Thursday, 16 May 2013

LONDON UNDERGROUND: 150 YEARS OF HISTORY.

The famous Underground map was created by Harry Beck in 1931

On January 9th, 1863, the world´s first underground train left Paddington Station in London to travel 5.6 kms. to Farringdon Road in "The City" or the financial district of London. Therefore, this year is the 150th anniversary of the oldest, and probably the most famous underground system in the world.

The London Underground is the oldest in the world
From then on it has grown dramatically, as the city of London has also done, up to the 270 stations (11 lines) it has nowadays. It is the fourth largest metro system in the world and the first in Europe.

This poster by Alfred Leete (1927)
 is an iconic image now
 In these 150 years, many important things have taken place there. During the Second World War it became a night shelter for people because of the Blitz, the German bomb attacks on London. More recently, on July 7th, 2005, there was another bomb attack by islamist terrorists in underground trains across the city.

The Underground stations were used as night shelters
 during the German bomb attacks in the Second World War


CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT THE LONDON UNDERGROUND

-The London Underground carries every year more than 1.1 billion passengers.


-It has got the nickname "The Tube", which comes from the fact that the trains were of a circular shape and that the tunnels were deep.

A poster commemorating the 150th anniversary


-The total length of the Underground network is 402 kms.

The Underground lines are
 represented with different colours

-Waterloo is the most crowded station, with 82 million passengers a year. During the morning rush hour, the average number of passengers at Waterloo is 57,000.

Waterloo is the busiest station


-Around 1,000 people a day accidentally leave something on the tube. The list of the strangest objects includes Samurai swords, false teeth, dead bats and a 4-metre boat.

The warning "Mind the Gap" is associated to the London Underground





A video by three Norwegian boys teaching
 tourists how to use the underground





This young man visited every underground
station in London. Amazing!!!

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5 comments:

  1. Maite Fdez. Gómez23 May 2013 at 18:24

    Could you look for the scene in the film "Atonement" where the Tube is flooded with water? I remember that Aidan used that part of the film when talking about the underground to our students. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Diego Alonso 3º B23 May 2013 at 21:46

    Hi, this is post is quiet interesting and, by the way, the guy who visited every London Underground station is kinda crazy!! hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ana Las Palmas26 May 2013 at 09:17

    I've enjoyed a lot reading about the tube.
    Did you know that Irish underground is called the dart and the American undersground is called the subway?
    It's also interesting to notice how undergrounds worked as night shelters at 2nd WW. Nowadays, New Your subway is also a shelter for "the mole people".
    Thanks teachers for your job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Manuel28 May 2013 at 15:56

      Thank you so much, Ana, for all your contributions to the blog.

      There are lots of interesting stories to be told about the underground in cities like London or New York. It has been the setting for many films, for example. It could be a topic for a future post.

      Delete
  4. María Arias 4ºB1 June 2013 at 00:54

    I remenber once I was reading a book whos story develops in London in the 19th century and suddenly a girl entered in the underground and I was freaking out, the underground seems to be something modern.

    ReplyDelete

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