Down Street Underground station exterior

Down Street station on the Piccadilly line has the 'oxblood' red glazed terracotta blocks that distinguished stations designed in the Arts & Crafts classical style by architect Leslie Green. It opened on 15 March 1907. This Tube line was financed by the American entrepreneur Charles Tyson Yerkes. The station closed 21 May 1932 as it was little used, being close to the busier stations of Dover Street (now Green Park) and Hyde Park Corner. The station building still exists, now occupied by a newsagent. During the Second World War, the deep-level station housed the Emergency Railway Committee and also, during the early part of the war, Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet. They used this shelter until they moved to the Cabinet War Rooms under Whitehall. Churchill said that Down Street was one of the few places in London where he could sleep without the sound of the bombs!