protests that there is no British Museum station, only to be proved wrong when his train stops there. * The station was mentioned in the 1972 horror film ''
Death Line ''Death Line'' is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Gary Sherman and starring Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, and Christopher Lee. Its plot follows two university students who find them ...
'', but contrary to popular belief, it is not the station portrayed in the film as being the home of a community of
cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
s descended from Victorian railway workers. The cannibals venture out at night to snatch travellers from the platforms of operating stations and take them back to their gruesome 'pantry' at an incomplete station.
Donald Pleasence Donald Henry Pleasence (; 5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor. He began his career on stage in the West End before transitioning into a screen career, where he played numerous supporting and character roles including RAF ...
stars as the investigating police inspector, and when finally cornered, one of the cannibals screams a corrupted form of "Mind the doors!", obviously having picked it up parrot-fashion from the guards on the Underground trains. The station in question is named simply 'Museum' and is clearly stated as being 'between' Holborn and British Museum stations in a conversation between Pleasence's character and a colleague. It is supposedly part of a completely separate line that was not completed owing to the construction company going
bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debt ...
. Signs in the abandoned station also only state 'Museum' as the name. * The station was featured in the
Bulldog Drummond Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is a fictional character, created by H. C. McNeile and published under his pen name "Sapper". Following McNeile's death in 1937, the novels were continued by Gerard Fairlie. Drummond is a First World War veteran who, ...
spin-off film ''
Bulldog Jack ''Bulldog Jack'' (released as ''Alias Bulldog Drummond'' in the USA) is a 1935 British film produced by Gaumont British, directed by Walter Forde, and starring Jack Hulbert, Fay Wray, Ralph Richardson and Atholl Fleming. The film was followed b ...
'' as the location reached by a secret tunnel leading from the inside of a
sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
in the British Museum. The villain Morelle (
Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...
) is finally cornered and forced into a sword duel on the disused platforms, which were a studio set. The station was renamed 'Bloomsbury' in the film. * The station briefly featured in the computer game '' Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror'', in which
Nico Collard ''Broken Sword'' is a series of adventure games. The first game in the series, ''Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars'', was released and developed in 1996 by British developer Revolution Software. Its sequel, ''Broken Sword II: The Smokin ...
escapes from the British Museum and finds the station. She then manages to stop the passing trains. The station in the game, however, is depicted as having its exit actually inside the British Museum itself. A station named 'Museum' also features in the earlier game '' Beneath a Steel Sky'', by the same company, but the apparent Australian setting for the latter game, as well as its proximity to a station named 'St. James' suggests this is actually the
Museum railway station Museum railway station is a heritage-listed underground commuter rail station that is located on the City Circle route at the southern end of Hyde Park in the Sydney central business district of New South Wales, Australia. The station is serv ...
in Sydney. * The station is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of the daughter of an
Egyptian Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the a ...
called
Amen-ra Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...
which would appear and scream so loudly that the noise would carry down the tunnels to adjoining stations.


See also

*
List of former and unopened London Underground stations The London Underground is a public rapid transit system in the United Kingdom that serves a large part of Greater London and adjacent parts of the home counties of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It has many closed stations, while oth ...


References


External links


London's Abandoned Tube Stations - British Museum



Photographs showing the construction of the British Museum underground station
at the British Library
London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** ** ** {{Central line navbox Central line (London Underground) stations Disused London Underground stations Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Camden Former Central London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1900 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1933
Tube station The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Und ...
Buildings and structures in Bloomsbury Railway stations located underground in the United Kingdom