First opened to the public in 1898, the Waterloo & City was the capital’s second deep-level line, after the Bank branch of the Northern line.
It was built to help commuters travelling into Waterloo from Surrey and south west London to get more easily into the City, and is primarily used for this purpose to this day.
The line was named after its two stations – Waterloo and City – although City was later renamed Bank.
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
London & South Western Railway ran the route until 1923, when it became part of Southern Railway.
After nationalisation in 1948, the line was taken over by British Railways.
This means that for much of its history, the Waterloo & City has not featured as a Tube line on the London Underground map.
It was only in 1994 when it became part of the wider network – almost 100 years after it first opened – that the turquoise colour was added to the official Tube map.
No changes have ever been made to its 2.3km route, although a number of extension proposals have been made over the years.
One key difficulty to extending the line is the complex web of existing tunnels under Bank station.
Another quirk of the line is that unlike other Tube services, it only runs on weekdays, reinforcing its status as a route primarily used by City commuters.
Saturday services used to run on the line, but have not been reinstated since the Covid pandemic.
It is one of just two Tube routes that run entirely underground, the other being the Victoria line.
Make sure to check our website at the same time next week to find out about the history of the Central line.
