And this is why we will never have true equality in Britain.

March 3, 2017 6:33 AM

How did the tube lines get their names? A history of London Underground in 12 lines

And so we reach the end of our journey, a line that’s named after the Queen. Or rather, another line that’s named after the bloody Queen, because apparently having one line named after an event in her life, and another after her great great grandmother, wasn’t good enough for her. So instead of Crossrail, the Elizabeth line it will be, even though she’s still alive, because naming transport infrastructure after people who are still breathing in and out is definitely not a creepy thing to do.

I can’t help but notice that this is the third time running this has happened. Victoria, not Viking; Jubilee, not Fleet; now Elizabeth, not Crossrail. Since the integration of the tube network under the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, the city authorities have succeeded in creating precisely no new major underground railways without naming them after the royal family.

posted by Grangousier (39 comments total)

I love this sort of stuff. Thanks.

Last month I was reading this article on The Beeb about how some of the stops got their amusing names such as Elephant & Castle, Cockfosters, and Shepherd's Bush.

The Londonist also has an article similar to the one linked in OP that was last updated last October, but I can't tell when it was originally published (I hate that!).
posted by terrapin at 7:01 AM on March 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Tangentially...as I learned the hard way week before last, the "Edgeware" and "Edgeware Road" stations on the Tube are VERY DIFFERENT stations.
posted by kjs3 at 7:09 AM on March 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

He can bitch all he wants about the Queen, but that purple outfit that she's wearing in the picture is fantastic--it's like something that Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation would wear.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:21 AM on March 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Thanks for this, I'm an American with much love for the Tube and it's history.

Mind the gap.
posted by Sphinx at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

the Elizabeth line it will be, even though she’s still alive
It opens in 2019: there's plenty of time...

This article is great though. I'm sorely disappointed we missed out on the Viking line.
posted by Gordafarin at 7:24 AM on March 3, 2017

I'm sorely disappointed we missed out on the Viking line.

It's just as well. Too many people would have fallen asleep on the trains.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:35 AM on March 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

They named it after some lady who was queen sixty years ago, what's the big deal?
posted by darksasami at 7:39 AM on March 3, 2017 [8 favorites]

another line that’s named after the bloody Queen

I'm confused. Which subway lines are named after Queen Mary? I know there's something about a ship.
posted by TedW at 7:41 AM on March 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's just as well. Too many people would have fallen asleep on the trains.

Oh boy! Sleep? That's where I'm a viking!
posted by Talez at 7:44 AM on March 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

"Edgeware" and "Edgeware Road"
Oddly, Edgware, without the e. I've always fantasised that "Edgeware" could be either a William Gibsonesque term for razor-sharp knives ("He was known as the purveyor of the finest edgeware - you could take a man's head clean off with a single stroke") or very advanced software.

As I'm sure you've discovered, Edgware is neither of these things.
posted by Grangousier at 7:45 AM on March 3, 2017 [9 favorites]

And when she's dead, you'll all be weeping in your beer and wishing she was still around, and naming everything in the country that isn't nailed down after Good Old Brenda.
posted by briank at 7:45 AM on March 3, 2017

Knowing what I know about Victorian Times, I'm most surprised that you guys didn't wind up with at least one Albert Line.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:05 AM on March 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

Tangentially...as I learned the hard way week before last, the "Edgeware" and "Edgeware Road" stations on the Tube are VERY DIFFERENT stations.

See also: Tottenham Court Road and Tottenham.
posted by atrazine at 8:09 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I always tell people it's called The Northern Line because it goes the furthest south.
I also like that thing when people are at Euston and want to go one stop to Kings Cross but can't work out why that's south on the Northern line and north on the Victoria Line.
posted by w0mbat at 8:11 AM on March 3, 2017 [11 favorites]

Knowing what I know about Victorian Times, I'm most surprised that you guys didn't wind up with at least one Albert Line.

