RAIL-Y OLD

Vintage pictures of the London Underground reveal what tube travel was like when the capital just had a few million residents

In the late 1800s, the tube network was run by steam locomotives carrying gas-lit wooden carriages

Caroline McGuire

Published: 18:09, 30 May 2017
Updated: 7:45, 31 May 2017

THE tube network has brought almost every Londoner close to tears at some point - whether during a strike or in the busy evening rush.

But it's also one of the capital’s crowning glories as the world’s first underground railway.

A trial run of the tube in the London Underground in 1862, shortly before it opened in 1863Credit: Getty Images

Initially the network was run by steam locomotives with gas-lit wooden carriagesCredit: Rex Features

The sprawling network is unrecognisable nowadays from its early days in 1863, when it first opened with one line between Paddington and Farringdon that featured six stations.

Since then it has transformed into 11 lines and 270 stations reaching between far north, south, west and east London.

Parts of the early network, when there were far fewer people living London, seemed far more civilised with the empty platforms and quiet ticket stations.

The first line opened in the 1880s between Paddington and Farringdon, covering featured six stations including Baker StreetCredit: Getty Images

This picture shows steam trains at Gower Street station on the Metropolitan railway which opened in 1863. With workers hurrying to catch their morning trainCredit: Getty Images

This picture shows Notting Hill Gate Station shortly before it opened in 1868Credit: Getty Images

But the tube was also known for its thick dirt, as the smoke and steam from the locomotives could only escape from vents built into the tunnel roofs.

Then at the turn of the century, the tunnels were deepened so that the steam locomotives with their gas-lit wooden carriages could be swapped for much cleaner electric trains.

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While some of the art deco grandeur that was built inside the stations remains, a lot of it has since been removed in favour of a more modern look.

Steps were initially replaced by wooden escalators which in turn became metal escalators.

A man sits waiting for a train on the London Underground in 1890, when the platform floors were still made from wooden floorboardsCredit: Alamy

One of the new electric trains at Piccadilly Circus Tube Station in the 1910sCredit: Alamy

A man writing on a complaints poster on the London UndergroundCredit: Getty Images

During World War Two, many tube stations were used as air raid shelters and the Central line was turned into a two-mile-long fighter aircraft factor.

Most of the old ticket booths were exchanged for electric ticket machines in the late 1900s, and one of the biggest changes on the tube in the latter half of the century came with the smoking ban.

The platform of the Central London Railway extension at Liverpool Street Station in 1912Credit: Getty Images

Interior of an all-steel London underground train on the tube lines in around 1920Credit: Getty Images

Passengers on the giant escalators at the newly opened Piccadilly Underground Station in 1928Credit: Getty Images

Rush hour passengers on a platform at Piccadilly Circus underground station in 1933Credit: Getty Images

A woman in a 'new design' London Underground train in August 1937Credit: Getty Images

In 1984 Underground bosses trialled a smoking ban for six months and then finally made it permanently illegal in November 1987, after a big fire at Kings Cross killed 31 people and injured at least 100 more.

After the fire, the wooden escalators that were used in most stations also began to be replaced with metal escalators, although the final replacement only happened at Greenford Station in 2014.