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LT King's Cross Mystery Tunnel


Brian Kirby
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Early in WW2, the LT Circle/Metropolitan Line station at King's Cross was moved 200 yards west to it's current position, with the creation of a new island platform. The existing double track running tunnel was converted into the current booking hall concourse, a new tunnel was dug for the westbound platform, and the eastbound platform was built in an already existing spare double track width tunnel on the northside, as still seen today. Prior to WW2, part of this northside tunnel was already in use as an eastbound freight loop from the Circle line, complete with colour light signalling, a hole having been cut between the two parallel tunnels at the western end. The former freight loop used to continue east and join the eastbound "Widened Lines" track, rather than back to the Circle Line, , so was probably used by GWR goods trains to Smithfield, Commuters may have wondered why the western end of the eastbound platform is so curved, with a large dark void behind, this is because it is following the loop alignment. The big question is, where does this empty double width tunnel disappear to westwards, what was it's intended destination, and how far does it go? Many years ago, it was suggested to me that the alignment was aimed at joining the Euston LNWR lines to the Widened Lines, but was never completed?

                                                       

                                                                                      Cheers, Brian.

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I was unaware of the goods loop until I read post No. 1.

 

There were (are?) two sets of tunnels west of the Widened Lines platforms. The set currently in use link to the Midland and (I believe) join it north of St. Pancras. The other set linked to the "GN". The Up/Southbound tunnel came from King's Cross (York Road) - a single platformed (presumed) uni-directional station on the east side of (and not connected to King's Cross main line station). The Down/Northbound tunnel linked to the other side of the main line station and passed through what was then platform 16 of King's Cross (Suburban). 

 

I have always assumed that the alignment of the existing eastbound Underground line has remained unchanged. The old eastbound platform being on the northern side of the track, the new eastbound platform on the south side of the track where it is currently located. I know there was (and remember) a bay platform at the west end of the current station. I have always presumed that this was the old westbound track that was truncated at the western end of the new station. I do have a vague memory that there was some unused track-level space alongside the old bay track but can't recall whether it was south or north of the bay track, possibly north thereof.

 

I believe that a new westbound tunnel was dug to accommodate the re-aligned westbound track. Maybe the aforementioned track-level "space" alongside the bay was the original eastbound alignment and the eastbound track took over the loop the OP mentions.

 

I am not aware of any other tunnels east of west of the Underground station either before or after it was moved.

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Brian

 

Thanks for sharing that link. That explains it properly now.

 

If you don't mind can I ask everyone a related question? The lines from Finsbury Park to Moorgate were previously LUL- would I be correct in assuming these were turned over to BR when it lost the KX to Moorgate route via the widened lines?

 

Also, despite being down those tunnels several times in the past as an authorised visitor when shut on Sundays (crew training, fire/terror evacuation exercises) I never got chance to wander around Moorgate station; are the two Moorgate's part of the same station complex or are they totally separate? I assume from the name that if not linked then they must be close. Those tunnels are really quite interesting- especially when you go into the pumping station under the Regent's Canal and realise just how much water is leaking into the tunnel.

Edited by Derekstuart
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The Kings Cross (widened lines) signal box was moved to the western end of the Widened Lines middle platform, probably some time during the rebuilding of the "new" Circle Line station. I remember working ECS from the GN to Moorgate in 1977 being stopped there on a class 31 with suburban set by a red flag from the bobby because we hadn't set the tripcock on the class 31.

 

There happened to be an LT Area Manager in the box at the time who used to be the AM for Rickmansworth when I worked there in 1973! It's a small world.

 

I've read somewhere there was a continuation of the tunnel beyond the St.Pancras bit towards Euston which was a proposed link to the LNWR, but that was never completed. You'll probably get more info on that from the District Dave site.

Edited by roythebus
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There happened to be an LT Area Manager in the box at the time who used to be the AM for Rickmansworth when I worked there in 1973! It's a small world.

 

Was that one of the Lane brothers?

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Brian

 

Thanks for sharing that link. That explains it properly now.

