Hidden behind an innocuous locked door at Alperton Underground Station in Northwest London, hides one the last remnants of the 1951 Festival of Britain - the escalator that once conveyed visitors to the upper gallery in the Dome of Discovery, a display of all that was cutting edge in the fields of science and technology in postwar Britain.

The escalator was manufactured by the well-known Dartford Company, J&E Hall Limited, best known for their marine refrigeration equipment and was installed, connecting the upper and lower galleries. The Festival was a great success, but at its end, the site was closed down and the venue and fittings dismantled for scrap. An escalator was available with only a few miles on the clock. Would London Transport Executive (a previous incarnation of Transport for London) a major escalator operator be interested? Yes, they would!

After purchase by London Transport, the escalator was installed inside an attractive new inclined enclosure flooded with natural light from the large circular roof lights. Unusual for the Underground, even now, to have escalators going up to the railway, it entered service in November 1955 serving the Eastbound platform for central London.