Albert Line trains run on the Victoria Line.
posted by w0mbat at 8:13 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I hope they're getting a lot of Royal naming done so that the quota is overfilled and nothing ever has to be named after - god help us - Queen Camilla.
posted by Segundus at 8:19 AM on March 3, 2017

Albert Line trains run on the Victoria Line.

Do they run the whole length, or do they stop halfway?
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:25 AM on March 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Camilla will use the title Princess Consort, not Queen when Charles becomes King I believe.
posted by edd at 8:30 AM on March 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm confused. Which subway lines are named after Queen Mary?

For clarity, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines are named for the the current queen (good old QEII) and the Victoria line is named for her great great grandmother.

The Londonist article is probably quite old, as they have a new content strategy where they only post pretty pictures or "10 things you should do in Piccadilly!" as this has a longer shelf life and broader tourist appeal than actual news or comment on living in London. Former Londonist writers Jonn Elledge (author of TFA) and Rachel Holdsworth can now be found on CityMetric. Hooray for London urbanist nerdery!
posted by Concordia at 9:02 AM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Maybe we should look into just renaming all the others after various Monarchs?

Bakerloo line
Anne Line
Because it brings north and south together*

Central line
Edward Line
Because it unexpectedly goes quite far north (Not because it comes into Hainault)

Circle line
Charles Line
Because despite a whole bunch of no fun in the middle (Crommwell) you basically end up back where you started. (And also everyone has realised that circular lines are a bad idea, same as everyone realises they don't want another king charles)

District line
Sweyn Forkbeard Line
Because it splits at the end

Hammersmith & City line
Matilda Line
Because it is essentially anarchy

Jubilee line
Æthelred
Because it got an extension

Metropolitan line
The Alfred Line
Because it was the first one

Northern line
William
Because it is a bastard (at least during rush hour)

Piccadilly line
Harthacnut
Death due to Alcohol Consumption, much like the Piccadilly line on a Friday night

Victoria line
Fine

Waterloo & City line
Lady Jane Gray
Because it's the shortest one

Elizabeth Line
Fine

DLR
Diana
Because it's not really part of the same system but it pretends to be

London Overground
George
There's so much of it, they're all very similar and they don't really connect with each other properly
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:14 AM on March 3, 2017 [33 favorites]

I've read a lot of Tube history and the "Viking" bit was new to me. Even with that it still beats WMATA ("Orange," "Red," etc.).
posted by fedward at 9:57 AM on March 3, 2017

I'm confused. Which subway lines are named after Queen Mary? I know there's something about a ship.

There's a (possibly apocryphal) story there as well.

When Cunard was ready to name their latest and greatest steamer back in 1936, someone in marketing thought that in keeping with its -ia schtick (Lusitania, Mauritania, etc) they should honor the royal family and call it Victoria. Good manners had them approach King George and ask nicely if they might name the ship after Britain's greatest monarch.

"My wife will be delighted to have a ship named after her."

(Mind you, Cunard had already merged with White Star Line in 1934, so the whole naming convention might already have been binned. But until the story is debunked....)
posted by BWA at 10:28 AM on March 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Tangentially...as I learned the hard way week before last, the "Edgeware" and "Edgeware Road" stations on the Tube are VERY DIFFERENT stations.

Same thing with Finchley and Finchley Road.
posted by JenThePro at 11:26 AM on March 3, 2017

Basically, tube stations should not be allowed to have names which are proper prefixes of one another.
posted by qntm at 11:52 AM on March 3, 2017

As an American who has never even been to London, I believe that tube stations should be named after people, places and things from the works of Great Britain's greatest authors. Thus, we shall have stations named Dumbledore, The Corinthian, CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, and Nobby.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:22 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oddly, Edgware, without the e.

Missed that, too. Not the biggest slip-up that night. Fortunately, between "you have to get off, this is the last train of the night" (around 1am, FWIW) and strolling back in the front door of the Hilton Metropole, we met a number of kind, helpful and very amused locals and saw a lot more of the London burbs than intended.