 

If you don't mind can I ask everyone a related question? The lines from Finsbury Park to Moorgate were previously LUL- would I be correct in assuming these were turned over to BR when it lost the KX to Moorgate route via the widened lines?

 

Also, despite being down those tunnels several times in the past as an authorised visitor when shut on Sundays (crew training, fire/terror evacuation exercises) I never got chance to wander around Moorgate station; are the two Moorgate's part of the same station complex or are they totally separate? I assume from the name that if not linked then they must be close. Those tunnels are really quite interesting- especially when you go into the pumping station under the Regent's Canal and realise just how much water is leaking into the tunnel.

The Northern City Line from Moorgate was cut back to Drayton Park during construction of the Victoria Line, which took over its underground platforms at the former terminus of Finsbury Park (actually one became a Northern Line platform but that's another story). 

 

The remaining section was handed over to BR in the mid-70s and re-connected to Finsbury Park but this time on the surface.  It carried the Great Northern inner suburban service after electrification, and still does.  Before electrification some of these trains ran to Moorgate via the Widened Lines, but the two connecting tunnels between the Widened Lines and Kings Cross were then closed. 

 

The Widened Lines to Moorgate remained in use for Midland suburban services, diesel and then electric.  When Thameslink started in the mid-80s most trains took that route instead leaving the Widened Lines with a few peak time services and to act as a terminus if the route south was blocked.  They were finally taken out of use four or five years ago so the platforms at Farringdon could be extended across the junction, and then blocked by Crossrail works.  There is now talk of using them for stabling of LU sub-surface trains. 

Edited by Edwin_m
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Here's a link to a modern drawing of the track layout from 1926 to 1940, the current eastbound Circle/H&C/Met Line platform was built on the goods loop leading towards the Widened Lines seen to the left, which by 1940/1 was re-routed back to the Circle line at the eastern end.  BK

 

http://harsig.org/PDF/CircleWidened.pdf

 

 

I seem to remember reading that originally the line from York Road platform made a triangular junction with the Widened Lines, and originally there used to be a north to west curve. However, those maps do not show it, so it must have been a very early closure, if it really did exist.

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Minor correction; At Finsbury Park the former Great Northern & City (ie Moorgate line platforms) were taken over by the southbound Victoria and PIccadilly lines, while the old southbound Piccadilly line platform was used for the northbound Victoria line, this to allow cross-platform interchange between the two lines.

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I seem to remember reading that originally the line from York Road platform made a triangular junction with the Widened Lines, and originally there used to be a north to west curve. However, those maps do not show it, so it must have been a very early closure, if it really did exist.

 

 

Apparently it did exist. Wikipedia says that the north to west tracks were removed in 1865, so they existed for less than 2 years it would seem.

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I've pursued the Euston connection question quite a way, and found no evidence that money was committed or work started. Of course, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but I'm pretty confident that no work was started.

 

The LNWR had access to the docks and, rather circuitously, the city, via what became the NLR from the early 1850s, and their territory north of London took a fair while to become suburbanised, so they probably didn't see traffic potential during the early years of the Met.

 

Kevin

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The tunnel still exists, but is blocked-off at the Southern end.

 

Andy

The tunnel still exists, but is blocked-off at the Southern end.

 

Andy

I believe it's known as the hotel Curve and is used as a cable duct.

 

Jamie

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On the first query re. the subsurface platforms at Kings Cross St Pancras:

 

The original station site with four platforms, two for the Circle / Metropolitan Lines and two for the City Widened Lines, opened as Kings Cross 10/01/1863 and was renamed Kings Cross St. Pancras around 1925 (at one time with an & between the two station names until about 1931) and this was latterly referred to as the Pentonville Road station in some circles.  From 13/03/1941 the Circle / Met platforms closed though the Widened Lines ones remained open.  The new Kings Cross St. Pancras station for the Circle / Met lines opened 14/03/1941 and for the first time there was a physical connection between the Northern, Piccadilly and Circle Line stations though it always required the negotiation of a sub-surface ticket barrier.  Previously there had been no direct connection and interchange was made at street level.

