There are many instances in
popular culture in which fictional
underground stations appear. In many cases for
film or
television, actual stations are used for the purpose of filming.
The film features a chase/fight scene in a disused Bloomsbury station on the
Central line, connected to the
British Museum by a secret tunnel. A map is seen on the wall of the train in the climax scene, involving a race through the tunnels on a runway tube train. The map lists the stations between
Ealing Broadway and
Liverpool Street from top to bottom, and includes "Bloomsbury", between the now-closed
British Museum and
Chancery Lane, in place of
Holborn, as well as a fictional High Holborn station located in-between
Chancery Lane and
Post Office (now St Paul's). In an absence of continuity, the map later changes to another, where the order is reversed, with Liverpool Street at the top and, "Western Avenue" is at the bottom. This different map includes a number of fictional stations in place of the real station names. It now reads:
Liverpool Street,
Bank,
Post Office (now St Paul's),
Holborn, Bloomsbury, New Oxford Street, Langham (presumably a reference to
Langham Place near
Oxford Circus), Cavendish Street, Cumberland (presumably a reference to the Cumberland Gate of
Hyde Park), Gloucester Gate, Campden Hill, Kensington Park, Holland Road,
White City (which was yet to be built in 1935), North Perivale, East Perivale, and Western Avenue, where the chase terminates. The station names at the end of this fictional version of the Central line reflect the locations of some of the stations that would later form the extension of the Central line towards
West Ruislip. Bloomsbury was the initial name considered for
British Museum station but was dropped before the station opened.[1]
Constitution Hill – 2004 Time Hunter novella The Tunnel at the End of the Light.
Crouch End – 2004 film Shaun of the Dead featured a deleted scene (included on the DVD).
The title character (played by
Simon Pegg) attempted to catch a tube to work from the station only to find it closed. A special 'Crouch End' tube station sign was made for the film scene and, according to Pegg's DVD commentary, is now mounted in his own bedroom. Under an abandoned part of the Underground's 1930s
Northern Heights plan the real life
Crouch End main line station would have transferred to the Northern line. The station closed in 1954 without the transfer taking place (see also:
List of former and unopened London Underground stations).
Duchess Street – featured in the 1932
Jack Hulbert film Love on Wheels.
Ginners Park – station used as a shelter in an air raid in the 1942 film Unpublished Story starring
Richard Greene and
Valerie Hobson.
Grays Inn – Portrayed as a deep level
Piccadilly line station, in the series 5 episode (Tubes help you breed less easily) of the British T.V. sticom,
Shelley. Broadcast, 2nd December 1982.
Haggerston – Appeared as an abandoned, sub-surface station in The New Statesman episode, "Waste Not Want Not".
It should not be confused with the real
Haggerston railway station in East London. This station is on an elevated section of the
London Overground; it re-opened in 2010, but was disused when the programme was made.
Hayne Street – Mock-up found in the
Disneyland Paris Disney Studios "Studio Tram Tour" inspired by the film Reign of Fire (2002); the film did not include a completed/named station.
Hickory Dickory Dock, one of
Agatha Christie's detective stories featuring
Hercule Poirot, is set in Hickory Road in London. A version of the story was made by Carnival Films for London Weekend Television's "Poirot" series. First broadcast in February 1995, the start of the programme sees the main characters alighting from an Underground train and exiting from Hickory Road station. The climax of the programme also involves a chase around the fictional station.
High Street – 1954 film The Good Die Young with Laurence Harvey. Locations in Barbican/Farringdon area.
Featured a tube station called Hobbs End. The station is located at the end of the non-existent 'Hobbs Lane'. One shot shows a new street nameplate reading "Hobbs Lane", and indicating it as being in the
W10 postal district. Next to it a much older nameplate reading "Hob's Lane". Hob is an old name for the
Devil. The name Hobbs End has more recently been used by London Underground as one of the stations on The Model Railway training simulator at the
West Ashfield Underground station training facility.[2]
Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford – in an episode of the
LWT comedy series End of Part One
The main characters watch a film called "The Life of Christopher Columbus". In the film, Columbus goes to a tube station and asks for a train to America but is told he can go only as far as Catford. Part of a modified tube map is shown which shows the fictitious tube stations Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford on the
East London Section of the
Metropolitan line south from
New Cross station. There is an actual part of the mainline
Mid-Kent Railway that interchanges with New Cross station, and the stations are, southwards in order:
St. John's,
Lewisham,
Ladywell and
Catford Bridge (
Catford on a different line interchanges with the latter).
