Since the refurbishment was estimated to cost between £3 million and £5 million, the number of people who used the station daily (about 600) couldn't justify the cost of the conversion so the line was closed. Although still in good working order, the lift machinery contained exposed moving parts and high voltage components, the equipment was therefore deemed no longer safe to maintain. In 1994, the straw that broke the camel's back was the need to replace the old (original) lifts. Over the years, Aldwych has often felt the shadow of an overhanging axe due to low patronage and for many years had been run as a peak-hours only service. Since then however this platform has been used to try out new platform designs for other stations and to test new lighting designs.ĭuring the Second World War, Aldwych was closed for nearly six years and was used as an air raid shelter and the unused tunnels being used as storage for art and treasures from the British Museum. The second tunnel was closed and the track lifted meaning that platform B at Aldwych was also no longer used. The branch opened on 30th November 1907, with the Aldwych station initially being opened as Strand and then soon renamed due to confusion caused by the name, since at that time Charing Cross station located on the much more salubrious end of the Strand bore the same name! However, by 1917 only one track was ever used since the number of commuters on the line was less than expected. The reason for the Aldwych branch being included in the final plan seems to be shrouded in mystery - some say that there was a parliamentary condition that the route to Aldwych be built, others that it was originally viewed as an ideal place to extend the line south of the Thames (a point borne out by the fact that several plans of this nature were subsequently made but dropped). When the Yerkes Group eventually amalgamated these in preparation for building, the Deep Level District was dropped and never built (apart from a single platform at South Kensington) and the other two were amalgamated into the stretch of the Piccadilly line that was largely completed in 1906. The reason for this strange configuration comes about because the current Piccadilly line is an amalgamation of three separate projects with different government planning permissions obtained for each the Great Northern & Strand Railway (Wood Green to Aldwych), the Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway (Piccadilly Circus to South Kensington, though not the locations we know today) and the Deep Level District, (an express route from Earl's Court to Mansion House).

Aldwych underpass