Published: 19 January, 2012
by DAN CARRIER

They are strange constructions, cropping up seemingly without rhyme nor reason, with no obvious rationale.

But now the secrets of these monolithic brick structures that dot our boroughs can be revealed in an new book that traces the history of London’s abandoned transport network.

The book, Do Not Alight Here, by Ben Pedroche, who lives in West Hampstead, traces walking routes through London – and reveals that hidden beneath these oddly-shaped buildings with no windows and rusty, locked doors is a whole subterranean world that has been closed up and forgotten.

Ben moved to London from Nottingham in 2008 and found himself fascinated by the capital’s transport history: “I loved exploring a new city and the idea of these abandoned Tube stops grabbed me,” he says.

“The more I researched them, the more I realised each had a story to tell.”

In his introduction, he writes of how the transport network works like the “life blood of the city, keeping it flowing on an endless run of journeys from one great places to the next” – an analogy used by another travel writer from the provinces who was captivated by the city, HV Morton, when he penned his seminal 1930s work, In Search Of London.

Ben states that he is most fascinated by the way the city moves – “Hundreds of buses running day and night, trains that weave through the streets to and from the suburbs and, of course, the magnificent Underground, burrowing its way through the subterranean depths.”

Coupled with this, he talks of another side of the city he finds enthralling: the concept of urban decay. “From closed stations now faded from glory, to secret doorways, abandoned tunnels, strange, bricked-up structure... you do not have to look too far to find the traces of the city’s hidden transport past.”

It is this that the book shines a light on: he has peered over walls and down shafts, wondered what is behind rusty-locked doors and marvelled at strangely shaped, windowless brick edifices that pop up in unlikely places.

He has split his book into 12 walks that span the city, and take in various architectural oddities en route.

He says his favourite can be found on the City Road, between Angel and Old Street: “It isn’t a particularly exciting building but it is one of those that seems to sum up these places that have been simply forgotten,” he says. “People wouldn’t even notice that the building was there now.”

The building has been removed but the access is still available – London Underground use it as a ventilation shaft to the railway beneath.

“It has an air of mystery about it. Many still have a role as emergency exits,” he reveals. “If something happened below, and you had to exit along the tracks, you may well emerge out of one of theses abandoned stops. I find this all rather eerie”.

• Do Not Alight Here. By Ben Pedroche. Capital History, £6.95 www.capitalhistory.com