The history of the London Underground began in the 19th century with the construction of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway. The Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, worked with the District Railway to complete London's Circle line in 1884. Both railways expanded, the Metropolitan eventually extending as far as in Buckinghamshire, more than from Baker Street and the centre of London. The first deep-level tube line, the City and South London Railway, opened in 1890 with electric trains. This was followed by the Waterloo & City Railway in 1898, the Central London Railway in 1900, and the Great Northern and City Railway in 1904. The Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) was established in 1902 to fund the electrification of the District Railway and to complete and operate three tube lines, the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway, the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, which closed during 1906–1907. By 1907, the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines.
Under a joint marketing agreement between most of the companies in the early years of the 20th century, "UNDERGROUND" signs appeared outside stations in central London. The First World War delayed extensions of the Bakerloo and Central London Railways, and people used the tube stations as shelters during Zeppelin air raids by June 1915. After the war, government-backed financial guarantees were used to expand the network, and the tunnels of the City and South London and Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railways were linked at Euston and Kennington, although the combined service was not named the Northern line until later. The Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow (later Uxbridge) and Hounslow. In 1933, the underground railways and all London area tram and bus operators were merged into the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB). The outlying branches of the Metropolitan were closed; various upgrades were planned. The Bakerloo line's extension to take over the Metropolitan's Stanmore branch, and extensions of the Central and Northern lines, formed part of the 1930s New Works Programme. The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 interrupted some of this work; many tube stations were used as air raid shelters during the conflict.
The LPTB was nationalised during 1948, and the reconstruction of the mainline railways was given priority over the maintenance of the Underground. In 1953, an unpainted aluminium train entered service on the District line, and this became the standard for new trains. In the early 1960s, the Metropolitan line was electrified as far as Amersham, and steam locomotives no longer hauled passenger trains. The Victoria line, a new tube line across central London, opened in 1968–71 with trains driven automatically. In 1976, the isolated Northern City Line was taken over by British Rail and linked up with the mainline railway at Finsbury Park. In 1979, another new route, the Jubilee line, took over part of the Bakerloo line; it was extended through the Docklands to Stratford in 1999.
Under the control of the Greater London Council, London Transport introduced in 1981 a system of fare zones for buses and underground trains that cut the average fare. Fares increased following a legal challenge but the fare zones were retained, and during the mid-1980s the Travelcard and the Capitalcard were introduced. In the early years of the 21st century, London Underground was reorganised in a public–private partnership where private companies upgraded and maintained the infrastructure. In 2003, control passed to Transport for London (TfL), which had been opposed to the arrangement and, following financial failure of the infrastructure companies, had taken full responsibility by 2010. The contactless Oyster card first went on sale in 2003. The East London line closed during 2007 to be converted into a London Overground line, and in December 2009 the Circle line changed from serving a closed loop around the centre of London to a spiral also serving Hammersmith. Currently there is an upgrade programme to increase capacity on several Underground lines, and work concluded in 2021 on a Northern line extension to Battersea.
The first underground railways (1863–1905)
During the first half of the 19th century, London had grown greatly and the development of a commuting population arriving by train each day led to traffic congestion with carts, cabs and omnibuses filling the roads. By 1850, there were seven railway termini located around the urban centre of London and the concept of an underground railway linking the City of London with these stations was first proposed in the 1830s. Charles Pearson, Solicitor to the City of London, was a leading promoter of several schemes, and he contributed to the creation of the City Terminus Company to build such a railway from Farringdon to King's Cross in 1852. Although the plan was supported by the City of London, the railway companies were not interested and the company struggled to proceed. During 1854, the Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was granted permission to build an underground line at an estimated cost of £1 million. With the Crimean War under way, the Met found it hard to raise the capital, and construction did not start until March 1860. The railway was mostly built using the "cut-and-cover" method from Paddington to King's Cross; east of King's Cross it was built by tunnelling and then followed the culverted River Fleet in an open cutting to the new meat market at Smithfield. The railway opened to the public on 10 January 1863, using steam locomotives hauling wooden carriages. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, borrowing trains from other railways to supplement the service. In the first twelve months 9.5 million passengers were carried and in the second twelve months this increased to 12 million.
