100 years old!
A brief history of the Piccadilly line
The Piccadilly line opened on
15 December 1906. It consisted
of 9.5 miles of tunnels from
Finsbury Park to Barons Court
and a short section of surface
track on to Hammersmith.
The Piccadilly line, with its 52 stations
covering 71km (44.3 miles) across London,
celebrates its centenary this year. It owes its
existence to American entrepreneur Charles
Tyson Yerkes, who formed the Underground
Electric Railways Company in 1902.
The Tube’s first escalator was
unveiled at Earl’s Court in 1911.
At the opening William ‘Bumper’
Harris, an Underground tunnelling
engineer who had lost a leg in
an accident, showed the guests
how safe and easy it was to use
the new ‘moving staircase’.
A spiral moving staircase was
installed at Holloway Road
station in the mid 1900s. It
was the work of Jesse Reno,
who patented his design in
1892. This feat of innovative
engineering wasn’t successfully
copied until 1980, when
Mitsubishi in Japan unveiled
a modern-day version.
The Piccadilly line was extended
to Heathrow Airport in 1977.
Trivia fact: complete the
loop from Hounslow East
to Heathrow and back, and
you’ll pass 10 stations all
beginning with the letter ‘H’.
Down Street station, between
Green Park and Hyde Park
Corner, was closed in 1932
and remains unused today.
During WW2 it sheltered
some VIP guests, including
Winston Churchill, his War
Cabinet and the Railway
Executive Committee which
co-ordinated the country’s
railways throughout the war.
Arsenal, formerly known as
Gillespie Road, is the only Tube
station named after a London
football club. It’s also one of
the only two stations to have a
namesake on the Paris Metro.
The Piccadilly line extensions to
South Harrow and Arnos Grove
were opened in 1932, and those
to Hounslow West, Uxbridge and
Cockfosters were completed in 1933.
Architect Charles Holden’s
Piccadilly line stations of the
early 1930s, with their geometric
simplicity and integrated detailing,
remain classics of their era. Today
many are listed buildings.
Actor William Terriss, who was
fatally stabbed in December 1897,
is said to haunt the tunnels of
Covent Garden station, clad in
frock coat, hat and gloves. His
haunt is a short one – it’s only
250 metres to Leicester Square.
SM
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Underman (14.12.06 20:51) Happy Birthday to the big P |
