The Metropolitan line was the Underground’s first route to open, but over the next 160 years it has expanded to 11 lines, covering 250 miles of track.
As the Tube network has evolved, so has the map by which Underground passengers navigate around the capital.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be using these maps to tell you the story of each of London’s Tube lines.
For now, though – here’s a brief history of the entire London Underground told through ten maps.
A brief history of the Tube in ten maps
Opened in 1863, the initial Metropolitan Railway route ran between Paddington and Farringdon, but was soon extended to Moorgate, with plans for a further leg to Baker Street.
Built by digging a long trench, laying track and covering it over again, the line made use of steam trains to carry passengers under central London.
Just one year later, the Hammersmith & City Railway opened, connecting to the existing Metropolitan Railway, extending the Tube network to Hammersmith.
Then, the Metropolitan District Railway – the precursor to the District line – opened on Christmas Eve 1868, between South Kensington and Westminster.
The intention was for it to merge with the Metropolitan line, but by 1871 the two companies had parted ways, and the lines were run independently of one another.
This meant that the two lines never connected to form a circle as had been intended, forcing the Government and inner London businesses to step in.
In 1884, to complete the Circle line, a new station was built called Mark Lane. It was later renamed Tower Hill and then relocated, leaving Mark Lane disused.
By the end of that decade, the Metropolitan Railway stretched from Chesham to Aldgate, and the District Railway had started services to Wimbledon.
The first deep-level Tube line opened in 1890, with The City and South London Railway running services between the City of London and Stockwell. This would eventually form the Bank branch of the Northern line.
The shortest Tube route – the Waterloo & City line – was opened in 1898, although it took another 96 years for it to be incorporated into the London Underground network.
At the turn of the century, the first section of the Central line was opened between Shepherd’s Bush and Bank.
Two years later, the Underground Electric Railway Company of London was formed, bringing all lines apart from the Metropolitan Railway under one umbrella.
This paved the way for the first London Tube map as we know it to be produced in 1908.
The map included the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway – now the Piccadilly line – which ran between Hammersmith and Finsbury Park.
The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway had also opened by this time.
The long name was shortened by the London Evening News to the Bakerloo, which caught on, and the name was officially adopted.
Big changes came to the London Underground in 1933, when Metropolitan Railway became part of the London Passenger Board, which ran the entire Tube network.
This was also the same year that Harry Beck presented the first diagram of the Underground map which would become the blueprint for the modern map we use today.
Over the next 30 years, the network of existing lines was nationalised and gradually expanded, but another entirely new route was not added until the Victoria line opened in 1969.
Ten years later, the Jubilee line opened, becoming the 11th line of the modern Tube network.
Transport for London (TfL) was set up in 2000, and today manages Overground routes, the Elizabeth line and DLR, as well as the London Underground.
There are currently plans to build a new Overground line in north London, as well as to extend the Bakerloo line to Lewisham, meaning the current map is unlikely to stay the same for long.
