The idea of an underground public rapid transit system for Londoners was proposed in the 1830s, and the permission to build this system was granted in 1854. A test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, and it was used for two years. The first underground railway was opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on an opening day. The deepest Underground station is Hampstead; the station was opened in 1907. It is located about 192 feet below the street level. These stunning photographs give a glimpse of the astonishing journey of an Underground London starting from the construction of underground railway lines in the 1860s.
#1 Construction site to the west of Waterloo Bridge, 1866-1870
#2 Building the Metropolitan District Railway, 1867
#3 Construction work on the site of Blackfriars Station
#4 Paddington Station in 1868, the year it opened
#5 Bayswater Station, just after completion
#6 Gloucester Road Station under construction, 1866
#7 Notting Hill Gate Station
#8 District Line construction outside Somerset House, 1869
#9 Metropolitan District Railway construction, 1866
#10 High Street Kensington, 1868
#11 Notting Hill Gate, 1866
#12 Construction work near South Kensington Station
#13 Bayswater Station upon completion, 1866
#14 Gloucester Road Station, 1868
#15 High Street Kensington’s roof taking shape
#16 The first Metropolitan train on the underground line passing through Praed Street, London, Ca. 1863.
#17 Chancellor William Ewart Gladstone on an inspection tour of the world’s first underground line, 24th May 1862.
#18 Liverpool Street station, ca. 1890.
#19 Map and illustrations showing the new Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton underground tube route, linking London stations from Hammersmith to Finsbury Park, 1906.
#20 Hammersmith Broadway, 1910.
#21 The interior of a District Line Underground carriage, 1911.
#22 The ticket hall of Liverpool Street Station, 1912.
#23 The platform of the Central London Railway extension at Liverpool Street Station, 1912.
#24 Interior of an all-steel London underground train, ca. 1920.
#25 A man writing on a complaints poster, 1922.
#26 Farringdon Street (Farringdon) Station in March 1924.
#27 The entrance to Blackfriars Underground station, 1924.
#28 Clapham South, 1926.
#29 London tram workers queue up for their pay at the tram subway in Kingsway, High Holborn, 1926.
#30 An underground train being transported on wheels through the streets of London, 1926.
#31 The Mayor of Westminster turns on the escalators at Piccadilly Circus in 1928.
#32 British director Anthony Asquith (1902-1968), right, directing his new film ‘Underground’ from an escalator on the London underground, May 1928.
#33 Construction work at the ticketing area of the new Piccadilly tube station, 1928.
#34 The Hon Anthony Asquith filming commuters for his film of the underground, 1928.
#35 Platforms are lengthened at Euston Square underground station, 1930.
#36 A passenger takes a ticket from the machine at Piccadilly Circus, 1930.
#37 A traveller buys a London Underground season ticket from a vending machine at Highgate Station, 1932.
#38 Passengers on an escalator, September 1932. The posts were erected to avoided a crush during rush hours.
#39 Leicester Square, 1933.
#40 A group of Sikh men outside the entrance to Hyde Park Corner, ca. 1935.
#41 New interiors in 1936: more seating, better lighting and ventilation and a more streamlined shape.
#42 A passenger opening one of the doors on the Hammersmith and City Underground Line, which have been fitted with new buttons for opening and closing doors, 1936.
#43 London’s Charing Cross Road with the Hippodrome and Leicester Square station on the left, 1938.
#44 The entrance to Embankment, 1938.
#45 A strike causes huge queues to build up at the bus stops outside Liverpool Street, 1939.
#46 Stockwell station, 1939.
#47 City gents, 1939.
#48 A guard outside a station which has been closed to the public two days after Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, 5th September 1939.
#49 People asleep on the platform of Holborn underground station during an air raid, 1940.
#50 People asleep on the platform at Piccadilly Tube Station, London during an air raid, 1940.
#51 People asleep on the escalators at Piccadilly Tube Station, London, during an air raid, 1940.
#52 Piccadilly, 1940.
#53 Piccadilly, 1940.
#54 London Underground rat-catchers with their net and ferrets, ca. 1950.
#55 A group of women cleaning one of London’s underground tunnels, 1952.
#56 Advertisements being pasted up, 1952.
#57 Tube cleaner, 1952.
#58 Tube train at Picadilly Circus, 1952.
#59 Liverpool Street, 1952.
#60 Kingsway Tram, 1952.
#61 Underground fluffers, 1954.
#62 Underground life, 1955.
#63 All-night dancing, 1955.
#64 Downtown Soho, 1956.
#65 Piccadilly Circus, 1956.
#66 Rush hour, 1956.
#67 Rush hour, London Bridge, 1956.
#68 Tube music, 1957.
#69 Silver trains, 1957.
#70 Bus strike, 1958.
#71 Oxford Circus, 1958.
#72 Oxford Circus, 1958.
#73 London Bridge, 1958.
#74 Publishing liberalized, 1960.
#75 Frenchman in London, 1963.
#76 Oxford Circus, 1963.
#77 Mystery package, 1964.
#78 Sikh underground, 1964.
#79 Piccadilly Circus, 1966.
#80 Matching fur, 1966.
#81 Tea on the Tube, 1968.
#82 Station telephones, 1968.
#83 Foot sore, 1969.
#84 Bus queue, 1969.
