Plan to turn London's WWII-era tunnels into tourist destination

There is 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 tonnes of government documents and telecom services.

Welcome to the Kingsway Exchange tunnels, set roughly 30m below street level in the centre of London, sprawling beneath the Underground's Central Line. Soon they could enter a new chapter: Mr Angus Murray, the owner of the complex, who bought the tunnels last summer, has applied for planning permission to local authorities together with architecture firm WilkinsonEyre to turn the tunnels into a tourist destination that could handle millions of people a year.

Mr Murray's London Tunnels is planning to invest £220 million (S$375 million) in restoring and preserving the tunnels, as well as adding technology for art installations and other attractions. Mr Murray hopes to open the complex in 2027, and said that it would be able to host temporary art exhibitions, fashion shows and more.

At the moment, entering the tunnels requires riding a small lift tucked behind a side door in an alleyway off a street in central London.