 

The City Widened platforms continued in use despite dwindling services and were latterly served only by peak-time trains to Luton, Welwyn Garden City and Hertford North.  They closed for some time to permit route modernisation but re-opened as Kings Cross Thameslink when the cross-London route was revived by Network SouthEast.  These platforms have a always been slightly narrower than ideal and became extremely congested as Thameslink proved a success.  They were thought by some to be dangerously inadequate in consequence of that.  They closed again - permanently this time - upon the opening of St Pancras international's low-level platforms on the Thameslink route.  All four platforms still exist and are easily seen from passing trains.

 

Up trains from the GN route entered the tunnels via York Road platform and down trains exited via Hotel Curve.  The former can just be discerned at the northern end of Kings Cross platform 0 but the latter has vanished, being partially rebuilt into the much-enlarged tube and Thameslink station below ground level.  Trains to and from the Midland route used what is substantially the current Thameslink alignment to reach the surface near Kentish Town.

 

The new Circle Line station was built as others state by utilising the former eastbound line running tunnel and realigning the track onto the goods loop, thence back onto its original alignment east of the station.  The westbound track was slewed to the south I believe but on much the same alignment as before.  At this time the goods loop was disconnected from the Widened Lines.

 

At the western end of the eastbound Circle Line platform trains enter around a right-hand curve which marks the course of the 1941 realignment but there is also a tunnel mouth which suggests a track once trailed in from the north of this .  It is this which has been variously referred to as a "carriage siding" or a would-be "LNWR connection" however I believe it has never been used by service trains and may never have had track laid.  There is no similar alignment from the westbound platform.  

 

The Metropolitan Railway did part-build a single-track connection between Moorgate and Liverpool Street  which was both opened and closed in 1875 (01/02/1875 - 11/07/1875) and which would have entered Liverpool Street main line station via platform 1.  That platform (until the rebuilding) was longer than its neighbours and contained a bricked-up tunnel portal at the buffer stops.  I have found no firm evidence that the connection was ever completed nor used though conjecturally one train may have used it.  It would seem reasonable then that a connection to the LNWR at Euston via Kings Cross St Pancras might have been envisaged and allowed for even if never built.

 

On the second query:

 

The Moorgate - Drayton Park - Finsbury Park line was originally opened by the Great Northern & City Railway on 14/02/1904 and was used by full-size trains from the Northern Heights suburbs much as it is now.  It was handed over to the Metropolitan Railway on 01/07/1913 and then only ran to Finsbury Park from whence connections to points beyond were available.  It then became a part of the northern Line (usually known as the Northern City Line / Branch) in October 1934.  The section north of Drayton Park - where the depot was located - closed on 03/10/1964 to permit the running tunnels to be incorporated into the Victoria Line construction; one each was taken over by the Victoria and realigned Piccadilly Lines with the former Piccadilly Line platforms being used for the other direction on both lines.  That allowed the required same-direction cross-platform interchange between the deep-level tube lines at Finsbury Park.

 

The route was closed in 1975 (from Moorgate to Old Street on 06/09/1975 and the rest four weeks later) for handover to BR and conversion to third-rail operation by class 313 units on the newly-electrified Great Northern suburban routes.  That service continues to run and has recently been improved to operate from Moorgate at all times; hitherto all services had run from Kings Cross (main line) after 20.00 and at weekends.

 

Moorgate station itself has been extensively rebuilt following WW2 and as a part of the City of London regeneration and Barbican development projects.  It is on the same site but tracks have been realigned and the once-open station is now "underground" being covered by buildings on a raft.  The deep level platforms have never moved.  Of curiosity value is the fact that the routes to Welwyn GC and Hertford north were once served from platforms 5 and 6 at sub-surface level and via Kings Cross but are now served from platforms 9 and 10 at deep level and via Highbury & Islington.  The two routes rejoin at Finsbury Park.  At no time however have through services run via both routes as one replaced the other.

