London Underground Piccadilly line history in four maps

Born from the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway, the route’s name was quickly shortened.

Opened at the end of 1906, the first passengers could travel between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith.

A year later, a short branch opened between Holborn and the now-disused Aldwych station – but it took another two decades before the line was extended any further.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be using maps to tell you the story of each of London’s Tube lines. The images used in this story have been provided by TfL Corporate Archives. To find out more about the history of the London Underground visit TfL’s Google Arts and Culture page – https://artsandculture.google.com/story/welcome-to-tfl-tfl-archives/wAWRESAnwnAAnQ?hl=en

Map from 1904 showing the line’s original route between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith (Image: TfL Corporate Archives)

The first expansion of the line was westward, with trains making use of District line tracks to Acton Town by the late 1920s.

By 1933, after a flurry of extensions, the line stretched from Cockfosters in north London to Hounslow West and Uxbridge in west London.

Map from 1935 showing the westward extension of the Piccadilly line (Image: TfL Corporate Archives)

Changes to the line were few and far between over the next four decades, although the route did receive some upgrades in the 1960s where it interchanged with the Victoria line.

In 1973, new Piccadilly line trains were introduced – these are the carriages we still use today, although they have been refurbished in the intervening years.

Further extensions to the line have taken place until fairly recently, all of which focused on bringing passengers to Heathrow airport.

Tube map from 1965 showing how the Piccadilly line looked before it was extended to Heathrow (Image: TfL Corporate Archives)

In 1977, a station opened at Heathrow Central, with the addition of a fourth terminal at the airport further extending the line seven years later.

Most recently, a new terminus for the route was built at Heathrow Terminal 5 in 2008.

The short shuttle branch of the Piccadilly line between Holborn and Aldwych also still ran until 1994, when Aldwych station was shut.

Tube map from 1994 – the Piccadilly line still goes to Aldwych, but Heathrow Terminal 5 is yet to be built (Image: TfL Corporate Archives)

Currently, there are no plans for further extensions to the route, although walk-through, air-conditioned trains are expected to be rolled out on the line from the end of this year.  

Today, the Piccadilly line covers 71km of track, and calls at 53 stations along its route.

Make sure to check our website at the same time next week to find out about the history of the Bakerloo line.