For a long time, London has been seen as an iconic city on our planet. Whether it be its ancient architecture (in the form of museums and cathedrals, and others) sprinkled with futuristic glass skyscrapers and its 2000-year history, or its prevalence in the world as a global hub of connections and people, it has always been an interesting case study in terms of city evolution and growth. In 1800, London topped the largest 100 list with 1.1 million inhabitants. Although the world population was much smaller then (consisting of about 1 billion), it is still an impressive feat given that despite turbulent change across the world around that time (e.g. the establishment of America, tensions in Europe that ultimately caused the Napoleonic Wars). London is also the city that boasts having the world's oldest underground metro system, with its iconic logo of a blue rectangle on top of a red circle being plastered everywhere in stations and on merchandise in the city.

 

In the first half of the 19th century, the population and physical border of London grew significantly. The increasing population and the development of a commuting population arriving by train each day led to a high level of traffic congestion with huge numbers of carts, cabs, and omnibuses filling the roads and up to 200,000 people entering the City of London, the commercial heart, on foot every day. Charles Pearson, a British lawyer and politician who adamantly promoted the benefits of underground rail systems in order to fix this problem, was able to arrange a deal between the Met and the City of London Corporation in 1858 whereby the Met bought land it needed around the new Farringdon Road from the City for £179,000 and the City purchased £200,000 worth of shares. His earlier scheme of creating a central railway station for multiple rail companies to use was rejected by the 1846 Royal Commission on Metropolitan Railway Termini, but Pearson revisited this project in 1852 when he helped set up the City Terminus Company to build a railway from Farringdon to King's Cross. The plan was supported by the City, but railway companies were not interested. The construction of this railway would be £1 million, however due to the Crimean War this funding was hard to come by. The Great Western Railway (GWR) agreed to contribute £175,000 and a similar sum was promised by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), but sufficient funds weren't raised by the end of 1857. Costs were eventually reduced by getting rid of part of its route to the west so that it didn't connect directly to the GWR station, and by stopping the original line south of Farringdon. These route changes gained approval by Parliament in August 1859, meaning that construction could finally begin.

 

Colloquially known as the Tube, the London Underground first opened to the public in 1863, when it only consisted of the Metropolitan Railway which ran between Paddington and Farringdon. In the first twelve months 9.5 million passengers were carried and this increased to 12 million in the second twelve months, with GNR trains being used to supply the route. The next 3 years after that saw this tiny line change rapidly, as new routes were added onto the original one, so that destinations now ranged from Hammersmith in the west of London to Moorgate in the East of London. After that, this line was able to offer an extensive range of travel journeys due to its new stations that went further up North to Harrow and Richmond, which contributed to the development of new suburbs in Middlesex, which back then was a separate entity from London. In 1897, the railway even received the early patronage of the Duke of Buckingham and the owners of Waddesdon Manor, so its services were able to be extended for many years to Verney Junction all the way in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles (80 km) from the centre of London. Originally gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives were used as the trains on the Metropolitan Railway, however these soon were phased out in favour of carriages with electric traction that used electricity for its energy, meaning that they no longer required locomotives which used to provide the motive power of the train. Unlike other railway companies which were required to relinquish control of surplus land, the company behind the Metropolitan Railway was dealt an especially good hand in that it was entitled to privileges allowing it to retain such land that it believed was necessary for future railway use. It also worked with the District Railway to complete London's Circle line in 1884. 

 

It also played a role in Britain's World War I, as on August 5th 1914, the Met was made subject to government control in the form of the Railway Executive Committee. It lost significant numbers of staff who volunteered for military service and from 1915 women, who at that point were newcomers in the workforce due to their traditional role as householders, were employed as booking clerks and ticket collectors. The Metropolitan Railway's branches that went across the city also had new major strategic importance as a link between the channel ports and the main lines to the north, used by troop movements and freight. During the four years of war, the line saw 26,047 military trains that carried 54,000 tons of materials. The sharp curves on the line's journey prevented ambulance trains returning with wounded using this route, and government control was relinquished on 15 August 1921, almost 3 years after the end of WW2. The railway then continued with its services to the public for another 12 years before being absorbed by the newly-established London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. The line was cut back to Aylesbury. Steam trains ran on it until 1961, when the line was electrified and services were shortened to Amersham. The Hammersmith & City line was also shown on the tube map as part of the Metropolitan line until 1990, when it became its own line.

 

The railway company's legacy is immortalised in its creation "Metro-Land" which came about after World War I, an area of new housing outside London designed to allow people who worked in Central London to live outside and commute there using the new railway. This also encouraged the development of the centre of the city to focus on purely commercial premises rather than on also housing the workforce required to run those businesses, and it was first used for the FA Cup Final on 28 April 1923, where the match was preceded by chaotic scenes as crowds exceeding the capacity of the stadium tried to enter. In their 1926 Metro-land publication, the Met boasted that it had carried 152,000 passengers to Wembley Park on that day. Although Metro-Land ceased to exist after its railway's absorption by London Passenger Transport Board, it still represented the massive boom in population and economic growth London experienced during the 19th and 20th centuries. 


It also laid the groundworks for other metro lines in the city, with the Bakerloo and Central London Railways, although their openings were delayed due to World War 1. However, this didn’t stop the city subway from evolving as government-backed financial guarantees were used to expand the network, and the tunnels of the City and South London and Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railways were linked at Euston and Kennington, although these new combined branches would be known as the Northern line until later. People used the tube stations as shelters during Zeppelin air raids by June 1915, and again during the Second World War, where Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe brutally battered London via air strikes.