The Piccadilly line is 120 years old, and it is the strangest line on the network: a Churchill bunker hidden in a closed station in Mayfair, a dead branch that ran to Aldwych, and a string of listed brick drums out west that are among the best modern buildings in Britain. London Transport Museum is building October half term around it, 24 October to 1 November.
The line opened in 1906 as the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, running from Hammersmith to Finsbury Park. It now goes Cockfosters to Heathrow, which means it takes in Piccadilly Circus, the royal parks, the West End theatres and the airport, and is the first Underground line most visitors to London ever use.
What is hidden along it
Three of the line’s stations are shut and still down there. Down Street, between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, closed in 1932 and spent the war as a bunker for the Railway Executive Committee and, on several nights, for Churchill and his cabinet. Brompton Road closed in 1934 and was used as an anti-aircraft control room. York Road, up near King’s Cross, closed in 1932 and its oxblood tiled frontage is still on the street.
Then there is Aldwych, which was the end of a short branch off the Piccadilly at Holborn. It opened in 1907, ran a shuttle service that nobody much used, and closed in 1994. It has been a film set ever since.
And what is above ground
The other half of the line’s reputation is architectural. When the Piccadilly was extended north and west in the 1930s, Frank Pick handed the stations to Charles Holden, who came back with brick drums and glass boxes at Arnos Grove, Southgate, Oakwood and Sudbury Town. Arnos Grove in particular is one of the most admired buildings of British modernism and is listed at Grade II*. Most people on the platform have no idea.
The half term programme
The museum is marking the anniversary with a week of activities rather than an exhibition, all included with entry.
- See the sights, ages 0 to 5, 24 to 27 October. A sensory storytelling journey along the line, from meeting the King at Green Park to catching a flight at Heathrow
- Picc-a-carriage, ages 5 and up, 24 to 27 October. How the trains have changed across 120 years, then design the one that comes next
- Design a station, all ages, 28 October to 1 November. Built around the line’s architecture, which is to say Holden
- Fly the Tube, all ages, 28 October to 1 November. A tinkering challenge inspired by the Heathrow extension: build a flying Tube train and see how long it stays up
- Early explorer morning, 28 October, 8.30am to 10am. A relaxed session for SEND families before opening, with gallery sounds turned off and the museum closed to the public. Advance booking essential
The same programme carries on through the year as Creation station, on selected weekends to March 2027. Three of those are worth diarising now: a collage session on London Transport’s staff canteens and the Caribbean influence on their menus on 10 October, a remembrance roundel for transport workers who served in the First World War on 15 November, and a pop-up railway on 21 January.
The tours are the real prize
Out on the network, the museum is running Hidden London tours over half term for children aged 10 and up, and two of them go straight to the Piccadilly’s own history. One is the closed Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross, now used more as a film set than a station, with Paddington and Skyfall both shot down there. The other is the first family-dedicated tour of Aldwych, which is the dead branch itself.
Our take: if your children are over ten, book Aldwych and skip the craft tables. Standing on a tiled 1907 platform on a branch line that carried almost nobody for eighty years does more for a child’s sense of how this city works than any amount of designing a station on paper, and the family version of that tour has never run before. If they are younger, go on 24 or 25 October rather than the back half of the week, when the galleries fill up. Either way, walk the last bit of the line yourself some time: get the Piccadilly to Arnos Grove and stand outside the station for two minutes before you go in. It is the best thing Charles Holden built and it is free to look at.
Need to know
- What: October half term activities marking 120 years of the Piccadilly line
- Where: London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London WC2E 7BB
- When: Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November 2026. Museum open daily 10am to 6pm
- Price: £27 adult, which includes free return daytime entry for a year. Under-18s free. £25 concessions, with further discounts on Universal Credit and Pension Credit
- Booking: ltmuseum.co.uk. The SEND early explorer morning on 28 October must be booked in advance
- Also on: Hidden London tours for over-10s, including Charing Cross and the first family tour of Aldwych
- Nearest station: Covent Garden, or Leicester Square
More in the area in our Covent Garden guide, and more of the city’s buried history in our guide to London’s hidden gems.
