Bomb shelters now tourist sites

An illustration provided by London Tunnels, a new venture that owns the Kingsway Exchange tunnels, which sprawl beneath the city Underground’s Central Line. — ©2024 The New York Times Company

THERE’s a locked door on the eastbound platform of the Chancery Lane station of the London Underground. The door is unassuming, sturdy and white.

Behind it is a wide set of stairs leading to a roughly mile-long maze of tunnels built in the 1940s that were first intended to serve as a World War II shelter and later used for espionage, the storage of 400 tons of government documents and telecom services.