Why London Underground is called The Tube

Tourists are sometimes confused when the London Underground is referred to as the Tube, but the nickname seems rather obvious when you read the history of the Underground and the technology involved in its construction. The nickname “Tube” comes from the almost circular tube-like tunnels through which the small profile trains run.

Here are 50 facts you probably didn’t know!

• An average of 2.7 million tube journeys are made on the tube each and every day.
• Around 19 000 people work at the London Underground.
• Even though smoking is banned, a 40-minute tube ride is said to be the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes anyway!
• There are 64 lifts in the Underground system.
• The deepest lift shaft is at Hampstead and 55.2m deep.
• The largest Tube car park is at Epping and has 599 parking spots.
• The oldest tube line in the world is the Metropolitan line, which opened on the 10th of January in 1863.
• It is estimated that around 100 tube suicides occur each year, the majority of these at Victoria and King’s Cross.
• Aldgate station is built on a massive plague pit, where more than 1000 bodies were buried in 1665.
• The nickname “tube” originally applied to the Central London Railway which was nicknamed the Twopenny Tube – because of the twopenny fare as well as its cylindrical tunnels.
• The “tube” part of the nickname eventually transferred to the entire London Underground system.
• The phrase MIND THE GAP originated on the Northern line in 1968.