The Met's early success prompted a flurry of applications to Parliament during 1863 for various new railways in London, many competing for similar routes. The House of Lords established a select committee that recommended an "inner circuit of railway that should abut, if not actually join, nearly all of the principal railway termini in the Metropolis". Proposals to extend the Met were accepted, and the committee agreed a proposal that a new company, the Metropolitan District Railway (commonly known as the District Railway), be formed to complete the circuit. Initially, the District and the Met were closely associated and it was intended that they would merge. The Met's chairman and three other directors were on the board of the District, John Fowler was the engineer of both companies. The construction works for the extensions were let as a single contract and the Met initially operated all the services. Struggling under the burden of high construction costs, the District's level of debt meant that merger was no longer attractive to the Met and its directors resigned from the District's board. To improve its finances, the District terminated the operating agreement and began operating its own trains. Conflict between the Met and the District and the expense of construction delayed further progress on the completion of the inner circle. By 1879, the Met was seeking to access the South Eastern Railway via the East London Railway (ELR); an Act of Parliament was obtained to complete the circle and link to the ELR. After an official opening ceremony on 17 September and trial running, a complete Circle line service started on 6 October 1884.
The Metropolitan Railway had been extended soon after opening, reaching Hammersmith with the Great Western Railway in 1864 and Richmond over the tracks of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) in 1877. The Metropolitan & St John's Wood Railway opened as a single track branch from Baker Street to Swiss Cottage, and this was to become the Met's most important route as it expanded north into the Middlesex countryside, where it stimulated the development of new suburbs. Harrow was reached during 1880, and the line eventually extended as far as in Buckinghamshire, more than from Baker Street and the centre of London. From the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the Great Central Railway route out of .
By 1871, when the District began operating its own trains, the railway had extended to West Brompton and a terminus at Mansion House. Hammersmith was reached from Earl's Court and services reached Richmond, Ealing, Hounslow and Wimbledon. As part of the project that completed the Circle line in October 1884, the District began to serve Whitechapel. As a result of the expansion, by 1898, 550 trains operated daily.Ackroyd, P. (2012). London Under. London: Vintage Books. Services began running to Upminster in 1902, after a link to the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway had been built.
First terrorist attack Harry Pitts (27 June 1861 – 30 April 1897)General Register Office birth indices. Harry Pitts Q3 1861 Tiverton Vol 5b page 402General Register Office death indices. Harry Pitts Q2 1897 London City Vol 1c page 19 was the first person to be killed by a terrorist attack on the London Underground. Pitts died of injuries received from a bomb which exploded at Aldersgate Station (now Barbican) on 26 April 1897. The bomb was planted by Russian anarchists in revenge for one of their members being given a seven-year prison sentence. At an inquest into Pitts death a verdict of "wilful murder against person or persons unknown" was recorded. Pitts was born in Bradninch, Devon the son of a millwright. He briefly spent some time in Lancashire before settling in Tottenham, North London. He was married and had two daughters.
Electric underground railways (1900–1908)
Deep-level tubes
During 1869, a passage was dug through the London Clay under the Thames from Great Tower Hill to Pickle Herring Stairs near Vine Street (now Vine Lane). A circular tunnel was dug , using a wrought iron shield, a method that had been patented in 1864 by Peter William Barlow. A railway was laid in the tunnel and from August 1870 a wooden carriage conveyed passengers from one side to the other. This was uneconomic and the company went bankrupt by the end of the year and the tunnel was converted to pedestrian use, becoming known as the Tower Subway. Construction of the City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was started in 1886 by James Henry Greathead using a development of Barlow's shield. Two circular tunnels were dug between King William Street (close to today's Monument station) and Elephant and Castle. From Elephant and Castle, the tunnels were a slightly larger to Stockwell.The Northern Line, A Short History by M A C Horne (page 9) This was a legacy of the original intention to haul the trains by cable. The tunnels were bored under the roads to avoid the need for agreement with owners of property on the surface. The original intention to cable-haul the trains changed to electric power when the cable company went bankrupt. A conductor rail energised with +500 volts DC conductor rail for the northbound tunnel and −500 volts for the southbound laid between the running rails, though offset from the centreline, powered the electric locomotives that hauled the carriages. The carriages were fitted with small windows and consequently were nicknamed padded cells.The Northern Line, A Short History by M A C Horne (page 12) By 1907, the C&SLR had extended from both ends, south to Clapham Common and north to Euston.