The Metropolitan Railway wasn’t just the first underground line; it was a proof of concept. It proved that you could build a railway under a city without collapsing the streets above. It used steam locomotives that were specially designed to emit less smoke (though they still failed at that). And it had first, second, and third class carriages, because naturally, even in a hole in the ground, the British wanted a class system. The line was so successful that within a year, it carried nearly 10 million passengers. That’s more than the population of London at the time!
The original route didn’t just serve London; it changed the way cities thought about transport. Paris, New York, and Budapest all copied the idea within a few decades. But the original line had a quirk: it was operated by both the Metropolitan Railway and the competing Metropolitan District Railway (which later became the District line). They hated each other, but they had to share tracks because the tunnel was too narrow for two separate lines. Imagine two rivals forced to share a single toilet—that was the early Underground.
The Ghost of Steam: What You’d Smell
Let’s talk about the experience. No electric lights, no air conditioning, no tube map with a neat little central line. The carriages were lit by gas lamps that flickered and hissed. The windows had to be kept shut to keep out the smoke, but people soon realized that was a terrible idea. Passengers would arrive at Farringdon looking like they’d crawled out of a chimney. The railway had to install wooden slats in the ceilings to let some air in, but it was still like breathing in a fireplace. Yet, they wore their best clothes—top hats, crinolines, the works. Fashion over function, even in a steam tunnel.
38 Amazing Photographs From the Early Days of the London Underground
There’s also a wonderful bit of trivia: the original tickets were made of paper, not card. They were so thin that people could forge them by hand. The railway quickly switched to thicker “Edmondson” tickets (the ones collectors love today). And the first train driver was named Thomas Edmondson—no relation to the ticket guy, but what are the odds?
