The first underground railway

Victorian London was jammed with traffic. The answer was to go under it.

How this site works. Every fact is in our own words and linked to its source, beside it. Where good sources disagree, we show each version in a “Sources differ” box.

A crowded city

London had about 1.7 million people when Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837, and the main-line railways of the 1840s and 1850s brought in even more. LT Museum, Victorian

Crossing London could take an hour and a half: five miles from Paddington to Bank by horse-drawn omnibus. LT Museum, Victorian

In 1846 a Royal Commission ruled that new railways should be kept out of the City and the West End. LT Museum, Victorian

For the wider story of the age that built it, and of the Victorian engineers behind its railways, see the engineers page on victorian.ages.im.

Charles Pearson’s idea

Charles Pearson, Solicitor to the City of London, championed an underground railway to link the main-line stations. LT Museum, Victorian

Britannica says Pearson proposed it as part of a plan to improve the city, soon after the Thames Tunnel opened in 1843. Britannica

Pearson’s plans and a rival group’s merged, and the Metropolitan Railway Company was formed in August 1854. LT Museum, Victorian

Objectors feared the tunnels would collapse under the traffic and that passengers would choke on the fumes from the engines. LT Museum, Victorian

The £1 million needed took five years to raise. LT Museum, Victorian

Cut and cover

Work began in 1860. LT Museum

It was built by ‘cut and cover’: a trench about ten metres wide and six metres deep was dug along the road, lined with brick walls and roofed with a brick arch, and the road was rebuilt on top. LT Museum, Victorian

Building it took nearly two years and caused huge disruption; one complaint said a great street had been ‘turned into a builder’s yard’. LT Museum, Met line

A Victorian engraving of a deep trench along a city street, with workmen, timber props and a half-built brick tunnel — Building the Metropolitan Railway near King’s Cross, an engraving by Percy William Justyne, 1861.Picture: Percy William Justyne, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and resized)

Cut and cover near the surface, deep tube far below (our drawing, not to scale).Drawing: our own, simplified and not to scale

10 January 1863

The first section of the Metropolitan Railway opened from Paddington to Farringdon on 10 January 1863. LT Museum

The Metropolitan line is the oldest underground railway in the world, named after the Metropolitan Railway. LT Museum, Met line

How long was the first line? Sources differ

The London Transport Museum’s line history gives the first line as 5.6km long. LT Museum, Met line
The museum’s story of Victorian transport says it ran for three miles under the New Road. LT Museum, Victorian
Britannica says Parliament authorised 3.75 miles (6km) of underground railway. Britannica

Three figures from two respected sources: 5.6km is about 3.5 miles, a little more than “three miles” and a little less than 3.75 miles. Lengths depend on where you measure from, so we give all three.

How many stations? Sources differ

The London Transport Museum says it opened with seven stations, from Paddington (Bishop’s Road) to Farringdon Street. LT Museum, Met line
Transport for London says it opened between Paddington and Farringdon, serving six stations in between. TfL

Seven stations in all, counting both ends, would mean five in between. TfL’s “six intermediate stations” would make eight. We give both and have not settled it.

A Victorian engraving of a long station hall under an arched glass roof, with a train at the platform and passengers waiting — King’s Cross station on the Metropolitan Railway, from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.Picture: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and resized)

Steam underground

The first trains were pulled by steam locomotives burning coke and, later, coal. Britannica

Engines were fitted with water tanks to condense their steam, but the smoke and fumes stayed a problem. LT Museum, Victorian

Despite the fumes it was a success, carrying 9.5 million passengers in its first year. Britannica

A Victorian engraving of passengers in open wagons pulled through a brick tunnel by a steam engine — A trial trip on the Underground in 1863, as drawn about 1890.Picture: Unknown artist, Old and New London (Cassell, about 1890), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and resized)

Metropolitan No. 23

Metropolitan locomotive No. 23, of 1866, is the only steam engine from the 1860s to survive, and is on show at the London Transport Museum. LT Museum

A small dark red steam tank engine with a tall chimney and polished brass dome, in a museum hall — Metropolitan Railway No. 23 at the London Transport Museum, August 2018.Picture: nzsteam, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and resized)

How did an engine like No. 23 work? steam.mechanics.im explains the steam locomotive step by step. Steam trains still carry passengers on the Isle of Man’s railways.

More lines

A second underground line, the District, opened five years later, in 1868. LT Museum

The District first opened on Christmas Eve 1868, between South Kensington and Westminster. TfL

The two companies fell out, and the Inner Circle linking the main-line stations was not finished until 1884. LT Museum

The Hammersmith and City Railway opened on 13 June 1864, as a branch feeding the Metropolitan; it became a line in its own right in 1988. TfL

A Victorian engraving of a street with a long low station building and horse-drawn carriages outside — Baker Street station on the Metropolitan Railway, from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.Picture: Unknown artist, The Illustrated London News, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and resized)

Next: the deep tubes →