 

The former BR route into Moorgate (Circle Line) is no longer available and has closed as the trackbed has been cut to extend the platforms at Farringdon across it in order to accommodate 12-car Thameslink trains.

Edited by Gwiwer
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I thought the Met- GE connection was opened and used until Edwardian times? I'm sure I've read about traffic coming over this connection then going off at Shoreditch onto the southern

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I thought the Met- GE connection was opened and used until Edwardian times? I'm sure I've read about traffic coming over this connection then going off at Shoreditch onto the southern

 

Liverpool Street - Brighton services operated in the early days but not, so far as I can tell, originating any farther east nor via the Met / Circle lines.  The connection at Shoreditch only fed to / from the suburban lines (now the Electric Lines) and into the centre of the station at the throat so only platforms 4 - 18 would have been available.  I don't think it was ever possible to cross from platform 1 over the entire layout to reach Shoreditch.  Unless anyone here knows different, of course.

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On the first query re. the subsurface platforms at Kings Cross St Pancras:

 

The original station site with four platforms, two for the Circle / Metropolitan Lines and two for the City Widened Lines, opened as Kings Cross 10/01/1863 and was renamed Kings Cross St. Pancras around 1925 (at one time with an & between the two station names until about 1931) and this was latterly referred to as the Pentonville Road station in some circles.  From 13/03/1941 the Circle / Met platforms closed though the Widened Lines ones remained open.  The new Kings Cross St. Pancras station for the Circle / Met lines opened 14/03/1941 and for the first time there was a physical connection between the Northern, Piccadilly and Circle Line stations though it always required the negotiation of a sub-surface ticket barrier.  Previously there had been no direct connection and interchange was made at street level.

 

The City Widened platforms continued in use despite dwindling services and were latterly served only by peak-time trains to Luton, Welwyn Garden City and Hertford North.  They closed for some time to permit route modernisation but re-opened as Kings Cross Thameslink when the cross-London route was revived by Network SouthEast.  These platforms have a always been slightly narrower than ideal and became extremely congested as Thameslink proved a success.  They were thought by some to be dangerously inadequate in consequence of that.  They closed again - permanently this time - upon the opening of St Pancras international's low-level platforms on the Thameslink route.  All four platforms still exist and are easily seen from passing trains.

 

Up trains from the GN route entered the tunnels via York Road platform and down trains exited via Hotel Curve.  The former can just be discerned at the northern end of Kings Cross platform 0 but the latter has vanished, being partially rebuilt into the much-enlarged tube and Thameslink station below ground level.  Trains to and from the Midland route used what is substantially the current Thameslink alignment to reach the surface near Kentish Town.

 

The new Circle Line station was built as others state by utilising the former eastbound line running tunnel and realigning the track onto the goods loop, thence back onto its original alignment east of the station.  The westbound track was slewed to the south I believe but on much the same alignment as before.  At this time the goods loop was disconnected from the Widened Lines.

 

At the western end of the eastbound Circle Line platform trains enter around a right-hand curve which marks the course of the 1941 realignment but there is also a tunnel mouth which suggests a track once trailed in from the north of this .  It is this which has been variously referred to as a "carriage siding" or a would-be "LNWR connection" however I believe it has never been used by service trains and may never have had track laid.  There is no similar alignment from the westbound platform.  

 

The Metropolitan Railway did part-build a single-track connection between Moorgate and Liverpool Street  which was both opened and closed in 1875 (01/02/1875 - 11/07/1875) and which would have entered Liverpool Street main line station via platform 1.  That platform (until the rebuilding) was longer than its neighbours and contained a bricked-up tunnel portal at the buffer stops.  I have found no firm evidence that the connection was ever completed nor used though conjecturally one train may have used it.  It would seem reasonable then that a connection to the LNWR at Euston via Kings Cross St Pancras might have been envisaged and allowed for even if never built.

