The Metropolitan Line: Building and Operating the First Section in 1863

The Metropolitan line's early history began with the Metropolitan Railway's Paddington–Farringdon Street section, opened in 1863. The Paddington station was called Bishop's Road and stood near the Great Western Railway terminus. The route passed King's Cross toward the edge of the City of London. It added an underground path for travelers entering central London and a means of urban travel for residents along the line.

City of London solicitor Charles Pearson long advocated better rail access to the city. Parliament approved the Edgware Road–King's Cross section in 1853, after which extensions toward Paddington and the City were pursued. John Fowler served as engineer, the Great Western Railway invested, and the City subscribed £200,000 in shares. Early plans also envisaged transferring mailbags and freight, but the initial opening first established a passenger corridor.

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Fundraising, land acquisition, and negotiations over affected properties delayed the scheme; actual construction did not begin until March 1860. In his opening speech, Fowler thanked resident engineer Johnson and the contractors Smith & Knight and Jay. Site work included excavation, timber support, masonry, utility relocation, and road reinstatement, requiring railway construction and ordinary street traffic to be accommodated together.

The line chiefly used cut-and-cover construction: opening roads or ground, building sidewalls and an arch, then covering and restoring the surface. A typical early section had an elliptical arch six brick courses thick and a span of twenty-eight feet six inches. Iron girders were used where headroom was insufficient. Open cuttings and the Clerkenwell Tunnel also formed part of the works; the entire route did not pass underground by one uniform method.

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The ground already contained drains, gas and water pipes, and building foundations. Once trenches were opened, workers used timber beams and struts to support adjacent ground and houses and laid temporary roads to maintain surface traffic. Construction had to create space for trains while preventing pumped-out water from carrying away sand beneath foundations.

The Fleet River, already enclosed in a sewer, remained troublesome. During construction of the retaining wall west of Farringdon Street station, the old brick conduit broke, flooding the works and part of a tunnel with sewage. Engineers had to redesign the crossing relationship between watercourse and railway. Later additional tracks required further crossing structures in the same area.

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On January 9, 1863, guests traveled from Bishop's Road, inspected stations, and attended an opening banquet at Farringdon Street. Public passenger service began the following day. In a letter to William Gladstone that April, Fowler reported more than two million passenger journeys to date and a daily average of approximately 28,687. These were early operating statistics, not opening-day traffic or a full-year total.

Initially, Great Western supplied broad-gauge locomotives and carriages, while the track also accommodated standard gauge. Steam locomotives had condensers using cold water to recover some exhaust steam. After a dispute over terms, Great Western withdrew its rolling stock, and the Metropolitan arranged services using Great Northern locomotives. Early operations therefore depended on intercompany equipment supply and access arrangements.

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Alfred Rosling Bennett recalled riding in March 1863, seeing compressed-gas carriage lighting, and observing the driver and signals from the front of the train. He described a block-signaling system using equipment designed by Great Western telegraph engineer Spagnoletti. The railway brought short-distance urban passenger travel with frequent stops underground.

Lighting and ventilation also shaped the experience. Transport historian Richard Dennis notes that steam condensation was less effective than expected and that ventilation worsened as services increased. At the underground Baker Street and Gower Street stations, sloping light wells admitted daylight, reflected by glazed tiles and supplemented by gas lamps. Later complaints that passengers could not read station names show that opening did not end the need for improvements.

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A company report dated January 28, 1868, shows that additional tracks between King's Cross and Farringdon Street had been completed to coordinate other companies' trains more effectively with existing traffic. Fowler also reported progress on Smithfield goods facilities, connections from Baker Street to the St John's Wood Railway, and stations on the western extension.

St John's Wood trains were still expected to begin using the line that April. These documents show the Metropolitan rapidly developing into a system of staged extensions and intercompany cooperation. The year 1863 should therefore be understood as the opening of the original section, with later branches, connections, and circular-route construction following their own processes.

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