Down Street - London ghost Tube station used by Churchill

Down Street opened on March 15, 1907 as part of the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, which later became the Piccadilly line.

Like the other Tube stations of the era, it was designed by architect Leslie Green in the now iconic style of red glazed tiles and semi-circular windows on the upper floor.

Churchill and his cabinet used the disused station during the Blitz before the Cabinet War Rooms were built. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

It had two lifts taking passengers 22 metres under ground to the platforms, but its location a short distance from Green Park - originally Dover Street station - and Hyde Park Corner, meant it was never busy.

The wealthy Mayfair residents who lived nearby preferred to travel by more upmarket means, and the neighbouring stations were just 500 metres away.

Soon Down Street was being skipped by trains. By 1918 it was closed on Sundays and by 1929 it was on a list of potential closures to speed up journey times for commuters on the newly extended Piccadilly line.

The abandoned tunnels at Down Street inspired a novel and part of a video game. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

When its neighbouring Tube stations were fitted with the new technology of escalators, Down Street was closed in 1932.

The lifts were removed and a new siding was built between Down Street and Hyde Park Corner where westbound trains could be reversed or serviced.

In 1939, the disused station was one of several spaces converted into underground bunkers which would provide spaces for vital government operations in the event of war.

The platform areas and passages were divided up into meeting rooms, offices and sleeping spaces, and fitted out with a telephone exchange, toilets and bathrooms.

Sir Winston Churchill (Image: PA)

A two-person lift was installed in the emergency stairwell and as Luftwaffe bombs rained down on London, it offered a safe haven for the Railway Executive Committee.

But prime minister Winston Churchill also used it as a shelter and meeting space for the cabinet until the Cabinet War Rooms were ready and he dubbed it 'the barn'.

After the war, Down Street once again fell into disuse until 2016 when London Transport Museum started offering tours through its Hidden London programme.

The station has one other claim to fame. Its creepy abandoned tunnels were the inspiration for TV series and novel Neverwhere as the imagined entrance to an underground labyrinth, and in the video game Shadow Man it features as Jack The Ripper's hideout.