Kingsway Tramway Subway

In addition to its vast existing Underground network, London has quite a few abandoned tunnels that once carried railways. Less famous but once more important than the Post Office Railway and the Aldwych Tube station was the Kinsway Tramway Subway, which was once the only tram connection across central London.

Historically, trams did not go far into the city center because the wealthy living there did not want forms of public transportation associated with the poor. This left the tram networks in north and south London largely disconnected. One of the only passageways between them was under Kingsway, a grand boulevard built in the 1900s as part of a slum clearance program.

Opening in 1906, the tunnel had two intermediate underground stations at Holborn and Aldwych. The tramway's heyday lasted until the late 1930s, when trams began to be withdrawn in favor of trolleybuses. It closed for good in 1952 when the last trams in London were closed.

Since then, a portion of the tunnel has been turned into an underpass for cars, obliterating Aldwych Station. Holborn station, by contrast, still exists abandoned, and is rarely open to the public. The southern portal along the Victoria Embankment under Waterloo Bridge is now a concert venue. The northern portal on Southampton Row is still visible and is used by the local council.