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