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.

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...

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First underground passenger railway - LT plaque

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

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First underground railway - red plaque

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

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Regents Park Station

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

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Other Subjects

Private Leonard Philip Maris

Private Leonard Philip Maris

Leonard Philip Maris was born in 1886 in Willesborough, Ashford, Kent, the youngest of the ten children of Alfred Maris (1841-1886) and Mary Ann Maris née Chittenden (1846-1930).His birth was regis...

Person, Transport, Germany

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Westminster Bridge

Westminster Bridge

Built 1739–50 by Swiss bridge engineer Charles Labelye. Until this was opened there was no bridge between Putney Bridge (1729) and London Bridge. Replaced with the current bridge opened on 24 May 1...

Building, Transport

1 memorial
White Horse Cellars at Hatchett's Hotel

White Horse Cellars at Hatchett's Hotel

This building is still at 66-68 Piccadilly, on the north-east of the junction with Dover Street.  Architect: Weatherley and Jones. From British History (written in 1878, just 10 years before Selby...

Building, Commerce, Food & Drink, Transport

1 memorial
Midland Railway Company

Midland Railway Company

Railway company based in Derby.

Group, Transport

1 memorial
Southern Railway, 626 men who died in WW2

Southern Railway, 626 men who died in WW2

626 men of the Southern Railway who died in WW2.

Group, Transport

3 memorials