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

Bank underground station

Bank underground station

London Underground station. It has a very complicated layout with many exits/entrances. It is served by the Central, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, as well as the Docklands Light Railway. ...

Place, Transport

1 memorial
Ladbroke Grove rail disaster / Paddington rail crash

Ladbroke Grove rail disaster / Paddington rail crash

Also referred to as the Paddington rail crash. At 8.06am, a Thames train bound for Bedwyn in Wiltshire left Paddington station. Two minutes later, as it sped along at 41mph, it went through a signa...

Event, Tragedy, Transport

2 memorials
Clapham Junction rail disaster

Clapham Junction rail disaster

At 8.10 a.m. a crowded passenger train from Basingstoke heading for London Waterloo, crashed into another train that had stopped at a signal. A further empty train travelling in the opposite direct...

Event, Tragedy, 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
Charles Melville Hays

Charles Melville Hays

Railway president. Born in Rock Island, Illinois. He started working on the railroads at the age of 17, and progressed through the business, eventually becoming the General Manager of the Grand Tru...

Person, Tragedy, Transport, Canada, USA

1 memorial