Portal:London Transport/Did you know

Did you know...

...that Acton is the only place in London to have stations named after all four of the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west?
...that the Underground's architect Charles Holden and LPTB Managing Director Frank Pick were both sons of drapers?
...that Blackfriars Underground station (opened 1870) pre-dates the main line station by sixteen years?
...that the Westway, the West Cross Route and the East Cross Route are the only parts of the GLC's 1960s plan for the London Motorway Box to be built?
...that Arsenal is the only Underground station to be named after a London football club (it was previously known as Gillespie Road)? Watford and West Ham are both named after the areas they serve.
...that the "Mind the gap" announcement is played when trains stop at stations with curved platforms to warn passengers of gaps between the platform edge and the doors?
...that six tube stations are named after pubs: Angel, Elephant & Castle, Manor House, Maida Vale , Royal Oak and Swiss Cottage?
...that London Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of international passenger traffic?
...that London Bridge was the only bridge over the Thames in London until Westminster Bridge was opened in 1750?
...that the ticket hall at Bank station is partly built in the crypt of Nicholas Hawksmoor's church, St Mary Woolnoth?
...that there has been five stations named Shepherd's Bush, three called Wood Lane and two titled White City?
...that the Greenwich foot tunnel is classed as a public highway, and is therefore kept open by law 24 hours a day?
...that construction of North End station between Hampstead and Golders Green on the Northern line was abandoned before the station was finished when it was decided it would not have enough passengers?
...that 900 London buses were commandeered for use as troop transports on the Western Front during World War I?
...that the cause of the Moorgate tube crash in February 1975 was never satisfactorily determined?
...that the original carriages on the City and South London Railway were nicknamed "padded cells" due to their high backed cushioned seats and very small windows?
...that the first version of the Underground roundel was introduced in 1908, as a solid red disk and blue bar?
...that Sir Jacob Epstein's statute Day on the Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway caused controversy when it was unveiled due to the length of the penis on one of the figures? Epstein later reduced the length.
...that sculptor Henry Moore's first public commission in 1928-29 was a relief sculpture West Wind for the Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway?
...that the first railway terminus in London was Spa Road station in Bermondsey, opened by the London and Greenwich Railway on 8 February 1836?
...that the horse-drawn freight only Surrey Iron Railway between Wandsworth and Croydon was the first railway in London when it opened in 1803?
...that the controversial demolition of the original Euston station and the destruction of the iconic Euston Arch in the early 1960s was opposed by many including John Betjeman and Nikolaus Pevsner and led to the formation of the modern conservation movement in the Britain?
...that Limehouse Cut which links the River Lee Navigation and Limehouse Basin in east London is the capital's oldest canal, opened in 1766?
...that the River Thames froze 24 times between 1400 and 1814 and that Frost Fairs were often held on the ice?
...that three new Thames bridges, Chiswick, Twickenham and Hampton Court, were opened on 3 July 1933 by Edward, Prince of Wales?
...that the longest distance between two adjacent stations on the London Underground is 6.26 km (3.89 miles), between Chalfont & Latimer and Chesham on the Metropolitan line?
...that the shortest distance between two stations on the London Underground is 250 metres (0.16 miles), between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line?
...that an estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system, and can often be seen running around the tracks?
...that two people have had their coffins transported on the Underground: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo?
...that Verney Junction, the Metropolitan Railway's former northern terminus in Buckinghamshire, is closer to Coventry than it is to central London?
...that the District Railway formerly ran services to Shoeburyness in Essex and Windsor in Berkshire?
...that the Kingsway tramway subway, the only underground tram route in the United Kingdom, operated under Kingsway from 1906 to 1952 with two underground tram stations at Holborn and Aldwych? Part of the route is still in use as the Strand Underpass.
...that John Pierpont Morgan planned an underground railway network in London to rival that of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), but his plan was sabotaged when UERL financier Edgar Speyer bought the London United Tramways, Morgan's partner in the plan?
...that a stuffed puffer fish, a samurai sword, human skulls, breast implants and a lawnmower are amongst items handed into TfL's lost property office during its 75-year existence?
...that at 44 tons, the locomotives of the Central London Railway's first underground trains were so heavy that they shook buildings as they passed 60 feet below and were scrapped after three years?
...that Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney proposed the construction of an underground monorail line from Cricklewood to The Oval?
...that Underground Electric Railways Company of London chairman Sir Edgar Speyer was accused of being a German spy during World War I?
...that trains on the Waterloo & City line never see the light of day?
...that the Jubilee line was originally to be called the Fleet line because it was originally to run under Fleet Street?
...that their specially designed small turning circle enables London's black cabs to make 50 million U-turns per year?
...that at Whitechapel the London Overground line runs below the London Underground line?
...that the 60 m (197 ft) long escalators at Angel Underground station are the longest on the system?
...that the longest continuous tunnel on the London Underground is 27.8 km (17.25 miles) long, between Morden and East Finchley stations?
...that only 45 per cent of the London Underground is actually underground?
...that at Euston Underground station, a passenger changing between the Victoria line and Northern line Bank branch will find that trains on adjacent platforms travel in opposite directions even though both are either northbound or southbound?
...that London Underground stations Paddington and Paddington are about 400 m apart on foot, but over 20 kilometres apart by train?
...that Tramlink routes first appeared on the standard Tube map in 2016?
... that the Queen and Prince Charles each travelled on London Underground trains from Green Park tube station when they carried out the official openings of the Victoria and Jubilee lines?
... that the Royal Commission on London Traffic proposed constructing 9 miles (14 km) of avenues with railways underneath at the cost of £30 million in 1905?
... that the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Railway Termini of 1846 was responsible for central London being mostly free of mainline railways and led, indirectly, to the creation of the London Underground?
... that Croydon once had a Central station in addition to East, West and South stations?
... that an atmospheric railway once ran between Forest Hill and West Croydon?

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