The Scoop

London's underground entrepreneur strikes again

Peter Watts | Tuesday 8 February, 2011 19:48

Ajit Chambers is a familiar figure on London’s political scene. He is a neatly dressed businessman who attends any public event at which there is the possibility Boris Johnson will attend and receive questions from the audience.

At some point in proceedings, Chambers will pounce. His question is always about his ambitious scheme to resurrect some of London’s abandoned tube stations as living museums, nightclubs, storage spaces and event spaces, a plan he first hatched two years ago as the Old London Underground Company.

This afternoon, the story surfaced in the Evening Standard just a couple of years after I first wrote about it in Time Out. Every time it emerges, there is a great flurry of public interest; people love this stuff.

Hardcore City Hall watchers on the other hand, are – to put it mildly – a little sceptical about Chambers’s scheme, not to mention downright irritated by his repeat appearances at public events. They wonder whether it is possible to turn an old tube station into a nightclub, or whether TfL will ever give it the go-ahead. They question the engineering requirements, the political capital that would need be expanded and the economic reality of making the whole thing happen in these austere times (the Old London Underground Company has yet to file any accounts at Companies House).

However, according to the Standard, Chambers is meeting TfL later this month. If you are planning to attend Boris Johnson’s next public meeting, it’s a safe bet you can prepare to say hello to an old friend. Chambers isn’t going to disappear into a hole in the ground quite yet, that’s for certain.

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