 

On the second query:

 

The Moorgate - Drayton Park - Finsbury Park line was originally opened by the Great Northern & City Railway on 14/02/1904 and was used by full-size trains from the Northern Heights suburbs much as it is now.  It was handed over to the Metropolitan Railway on 01/07/1913 and then only ran to Finsbury Park from whence connections to points beyond were available.  It then became a part of the northern Line (usually known as the Northern City Line / Branch) in October 1934.  The section north of Drayton Park - where the depot was located - closed on 03/10/1964 to permit the running tunnels to be incorporated into the Victoria Line construction; one each was taken over by the Victoria and realigned Piccadilly Lines with the former Piccadilly Line platforms being used for the other direction on both lines.  That allowed the required same-direction cross-platform interchange between the deep-level tube lines at Finsbury Park.

 

The route was closed in 1975 (from Moorgate to Old Street on 06/09/1975 and the rest four weeks later) for handover to BR and conversion to third-rail operation by class 313 units on the newly-electrified Great Northern suburban routes.  That service continues to run and has recently been improved to operate from Moorgate at all times; hitherto all services had run from Kings Cross (main line) after 20.00 and at weekends.

 

Moorgate station itself has been extensively rebuilt following WW2 and as a part of the City of London regeneration and Barbican development projects.  It is on the same site but tracks have been realigned and the once-open station is now "underground" being covered by buildings on a raft.  The deep level platforms have never moved.  Of curiosity value is the fact that the routes to Welwyn GC and Hertford north were once served from platforms 5 and 6 at sub-surface level and via Kings Cross but are now served from platforms 9 and 10 at deep level and via Highbury & Islington.  The two routes rejoin at Finsbury Park.  At no time however have through services run via both routes as one replaced the other.

 

The former BR route into Moorgate (Circle Line) is no longer available and has closed as the trackbed has been cut to extend the platforms at Farringdon across it in order to accommodate 12-car Thameslink trains.

 

Sorry if this sounds picky and off topic, but I don't believe the "Northern City" line (Moorgate-Finsbury Park tube) was ever used by trans beyond Finsbury Park towards the Northern Heights, before the BR Great Northern Electrics started in 1976.  The Great Northern Railway was originally interested in using it for this purpose, but lost interest before it was opened, and from then on the only passenger trans that used it were Tube trains between Moorgate and Finsbury Park, until it was cut back to a Moorgate-Drayton Park shuttle in the 1960s due to the Victoria Line platforms being built at Finsbury Park station.

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Sorry if this sounds picky and off topic, but I don't believe the "Northern City" line (Moorgate-Finsbury Park tube) was ever used by trans beyond Finsbury Park towards the Northern Heights, before the BR Great Northern Electrics started in 1976.  The Great Northern Railway was originally interested in using it for this purpose, but lost interest before it was opened, and from then on the only passenger trans that used it were Tube trains between Moorgate and Finsbury Park, until it was cut back to a Moorgate-Drayton Park shuttle in the 1960s due to the Victoria Line platforms being built at Finsbury Park station.

 

Not picky at all.  I'm always happy to be corrected in the interests of historical accuracy.

 

Equally off-topic but of passing interest here is the fact that the LNER routes to Alexandra Palace and Highgate / Edgware were all set to be come tubes under the 1935 New Works Programme.  Finsbury Park - Alexandra Palace never made it nor did the connection to Golders Green beyond Highgate but once the Northern Line took over beyond Highgate the new Golders Green depot was used to service the Northern City Line units meaning they ran from Moorgate via Finsbury Park and the otherwise unused route via Crouch End to Highgate and the depot.  Once Drayton Park - Finsbury Park closed that route ceased to be available and they were then worked via Finsbury Park (BR), Kings Cross (York Road / Hotel Curve), the City Widened Lines, then the BR to LT crossover to access Moorgate platforms 3 / 4 and thence to Neasden depot.  A very circuitous route and one which not only resulted in units of 1938 tube stock travelling between the levels at Moorgate (platforms 9/10 to 3/4 though not in traffic and not usually as a through working) and also across the throat of Kings Cross main line.  they were topped and tailed by battery electric locos for these trips which always caused great interest and some gasps of disbelief among the spotters on the platforms ends.

