Recollections of the London Underground (tube) in 1940s wartime

As a young child in the early 1940s, I was quite used to the London Underground because my mother took me to visit her family in Edmonton, north London. We called it 'the tube'. We took it from Edgware to Golders Green where we changed to a bus. Between Edgware and Golders Green, the journey was above ground. It was after Golders Green that the train went into a tunnel.

The windows of the tube in wartime

I don't remember what I did on the journeys above ground, but it certainly wasn't looking out of the windows. Because it was wartime and London was in fear of German bombing, all the windows had mesh stuck over them to stop glass splinters flying from a bomb blast. This mesh must have been fairly easy to get hold of, unlike non-essential items, as we had it up loosely at the windows at home in place of net curtains. New net curtains, being non-essential items, were no-where to be bought - and my parents had started to set up home only in the year before the beginning of the war.

Escalators

What I particularly remember about the escalators was that the treads were made of wood. In fact this continued in some stations for decades, gradually being replaced by stainless steel.

   

  

Ticket machines

   

Platforms

During World War Two the people used the platforms as underground bomb shelters.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer

 

The 1940s and 1950s are also written as the 1940's and 1950's.