The Tube is the oldest underground railway in the world, opened in 1863 when the trains were pulled by steam locomotives through tunnels that had no ventilation to speak of. Passengers were assured the sulphurous fumes were medicinal. They were not.
Using it
Do not buy paper tickets. Tap in and out with a contactless bank card or phone, or use an Oyster card; fares are capped daily and weekly so you cannot overpay by tapping too often. You must tap out as well as in, or you will be charged the maximum fare.
The unwritten rules
- Stand on the right on escalators. Walk on the left. This is not a suggestion, and violating it produces visible distress in people who will nonetheless say nothing.
- Let people off before boarding.
- Move down inside the carriage.
- Do not talk to anyone. Eye contact is avoided with a dedication that visitors find either rude or restful, depending on temperament.
“Mind the gap”
The recorded warning between train and curved platform, first used in 1968 and now one of the most recognisable phrases in Britain. At Embankment, the old recording was restored to the northbound Northern line platform after the widow of the voice artist — who had been visiting the station to hear her late husband’s voice — asked for it back. It still plays there.
The map
Harry Beck, an engineering draughtsman, designed the diagram in his own time in 1931. London Transport initially thought it too radical. It abandoned scale and true geography entirely in favour of straight lines, 45-degree angles and even spacing between stations, and it has since been copied by nearly every metro system in the world.
Its one flaw is that it lies about distance. Leicester Square to Covent Garden is the shortest hop on the network and a walk of about four minutes; every year thousands of tourists pay to take the train.
Quirks worth knowing
- Only about 45% of it is actually underground. Large parts of the outer network run in the open air.
- The deep tunnels get genuinely hot in summer — there is no air conditioning on the deep lines, because there is nowhere for the heat to go.
- Most lines stop around midnight, though several run all night on Fridays and Saturdays.
- There are around fifty abandoned “ghost stations”, some visible as a flash of tiled wall as you pass.