Sumatra Road – featured in "
The Empty Hearse," the first episode of the third series of the British TV crime drama Sherlock.
The station's name is an allusion to "The Giant Rat of Sumatra", mentioned in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. It is fictionally located between
Westminster and
St. James's Park, underneath the
Houses of Parliament. In the story, the station was partially constructed but never opened, being similar to
North End. The scenes were shot at
Aldwych Underground station.
Sun Hill – Long-running
ITV police drama, The Bill.
A supposed closed station on a disused branch of the
Piccadilly line (similar to
Aldwych) that runs south of the river to
Vauxhall Cross, in the vicinity of the
MI6 building. In fact, the Piccadilly line does not cross the river at all, although
Vauxhall on the
Victoria line is within about 100 metres.
The
BBC soap opera EastEnders created
Walford East Underground station,[7] which replaces
Bromley-by-Bow on the EastEnderstube map, to allow the locals to escape "up West" for a night out. Neither Walford nor the tube station exists – except on the EastEnders set. Most of the platform and train shots are filmed at
East Finchley. A station at Walford West has also been referenced by characters in the show.
Lafayette Street – In Knowing, a major collision occurs between a
6 and a
4 train at Lafayette Street station. The front entrance sign says that Lafayette is served by the 4,
5, 6,
J/Z, and
M trains, making the real station either
Canal Street or
Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall (M trains still run on Nassau Street Line at this time).[10] The driver's announcement that
Spring Street was the next station makes it possible that it could have been
Bleecker Street, which in turn is known as Broadway-Lafayette Street on the
IND Sixth Avenue Line, where there is an in-station transfer (then only for southbound 6 trains).
Morningside – an upper Manhattan subway stop from the pilot episode of
CBS's NYC 22.
Kings Plaza – a subway stop in Brooklyn at the end of the
V train. The V train however at no point ever had any exclusive stations, sharing all of its stations with the
E,
F, or
R trains, and not going to Brooklyn, except for a brief unexpected extension to
Euclid Avenue in January 2005 after a signal room fire at
Chambers Street.
For the filming of
Morbius (2022), an NYC-Subway styled station signage with its name "Front Street" served by the
2,
3,
A, and
C trains, similar to the
Chambers Street/Park Place station complex or
Fulton Street, was placed in the disused Jubilee line section at
Charing Cross station on the London Underground. Similar signs were placed on buildings in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The film also incorrectly depicts the New York Subway running on a
fourth rail the way the London Underground does.
Farragut – The first season of
Showtime's Homeland contains a scene outside of D.C.'s Farragut station, portrayed as a Metro stop on the red and orange lines. In fact, there is no Farragut Station. There is a
Farragut North station, on the red line, and a
Farragut West station, on the orange, blue, and silver lines. The scene was filmed in
Charlotte, North Carolina.[12]
Georgetown – In No Way Out, a chase scene is depicted as passing through a Georgetown station in the Washington Metro. There is no Georgetown station; the nearest Metro station to Georgetown is Foggy Bottom. The interior of the station depicted in the movie was in the
Baltimore Metro Subway and not Washington's.[13]
Pyron – In The Walking DeadSeason 11 (Episode 1), characters working their way towards another settlement seek refuge from a storm and continue passage through a Metro station on the yellow line. Negan directs the group that to get to Bethesda, they should "...take the Yellow line north and switch to Blue at
Ronald Reagan National Airport Station, then on to the Red to
Bethesda."
Stations in Fictional countries
Lollipop Park Estates – In
Adventure Time Season 5 (episode 43) "
Root Beer Guy", station of Candy Kingdom Subway in the Candy Kingdom
There are many instances in
popular culture in which fictional
underground stations appear. In many cases for
film or
television, actual stations are used for the purpose of filming.
