This building always fascinated me when I walked past it at the Fleet Street end of the Strand in London.
I am not a native Londoner having moved here in 1997 and even though I travelled extensively by tube to various client offices I sadly never had the opportunity to travel on the Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly line.
It always confused me that the station name was ‘Strand Station’ and I couldn’t find it on any maps, because the usual blue signage with the ‘Aldwych’ station name had been removed when the station closed in 1994.
Trains were only operated as a shuttle service from Holborn since 1917 so to get there you would have to step off a normal Picadilly line train at Holborn and catch the shuttle. Downstairs this meant that only one of the two platforms was ever used.
Now the station is used for filming and testing lighting and decoration schemes for the rest of the line.
All Images Copyright 2005 Ian Blair