Every inch of the tunnels is covered in a thick layer of dust, and we'd later emerge looking like Dick van Dyke. Yet the station remains largely intact and free of debris.
We carefully descend the spiral stairway. An adjacent lift shaft is bisected with flooring, effectively creating a four-storey building for MoD use. It has long been abandoned, but signs remain here and there of its wartime past. The facility was used during the second world war to coordinate the city's air defences. In one room, a detailed map of south-east London is still pinned to the wall (see images).
We spent a good hour exploring the various rooms. The station retains plenty of period features including a distinctive brown and green tiling pattern and electrical switch gear. A set of oxygen scrubbers can also be seen, presumably a wartime leftover.
The MoD's jurisdiction ends at a locked gate. Beyond lies the two platforms of the Piccadilly Line. These were bricked up many years ago, but access to the trains is still possible, as this report shows. A gust of air wheezes through the tunnels whenever a train passes by. This is a dark, forbidding place, but a breath of life remains.
In 2014 the site was sold to a developer for flats
