The ‘Underground’ is actually something of a misnomer because only about 42 per cent of the system actually runs below the surface. The network grew up, at least until the early 1930s, in a largely piecemeal fashion, but it has evolved to become an essential part of the capital’s infrastructure. The need for the system originated with the chronic road traffic gridlock which had developed on the surface by the middle of the nineteenth century.
The line that ran the four miles from Paddington to Farringdon, going on to form the nucleus of the Metropolitan Railway, was built just below street level using what became known as the ‘cut-and-cover’ method. This method may have caused temporary chaos for traffic but it reduced the potential costs involved in the compulsory purchase of many of the buildings that lay on or around the path of the projected route. Steam locomotives hauled the early trains and, because the line was in a relatively shallow trench open to the air for much of the route, some of the smoke and steam dissipated. However, the poisonous and almost impenetrable fug in stations such as Baker Street, which were entirely subterranean, caused travellers to cough, splutter and complain, and for this reason early underground train travel was certainly not for the faint-hearted. The smoky atmosphere of the stations and the dimly-lit trains provided a fruitful field of operation for the light-fingered criminal fraternity.
In spite of apocalyptic predictions that the building of underground railways would disturb the Devil who would then wreak his revenge on those foolish enough to travel on subterranean lines, the route from Paddington to Farringdon was an almost total success. This stimulated further development and other lines followed. The building of these lines prompted urban development and a complex network of lines was created linking suburban and rural areas to the city and to Central London. There was no sense of the need to create a co-ordinated system between the companies that developed the early lines and so some parts of Greater London, particularly south of the Thames, have always been distant from the Tube although they usually came to be served adequately by the impressive network of surface electrified lines which we tend to associate with the Southern Railway Co. In 1933 control of a unified underground system passed into the hands of the London Passenger Transport Board which set about a programme of extensions to the tube system and modernisation of rolling stock, stations and other facilities. Developments since the war have been few and slow in coming, but the Victoria Line, opened throughout in 1972, and the Jubilee Line Extension in 1999 have set new standards for automation and efficient operation.
This statue of Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras depicts the poet with his trademark shopping bag gazing up in awe at the station’s magnificent cast-iron roof, the widest in Britain.
Without question the London Underground has had an enormous social, economic and cultural impact on the metropolis. It has provided a ready means for people to get around quickly and easily, it has connected the disparate collection of ‘villages’ which constitutes London and stimulated the growth of vast tracts of London’s inner and more distant suburbia including, of course, the ‘Metroland’ affectionately mocked by Sir John Betjeman (1906–84). In addition, the Underground has assisted the regeneration of areas of inner-city decay such as the Bermondsey district of south-east London with, in this case, the building of the Jubilee Line. The Underground has given the world the immortal diagrammatic map of the system, originated by Harry Beck in 1932. It has expressed itself in stations of the highest architectural merit such as Park Royal and East Finchley and the monumental headquarters block of 55 Broadway Street with its sculptures by Henry Moore and Jacob Epstein. It has also given us the distinctive glazed terracotta station fronts which are the colour of oxblood and the Art and Crafts faience work of the architect Leslie W. Green. The deep-level tubes played a heroic role sheltering Londoners during the Blitz. Elsewhere some stations and unopened tube tunnels were used as subterranean factories producing such things as aircraft parts. Others became control centres for the war effort. The Underground is absolutely a part of London’s fabric. Life would be very different without it, and much worse.
There has of course also been a debit side. The building of the sub-surface lines was extraordinarily disruptive and often meant that people lost their homes, most frequently those who could not afford expensive legal counsel to contest compulsory purchase orders. Many burial sites had to be disturbed and human remains laid to rest elsewhere, something about which many people were uneasy. The Underground has had its share of drama including murders, suicides, tragic accidents and, more recently, terrorist bomb attacks.
London’s many disused underground stations generate growing interest. These ‘ghost stations’ with their long-abandoned platforms, cold, darkened tunnels and the nagging suggestion that something horrible might be lurking down there provide ideal settings for reports of hauntings and paranormal phenomena. Even many of the stations still in regular use are spooky first thing in the morning and last thing at night when few passengers are about and trains less frequent. What happens on the platforms and in the passages when no living entities are there? The deep-level tube stations in particular contain doors sealed off to access by the general public. What secrets do those doors conceal?