The film features a chase/fight scene in a disused Bloomsbury station on the
Central line, connected to the
British Museum by a secret tunnel. A map is seen on the wall of the train in the climax scene, involving a race through the tunnels on a runway tube train. The map lists the stations between
Ealing Broadway and
Liverpool Street from top to bottom, and includes "Bloomsbury", between the now-closed
British Museum and
Chancery Lane, in place of
Holborn, as well as a fictional High Holborn station located in-between
Chancery Lane and
Post Office (now St Paul's). In an absence of continuity, the map later changes to another, where the order is reversed, with Liverpool Street at the top and, "Western Avenue" is at the bottom. This different map includes a number of fictional stations in place of the real station names. It now reads:
Liverpool Street,
Bank,
Post Office (now St Paul's),
Holborn, Bloomsbury, New Oxford Street, Langham (presumably a reference to
Langham Place near
Oxford Circus), Cavendish Street, Cumberland (presumably a reference to the Cumberland Gate of
Hyde Park), Gloucester Gate, Campden Hill, Kensington Park, Holland Road,
White City (which was yet to be built in 1935), North Perivale, East Perivale, and Western Avenue, where the chase terminates. The station names at the end of this fictional version of the Central line reflect the locations of some of the stations that would later form the extension of the Central line towards
West Ruislip. Bloomsbury was the initial name considered for
British Museum station but was dropped before the station opened.[1]
Constitution Hill – 2004 Time Hunter novella The Tunnel at the End of the Light.
Crouch End – 2004 film Shaun of the Dead featured a deleted scene (included on the DVD).
The title character (played by
Simon Pegg) attempted to catch a tube to work from the station only to find it closed. A special 'Crouch End' tube station sign was made for the film scene and, according to Pegg's DVD commentary, is now mounted in his own bedroom. Under an abandoned part of the Underground's 1930s
Northern Heights plan the real life
Crouch End main line station would have transferred to the Northern line. The station closed in 1954 without the transfer taking place (see also:
List of former and unopened London Underground stations).
Duchess Street – featured in the 1932
Jack Hulbert film Love on Wheels.
Ginners Park – station used as a shelter in an air raid in the 1942 film Unpublished Story starring
Richard Greene and
Valerie Hobson.
Grays Inn – Portrayed as a deep level
Piccadilly line station, in the series 5 episode (Tubes help you breed less easily) of the British T.V. sticom,
Shelley. Broadcast, 2nd December 1982.
Haggerston – Appeared as an abandoned, sub-surface station in The New Statesman episode, "Waste Not Want Not".
It should not be confused with the real
Haggerston railway station in East London. This station is on an elevated section of the
London Overground; it re-opened in 2010, but was disused when the programme was made.
Hayne Street – Mock-up found in the
Disneyland Paris Disney Studios "Studio Tram Tour" inspired by the film Reign of Fire (2002); the film did not include a completed/named station.
Hickory Dickory Dock, one of
Agatha Christie's detective stories featuring
Hercule Poirot, is set in Hickory Road in London. A version of the story was made by Carnival Films for London Weekend Television's "Poirot" series. First broadcast in February 1995, the start of the programme sees the main characters alighting from an Underground train and exiting from Hickory Road station. The climax of the programme also involves a chase around the fictional station.
High Street – 1954 film The Good Die Young with Laurence Harvey. Locations in Barbican/Farringdon area.
Featured a tube station called Hobbs End. The station is located at the end of the non-existent 'Hobbs Lane'. One shot shows a new street nameplate reading "Hobbs Lane", and indicating it as being in the
W10 postal district. Next to it a much older nameplate reading "Hob's Lane". Hob is an old name for the
Devil. The name Hobbs End has more recently been used by London Underground as one of the stations on The Model Railway training simulator at the
West Ashfield Underground station training facility.[2]
Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford – in an episode of the
LWT comedy series End of Part One
The main characters watch a film called "The Life of Christopher Columbus". In the film, Columbus goes to a tube station and asks for a train to America but is told he can go only as far as Catford. Part of a modified tube map is shown which shows the fictitious tube stations Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford on the
East London Section of the
Metropolitan line south from
New Cross station. There is an actual part of the mainline
Mid-Kent Railway that interchanges with New Cross station, and the stations are, southwards in order:
St. John's,
Lewisham,
Ladywell and
Catford Bridge (
Catford on a different line interchanges with the latter).
