Event    From 10/1/1863 

First underground passenger railway - Metropolitan

Categories: Transport

Event

Between Paddington and Farringdon. A grand opening on the 9th preceded the opening to the public on Saturday 10 January 1863.

“That afternoon Hetta trusted herself all alone to the mysteries of the Marylebone underground railway, and emerged with accuracy at King’s Cross. She had studied her geography, and she walked from thence to Islington.” This description of an early underground journey, by a woman alone, comes from the 1875 ‘The Way We Live Now’ by Anthony Trollope (p.385 in vol.2, Penguin 2001). Living in Welbeck Street Hetta probably got on at (Great) Portland Street.

See Metropolitan Railway Company for more information.

It's interesting that, in 1829, George Shillibeer had launched the first omnibus service on a quite similar route: Marylebone Road to the Bank. Both services were catering to the middle classes who lived to the west and worked in the City.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
First underground passenger railway - Metropolitan

Commemorated ati

Baker Street Station Restoration

The walls of both platforms are adorned with information boards giving the hi...

Read More

First underground passenger railway - LT plaque

London's roads were heavily congested, the railways stopped on the fringes of...

Read More

First underground railway - red plaque

Metropolitan Railway The world's first underground railway opened from Paddin...

Read More

Regents Park Station

Great Portland Street  is a London Underground station on the Circle, Hammers...

Read More

Other Subjects

Central London Railway

Central London Railway

Railway line, known as the 'Twopenny Tube', as all tickets were sold at the price of two pre-decimal pennies. It was taken over by London Underground, becoming the Central line. See Londonist for ...

Place, Transport

1 memorial
Kew Gardens Station Footbridge

Kew Gardens Station Footbridge

Grade II listed, thsi bridge is a very early example of the use of reinforced concrete in Britain. Built in the age of steam, it still carries the deflectors and very high parapets which channelled...

Place, Transport

1 memorial
Network SouthEast

Network SouthEast

Operated trains in London and the South East.

Group, Transport

1 memorial
London & South Western Railway

London & South Western Railway

Initially named London and Southampton Railway it connected all the way to Plymouth into a London terminus at Nine Elms. The line was extended in 1848 to terminate at the new station Waterloo. L&am...

Group, Transport

2 memorials

Previously viewed

Aircraftman 1st Class Ralph Edwin Booth

Aircraftman 1st Class Ralph Edwin Booth

Ralph Edwin Booth was born in 1924, the youngest of the six children of Harry Alfred Booth (1877-1965) and Lizzie Cornelia Booth née Langford (1884-1977). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarte...

Person, Armed Forces

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
E. W. Turner
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
King George's Fields Foundation

King George's Fields Foundation

After the death of King George V the Lord Mayor of London set up a committee to decide on a suitable national memorial. It was decided to erect just one statue and create a number of playing fields...

Group, Gardens / Agriculture, Royalty, Sport / Games

9 memorials
Southwark Bridge

Southwark Bridge

EC4, Fruiterer's Passage

The new pedestrian subway under the northern approach to Southwark Bridge was formally opened on 19 January 2000 by the unveiling of a sm...

1 subject commemorated
submarine Regulus
1 memorial