150th anniversary of the London Underground

 

Ten things you didn't know about the London Underground

 

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:18:59 GMT | By Maureen O'Hare

 

 

The world's oldest underground railway network celebrates its 150th anniversary this month. The Metropolitan Railway opened on 9 January 1863, (the general public admitted next day), and was carrying over 26,000 passengers a day within a few months of opening. 150 years on, around 3.5 million journeys are made on the network every day and there are now nearly 170 underground rail networks around the world.

1,107,000,000 journeys are made on the London Underground every year.

The entire network is 400 kilometres long, and there are 4,134 tube carriages travelling around it.

The average Londoner spends 11.5 days commuting every year. Even though over half of the 'Underground' is actually above ground, that still amounts to 5.2 days spent in tunnels underground.


There have been just three babies born on the London Underground: a girl born in 1924, another girl born in 2008 and a boy born in 2009. However, US TV presenter Jerry Springer was born in Highgate tube station during World War II, when it was is use as a bomb shelter.

Culex pipiens f. molestus is a form of mosquito first discovered in the London Underground, but also found in other underground systems around the world. It breeds all-year round, is cold-intolerant, and bites rats, mice and humans.

An estimated 500,000 mice live in London's Tube tunnels. The best places to spot them running around the tracks are Waterloo station and Oxford Circus.

 In 2012, the real-life story of how busker James Bowen (pictured) got off heroin and turned his life around after a chance meeting with injured ginger cat Bob melted hearts around the world, and landed Bowen a book deal.

According to The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace, strange items left behind on the London Underground include:

• Breast implants
• Theatrical coffin
• Stuffed eagle (not pictured)
• 14-foot long boat
• Jar of bull's sperm
• Urn of ashes
• Dead bats in a container
• Vasectomy kit
• Two human skulls in a bag

 

 

Anne Naylor, otherwise known as 'The Screaming Spectre of Farringdon', was a woman murdered in 1758 who is reputed to haunt Farringdon Station. Her screams are said to be heard by passengers as the last train departs for the night.

 

Actor William Terriss, who was stabbed to death in 1897, is said to haunt Covent Garden tube station, although there hasn't been a reported sighting since 1972.

 

Screams of women and children have reportedly been heard from the stairwell and ticket hall of Bethnal Green tube. It is believed that this is because of the 173 people crushed to death in the stairway during World War II.

 

The now closed British Museum tube station was reputed to be haunted by the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh, Amen-Ra, who would scream so loudly the noise would carry down the tunnels to the adjourning Holborn tube station.

 

'The Black Nun' of Bank-Monument station is reputedly the ghost of Sarah Whitehead, whose brother Philip was hanged in 1811 for forgery. For the next 25 years it is said that she visited the bank asking for her brother, and her ghost mourns him still.

 

And at last, a verifiable fact: Aldgate Station is built on the site of a mass plague grave, where around 1000 people were buried in the 17th century.

 

 

There are around 18 'ghost' stations on the London Underground network - abandoned station buildings and platforms, gathering dust in the dark below, waiting for a train that never comes. One of the most famous of these is Aldwych (pictured) - rare tours are occasionally hosted at this disused station in Westminster and demand is always extremely high.

• The latest London Transport events
• Exhibition of posters from a 'ghost' station at Euston (until 28 February 2013)

 

In 2001 a fragrance called Madeleine was introduced at St. James Park, Euston and Piccadilly stations in a bid to make the tube more pleasant. It didn't catch on.

 

1916: Edward Johnson creates the 'Johnson' typeface - the now world-famous London Underground font. The original brief by Frank Pick demanded that it should have 'the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods' and belong 'unmistakably to the twentieth century'.

1923 - 1947: Architect Charles Holden's influential designs for London Underground stations in the 1920s and 1930s became the corporation's standard design. Arnos Grove (pictured) is one such example.

 

1931: London Underground employee Harry Beck creates the diagrammatic Tube map, replacing the geographically based maps used previously. It is still the basis of the Tube map used today.

 

'Bumper' Harris was a one-legged man employed in 1911 to ride on the first Underground escalator, at Earl's Court station, in order to demonstrate its safety.

 

Unlike modern 'comb' escalators, the early 'shunt' mechanism escalators finished with a diagonally shaped step that made it quicker and easier to step off on the right rather than left. Hence, the development of London's escalator etiquette that requires that you stand on the right and those wishing to overtake must walk on the left.

 

Many tube stations were used as air-raid shelters during WWII, such as Holland Park station, pictured above.

 

The Central Line was converted into a massive WWII aircraft factory that stretched for over three kilometres, with its own railway system. Its existence remained an official secret until the 1980s.

 

 Down Street station in Mayfair (now in disuse) was the air raid shelter of choice for Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet.

 

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