Sumatra Road – featured in "
The Empty Hearse," the first episode of the third series of the British TV crime drama Sherlock.
The station's name is an allusion to "The Giant Rat of Sumatra", mentioned in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. It is fictionally located between
Westminster and
St. James's Park, underneath the
Houses of Parliament. In the story, the station was partially constructed but never opened, being similar to
North End. The scenes were shot at
Aldwych Underground station.
Sun Hill – Long-running
ITV police drama, The Bill.
A supposed closed station on a disused branch of the
Piccadilly line (similar to
Aldwych) that runs south of the river to
Vauxhall Cross, in the vicinity of the
MI6 building. In fact, the Piccadilly line does not cross the river at all, although
Vauxhall on the
Victoria line is within about 100 metres.
The
BBC soap opera EastEnders created
Walford East Underground station,[7] which replaces
Bromley-by-Bow on the EastEnderstube map, to allow the locals to escape "up West" for a night out. Neither Walford nor the tube station exists – except on the EastEnders set. Most of the platform and train shots are filmed at
East Finchley. A station at Walford West has also been referenced by characters in the show.
Lafayette Street – In Knowing, a major collision occurs between a
6 and a
4 train at Lafayette Street station. The front entrance sign says that Lafayette is served by the 4,
5, 6,
J/Z, and
M trains, making the real station either
Canal Street or
Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall (M trains still run on Nassau Street Line at this time).[10] The driver's announcement that
Spring Street was the next station makes it possible that it could have been
Bleecker Street, which in turn is known as Broadway-Lafayette Street on the
IND Sixth Avenue Line, where there is an in-station transfer (then only for southbound 6 trains).
Morningside – an upper Manhattan subway stop from the pilot episode of
CBS's NYC 22.
Kings Plaza – a subway stop in Brooklyn at the end of the
V train. The V train however at no point ever had any exclusive stations, sharing all of its stations with the
E,
F, or
R trains, and not going to Brooklyn, except for a brief unexpected extension to
Euclid Avenue in January 2005 after a signal room fire at
Chambers Street.
For the filming of
Morbius (2022), an NYC-Subway styled station signage with its name "Front Street" served by the
2,
3,
A, and
C trains, similar to the
Chambers Street/Park Place station complex or
Fulton Street, was placed in the disused Jubilee line section at
Charing Cross station on the London Underground. Similar signs were placed on buildings in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The film also incorrectly depicts the New York Subway running on a
fourth rail the way the London Underground does.
Farragut – The first season of
Showtime's Homeland contains a scene outside of D.C.'s Farragut station, portrayed as a Metro stop on the red and orange lines. In fact, there is no Farragut Station. There is a
Farragut North station, on the red line, and a
Farragut West station, on the orange, blue, and silver lines. The scene was filmed in
Charlotte, North Carolina.[12]
Georgetown – In No Way Out, a chase scene is depicted as passing through a Georgetown station in the Washington Metro. There is no Georgetown station; the nearest Metro station to Georgetown is Foggy Bottom. The interior of the station depicted in the movie was in the
Baltimore Metro Subway and not Washington's.[13]
Pyron – In The Walking DeadSeason 11 (Episode 1), characters working their way towards another settlement seek refuge from a storm and continue passage through a Metro station on the yellow line. Negan directs the group that to get to Bethesda, they should "...take the Yellow line north and switch to Blue at
Ronald Reagan National Airport Station, then on to the Red to
Bethesda."
Stations in Fictional countries
Lollipop Park Estates – In
Adventure Time Season 5 (episode 43) "
Root Beer Guy", station of Candy Kingdom Subway in the Candy Kingdom