Hidden London Hangouts Season 6

The team return with Series 6 and take us on a trip in the cab of an Elizabeth line class 345 train. Chris and Alex are the guests of Emma Knowles, driver of the first train on the opening day of the Elizabeth line (24 May 2022) on a journey from Abbey Wood to Liverpool Street to Shenfield.

The team celebrate the 100th episode of the Hidden London Hangouts by visiting the legendary hidden station of North End also known as Bull and Bush. We explore the remains of the Cold War era bunker conversion and the bare bones of what was set to be a classic Lesley Green styled station.

In this episode the team board their own special train to see the driver’s view from the cab as a Class 345 train travels from Westbourne Park to Gidea Park. This is what through running Elizabeth line trains will be doing from November 2022.

The team share a special Hidden London Hangup episode recorded live for our Patreons. Special guest Keith Valla, Driver Team Manager for the Elizabeth line joins Chris, Laura and Alex in the studio as we share cab footage shot on the Elizabeth line between Gidea Park and Liverpool Street earlier this summer. In the cab, Chris and Alex are given a master class in driving by Keith and Driver Sham Darr.

Chris and Alex discover a hidden gem at Archway and explore the astonishing disused passageways of a station that has seen many changes since it was first built. Meanwhile Siddy and Laura receive the Tiqets Best Global Hidden Gem award for London Transport Museum's Hidden London programme.

In this one of a kind episode the Hangouts team visit South Stoke in Oxfordshire to follow up on a viewer's offer to learn more about bells after our episode on Whitechapel The team explore the bell tower and are taught to handle a bell in a single afternoon. We hear also the Whitechapel Road ringing method, from the artwork at Whitechapel station, played specially for this episode by the bell ringers of nearby St Thomas of Canterbury church, Goring. With grateful thanks to St Andrew's Church, South Stoke, Robert the Tower Captain and their wonderful team of bell ringers.

The Hangouts team get their torches out to visit Mark Lane, a lost station on the District line that had many names in its life. In the dark and dust they reveal its secrets and discover what survives of the station's original Metropolitan and District Railway origins.

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.

In this episode the team take a rare opportunity to discover the remains of the Southwark deep-level shelter. Once the short-lived running tunnels of the City & South London Railway, these lengthy dormant passageways were repurposed for civilian shelter during the Second World War. The team are joined in the studio by the Museum's Head of Retail, Laura Mullins, to talk about what they want for Christmas from the Museum shop!

In this special Christmas episode the Team travel to Kentish Town to discover a wealth of hidden passages, original design features and the origin of Alex's love for the Tube. This is the final episode of series six. The Team will return with series seven in 2023.