Totally worth the memories.
posted by kjs3 at 1:04 PM on March 3, 2017

At this point, the Tube map is an indecipherable swirl of colours and weirdly pronounced words, so adding a new line and calling it after the Queen isn't really a problem. In fact, the tube is so hostile to outsiders that this might actually be regarded as a feature, rather than a bug, to the people in charge.
posted by The River Ivel at 1:10 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mind the gap.

This is our new catch-phrase. And depending on the station, they aren't kidding. Apparently the Tube has different oversight with regards to handicap access than US trains.
posted by kjs3 at 1:15 PM on March 3, 2017

Halloween Jack: And not forgetting of course a station named Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Mere Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 1:35 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Most cities' metro networks have boring names for their lines: colours or numbers or occasionally letters, simple labels that don’t tell you anything about them.

Uh, don't an awful lot of cities' metro networks identify their lines by their terminus stations? Montreal, Philly, San Francisco. I mean, they are assigned colors on the map and some people refer to the lines like that, but signage is primarily by name.
posted by desuetude at 1:59 PM on March 3, 2017

Does it really matter what they are called as long as it is unique to the network?
posted by Burn_IT at 3:51 PM on March 3, 2017

Mornington Crescent!
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:59 PM on March 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

“Does it really matter what they are called as long as it is unique to the network?”

Thus began lines bb2e2e2c-7490-4deb-8845-0bbd1bd70f87, 53f05c61-c39a-47d6-9435-b58f920a216b, and 57408d8a-3ead-4b95-84f5-45e1c6fd77bb.

(Context for those who need it.)
posted by traveler_ at 4:41 PM on March 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Boy, better not tell this guy about all the station names: Barons Court, Earl's Court, Kings Cross, Knightsbridge, Queen's Park, Regent's Park, Victoria.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:45 PM on March 3, 2017

At this point, the Tube map is an indecipherable swirl of colours and weirdly pronounced words, so adding a new line and calling it after the Queen isn't really a problem.

Ever looked at the Tokyo subway map? I suspect the layout works a bit better in Japanese because the station names are more compact, but it has a heck of a lot going on.

Tokyo also never quite unified their two metro systems, so it's possible to pay two fares in a single trip, albeit with a discount.
posted by hoyland at 5:29 AM on March 4, 2017

I believe that tube stations should be named after people, places and things from the works of Great Britain's greatest authors.

The main train station in Edinburgh is called Waverley, after the Walter Scott novel of the same name. And like many Victorian novels, it is difficult to navigate, fusty and constantly mucked about by modernists to no good effect.

As for the gaps one has to mind on the Underground; lots of central stations have curved platforms because the tunnels had to follow roads or other areas above ground where the railway company didn't have to get permission from landowners. Once you've built an underground station, it is hellishly difficult to get those wrinkles out of the system.

My personal regret is that the Jubilee Line wasn't called the Fleet, which is just the perfect name for multiple reasons - it marks the Fleet river, it has great connotations of swiftness, and it would mean the rolling stock could be called the Fleet fleet, which is a superb name for a children's book alien.
posted by Devonian at 7:52 AM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Most cities' metro networks have boring names for their lines: colours or numbers or occasionally letters, simple labels that don’t tell you anything about them.

The Lisbon one is just colours, but because they're Portuguese they still sound picturesque to me: Azul, Amarela, Verde, Vermelha. And they used to have proper names: Gaivota (Seagull), Girassol (Seagull), Caravela (Caravel), Oriente (Eastern).
posted by kersplunk at 11:26 AM on March 4, 2017

Most cities' metro networks have boring names for their lines: colours or numbers or occasionally letters, simple labels that don’t tell you anything about them.

Now I want to run a brand new transit system somewhere so I can name all the lines with meaningless non sequiturs. "Transfer from the D to the Blue, or you could take the 9 and either walk or take the Centennial one stop."
posted by fedward at 2:41 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Abbey Road DLR station is nowhere near *that* Abbey Road. You find this out when you arrive and a small sign informs you.
posted by Molesome at 5:39 AM on March 6, 2017 [1 favorite]