The Tube: Station to Station on the London Underground

Travel Guide

The London Underground

The London Underground system is one of the world’s largest and busiest urban metros. From a modest Victorian steam railway 3.5 miles long with just six stations, it has grown and developed over 150 years into elegant modern electric lines covering more than 250 route miles and serving 270 stations across the capital.

It is responsible for over 3.5 million passenger journeys a day

The famous features on the system – the red and blue roundel and the iconic Tube map are recognised everywhere as key symbols of the city

Journeys and exploration on the Underground are almost like trips though time as well as space, although they rarely feel as though they are in chronological sequence. Different parts of the infrastructure have been enlarged, extended, opened, closed, abandoned and rebuilt almost continuously for 150 eras, but never in a set order. You can still find stations and buildings from every one of those sixteen decades, reflecting the styles and design of each period, and the changes in London’s fortunes.

More than 70 of the pre-war stations are now listed buildings and English Heritage have declared them an important part of the city and country landscape.