History of London Undeground

History of London Undeground

The London Underground is the world’s oldest subway system.

Trains were a popular way to travel in the Victorian era, undercutting the cost of a horse-drawn carriage and beating it to the finish line, too. But the rise in Greater London’s population meant the city was beginning to buckle under the strain of too many commuters and not enough transport links to get them where they needed to be.

Then Charles Pearson, the Solicitor to the City of London, proposed a plan to move everything underground, the so-called ‘train in a drain’, in 1845. It took some persuading but the House of Commons approved a bill in 1853 to build a subterranean railway from Paddington to Farringdon.

It was over 150 years ago that the world’s first underground train made its debut journey, with passengers anxious to experience it. The Metropolitan was a huge success and 26,000 people hopped aboard each day in the first six months. However, it wasn’t just the gap they had to mind, as commuters were enveloped in clouds of smoke from the steam trains and other passengers (smoking wasn’t banned until after the King’s Crossfire in 1987).

The Underground continued to grow, reaching out to the then sleepy villages of Hammersmith and Morden and the transport links caused their modest populations to boom. Charles Pearson never lived to see his vision completed, having died a year before the Underground opened, but his legacy is everlasting.

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