Underground Overground: Exploring vents and public buildings in Lambeth – FULLY BOOKED
Underground Overground: Exploring vents and public buildings in Lambeth
Saturday 20 September 2025
Start time/place: 10.30am/ Vauxhall Tube Station Exit 4
Finish time/place: 12.30/ York Road by former Eurostar terminus
Join Judy Ovens, co-author of two books about ventilation shafts, to discover why vents, whilst often overlooked are crucial to our modern world, and to investigate the buildings dedicated to saving lives and keeping us moving. The tour starts with a big Brutalist welcome from the Victoria Line ventilation shaft at Vauxhall’s famous transport hub – a great introduction to the world of vents.
Making our way to Waterloo we’ll encounter more vents, each with its own infrastructure story to tell. As well as hearing about the hidden systems that keep the capital working we’ll be looking at the buildings designed to house Lambeth’s vital public services, including the splendid former London Fire Brigade HQ and St Thomas’s Hospital. Both have notable examples of public art. The tour will end with a return to transport at Waterloo where we’ll celebrate the iconic first Eurostar terminus.
Judy Ovens is an accredited Lambeth tour guide. She is a co-founder of the architecture education charity, Our Hut, with Lucy Lavers and Suzanna Prizeman, and together with them has written two books about ventilation shafts, Inventive Vents: A Gazetteer of London’s Ventilation Shafts and the forthcoming Adventurous Vents: A Journey through the ventilation shafts of Britain (pub. Particular Books October 2025).
C20 Members: £20
Non-members: £25
In the event of severe weather the walk will be rescheduled.
Click here for our cancellation policy.
Not a member yet? Join here and benefit from event ticket discounts. Looking to support our campaigning? Donate to our casework here.
The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Above: Vauxhall Ventilation Shaft for Victoria Line, 1972. Image credit: Michael Heyward