Edited by Gwiwer
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[Edit: section deleted, because I realised I had misunderstood which curve Andy 2mm was talking about.]

 

I can confirm absolutely that there was no Met-LNWR connection built at Euston, having just consulted the person who cares for all of LT's archive material relating to such things.

 

But, as well as a proposal (nothing more) for such a connection, there was another proposal for a "Euston, St Pancras, and Charing Cross Railway" (see, for instance London Gazette Nov. 25 1870, pp5282), which would have provided a North-South connection involving the LNWR, MR and SER. This would be a great one for "model railway layout imagineers", because it would all, for instance, a Leicester Square station with services operated by steam locos! It never got built.

 

Gwiwer/31A - I've always understood that the Northern City Tube existed and was operated purely "stand alone", so no through services to/from GNR suburbia, until it was reconfigured in the 1970s. I don't think there was even a feasible route that trains could have taken, but I may be wrong on that.

 

Kevin

Edited by Nearholmer
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Not picky at all.  I'm always happy to be corrected in the interests of historical accuracy.

 

Equally off-topic but of passing interest here is the fact that the LNER routes to Alexandra Palace and Highgate / Edgware were all set to be come tubes under the 1935 New Works Programme.  Finsbury Park - Alexandra Palace never made it nor did the connection to Golders Green beyond Highgate but once the Northern Line took over beyond Highgate the new Golders Green depot was used to service the Northern City Line units meaning they ran from Moorgate via Finsbury Park and the otherwise unused route via Crouch End to Highgate and the depot.  Once Drayton Park - Finsbury Park closed that route ceased to be available and they were then worked via Finsbury Park (BR), Kings Cross (York Road / Hotel Curve), the City Widened Lines, then the BR to LT crossover to access Moorgate platforms 3 / 4 and thence to Neasden depot.  A very circuitous route and one which not only resulted in units of 1938 tube stock travelling between the levels at Moorgate (platforms 9/10 to 3/4 though not in traffic and not usually as a through working) and also across the throat of Kings Cross main line.  they were topped and tailed by battery electric locos for these trips which always caused great interest and some gasps of disbelief among the spotters on the platforms ends.

 

That's interesting!  I was aware of the empty tube trains passing through King's Cross (Main Line) and why they were doing it, having seen pictures of them but didn't know how they got there.

 

 

2mm Andy - if, and I have to say I still doubt it, there was, even from 1863-65, an LNWR to Met connection at Euston, where was it?

 

Gwiwer/31A - I've always understood that the Northern City Tube existed and was operated purely "stand alone", so no through services to/from GNR suburbia, until it was reconfigured in the 1970s. I don't think there was even a feasible route that trains could have taken, but I may be wrong on that.

 

Kevin

 

Yes, that's what I was trying to say, perhaps not very clearly - the Great Northern Railway was originally involved in promoting the Northern City line with a view to using it for through suburban trains from their network (which is why it was built to the main line loading gauge) but for some reason withdrew their interest before it was finished, and main line trains didn't use it until BR revived the idea with the 1970s Great Northern electrification.  The connection planned by the GN for passenger trains between the main line and the Northern City line wasn't built, but there was a physical (siding) connection between the GN Finsbury Park-Canonbury line and the LT car sheds at Drayton Park which could be used for stock transfers.  The present day service to Moorgate uses new connections in this area.

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Also, despite being down those tunnels several times in the past as an authorised visitor when shut on Sundays (crew training, fire/terror evacuation exercises) I never got chance to wander around Moorgate station; are the two Moorgate's part of the same station complex or are they totally separate? I assume from the name that if not linked then they must be close. 

7850808354_1e09daff2c_b.jpg

Moorgate? You could say it was three stations - soon to be four. This is a 3D render of Crossrail between Moorgate

and Liverpool Street

. The Northern line tunnels lie directly below the GN tubes now both connected by escalators that surface on the Eastbound side of the Met/Circle. I saved this image because of the evidence that the Post Office Railway still threads its way through all the new works.

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