The Winchester

March 2011

Probably the rawest of experiences on the underground one can undertake, a tunnel run in zero clearance. Gary, Neb and myself met with Otter, who’d taken the run before on a trip with Siologen back in 2009, in those days when we all knew a lot less about the system and how it operates. A few have been back in the last couple of years, and credit is due to all who have done this – it’s definitely a mental exercise rather than a physical one.

With an operation as mentally intense as this, there’s the propensity to withdraw upon the sight of an obstacle, and at arriving above the portals, the initial thought was that the lights weren’t on. Without the lights, the power runs through the rails and the chance of trains is present. On the other hand, the lights could go out at any time, the power could come on and your worst nightmares would ensue. We took stock for 5 minutes, saw the lights were on and collectively decided to take the run up the tunnel.

Risk and reward are an interesting combination, and upon arrival in the void intended for the station, Neb questioned it with “What the fuck is this, I did that for THIS?”. When you’re climbing a fence and through a window into a derelict building, your reward is appropriate to the risk. If something like Aldwych was at the end of this run, no questions would be asked about the reward. As Bull and Bush was never even opened, it’s a shell of a station without many of the usual features, hence the general lack of interest given it’s relative ease.

Built in 1906 as a proposed Northern line stop, works ceased when planning permission for a topside building struggled. The close proximity of Golders Green and the assumption that the station wouldn’t get much usage brought an end to the plans, and as such, it was the only proposed deep level station site that was abandoned during construction.