Historic London Tube Lift Shafts Restored to Make Station Accessible

The Knightsbridge Tube station in London, England, is now fully accessible due to the restoration of the original lift shafts from 1906, Ian Visits reports. One of the original station entrances has sat dormant since the lifts were replaced with escalators that bypassed the entrance entirely in 1934. In 2016, the restoration of the abandoned lift shafts and the corridors to them was undertaken by the Knightsbridge Estate and its developer, Chelsfield, which was looking to redevelop the above-ground buildings. The new entrance, containing two new lifts where the old lift shafts were, opened in 2022 down a side passage named Hooper’s Court. Lifts were expected to open in 2020 but were delayed, which happened again in 2023. The lifts are now open, according to the source. The accessible entrance is a walk-through design, meaning people go to the left to go down and arrive coming out of the right side.