(Images by Mikey Ashworth.  Copyrighted by London Underground and reproduced with permission)

The London Underground is an incredible maze of subterranean railways, stations and ticket halls – and that doesn’t account for the myriad abandoned passageways that are strictly off limits to the public, let alone the ageing relics that linger on in this dark underworld.

(Images by Mikey Ashworth.  Copyrighted by London Underground and reproduced with permission)

But a 2010 upgrade to Notting Hill Gate “tube” station revealed a series of vintage posters dating to between 1956 and 1959.  The posters, which will be left intact once the modernisation work is completed, include advertising for Pepsodent Toothpaste and the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition, as well as films like Around the World in 80 Days and The Horse’s Mouth, starring Alec Guinness.

(Images by Mikey Ashworth.  Copyrighted by London Underground and reproduced with permission)

The vintage collection was uncovered in an abandoned lift passageway closed to the public after Notting Hill Gate was last upgraded in the late 1950s.  The ’50s facelift saw the “two” Notting Hill Gate stations of the District and Circle lines linked by a sub-surface ticket hall beneath the road.  Escalators down to the deeper Central Line platforms replaced the ageing elevators, which were sealed off by the time the station reopened on March 1, 1959.

Images by Mikey Ashworth.  Copyrighted by London Underground and reproduced with permission)

When the latest upgrades are complete, the posters will once again be hidden from prying eyes in the disused area of the tube station.  Mikey Ashworth, who discovered and photographed the collection, wrote: “We will be leaving these intact – and please do not pester the station staff as the posters are wholly inaccessible – which is why they’ve probably survived 50 odd years!”

Images by Mikey Ashworth.  Copyrighted by London Underground and reproduced with permission)

Notting Hill Gate station opened in 1868 as part of the Metropolitan Railway’s extension from Paddington to Gloucester Road.  The deep-level Central Line platforms, accessed by the lift passageways where the posters were found, opened in 1900.  The vintage artifacts may not be viewable, but it’s fun to think there’s a place deep within the bowels of London that still advertises the “latest work” of David Niven, Rita Hayworth et al.  View the full collection here.