150th Anniversary of London Underground

On 9 January 1863, the world’s first underground train pulled out of Paddington station to make the first passenger journey - around three and a half miles to Farringdon, travelling underneath the streets of London.

Tubes began life in the late 1860s, with a short-lived subway under the Thames along which a single carriage with up to 12 passengers was cable-hauled by two stationary steam engines. That was followed in 1890 by the first electric tube line from the City to Stockwell and, four years later, by the Waterloo and City line. The Central line, which was originally called the Central London Railway and ran from Shepherd's Bush to Bank, was the third tube line, and proved an immediate success when it opened in the summer of 1900. "London, all agape, crowds to the twopenny tube," the Daily Mail reported in the week of its opening. It now costs £8.90 rather than tuppence for a go-anywhere ticket, but the crowds still congregate. Today, in its much-extended form, it remains central to London life, connecting the suburban north-west with the East End, bringing shoppers to Oxford Circus and tourists to Marble Arch, serving God at St Paul's and Mammon at Bank.

Women and children shelter from German bombers in Bethnal Green tube station in 1943. Photograph: Alamy

A restored original locomotive hauls a Victorian first-class carriage through Baker Street station in a test run for London Underground's 150-year anniversary celebrations

In a test run for London Underground's 150-year anniversary celebrations, a restored original locomotive hauled a Victorian first-class carriage from Earl's Court to Moorgate.