The Metropolitan Railway and the birth of the London Underground

The London Underground began with the Metropolitan Railway, which opened on 10 January 1863. It is recognised as the world’s first underground passenger railway, created to relieve severe congestion in Victorian London.

By the 1850s London’s streets were crowded, and main line termini stood around the edge of the central city. Charles Pearson, the City Solicitor, championed the idea of an underground railway as a way to improve movement and help people live further from overcrowded central districts. Engineers, including John Fowler, helped turn the vision into a working railway.

The first line ran about three and three-quarter miles between Paddington and Farringdon. It was built using cut and cover: workers dug trenches along streets, built brick tunnels and then covered them over. This caused major disruption, but it made the railway possible with the technology of the day.

The Metropolitan was not a deep tube line. It was a sub-surface railway, and its first trains were steam-hauled. Deep-level tube travel became practical only with electric traction and safer lifts; the City and South London Railway opened in 1890.

The new railway proved popular and extensions followed. Over time the Metropolitan expanded beyond central London, while rival companies built other lines. In 1933 the Metropolitan became part of London Transport, unifying the capital’s Underground, buses and trams under public ownership.

Today, journeys on the Metropolitan line and other sub-surface routes still follow the ambition of those Victorian pioneers: moving huge numbers of people through a crowded city quickly and reliably.