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Leading Streak Today

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Your Streak Today

Mind the gap!

The London Underground

The London Underground is the oldest and longest underground railway system of any capital.

The Tube has very much played a part in the development of the city in many ways. It heralded and necessitated many remarkable developments in engineering as well as carving a niche for itself in the world of design. Popular culture has featured it in countless and varied forms over its history and it has been the inspiration for many films, songs, poems and stories.

The statistics make compulsive reading with surprising information on length, depths and speed as well as unusual facts regarding everything from babies born on the trains to the very oddest lost property you could think of.

1 .

Which of these is correct?

The number of stations on the north versus the south bank of the Thames is roughly equal

There are no stations on the north side of the Thames

Three quarters of the stations are on the north side of the river

Only around 10% of the stations are on the south side of the Thames

There is even a strong north-south divide in London transport it seems!

2 .

The tunnels on the Central Line are noticeably crooked and curving. Why is this?

They follow the medieval street plan

They had to avoid tunnelling under Marble Arch and St Paul’s

The tunnelling machine had a technical fault

The engineering team that built them liked to take long, boozy lunches

They follow the medieval street plans as do many of today’s roads in London

3 .

How is Bumper Harris associated with the Underground?

He designed the Tube map

He was the first baby to be born on it

He was the first train driver on the Underground

He was a one-legged man who was paid to go up and down its first escalator to demonstrate how safe it was

The first escalator was installed at Earl’s Court in 1911

4 .

On 6th June 1915 Maida Vale station first opened. It was ...?

unsuccessful initially with only 15 journeys taken to or from it in the first 3 months

directly hit by a bomb within 24hrs and thus closed again for 4 years

entirely staffed by women

called Maiden Lane

With most of the country’s men away fighting in the war, women ran the show at Maida Vale

5 .

During World War II, the Underground’s deep-level stations were also used as what?

Dance halls

Mushroom sheds

Postal storerooms

Bomb shelters

It is estimated that around 180,000 people took shelter in the stations each night

6 .

Who was the first reigning monarch to travel on the Underground?

Queen Victoria

George VI

Queen Elizabeth II

Prince Charles

Elizabeth II was aboard the inaugural journey on the Victoria Line from Green Park

7 .

The London Underground celebrated a big anniversary of its inauguration in 2013. How many years were they celebrating?

100

150

250

The first journey took place on January 9th, 1863

8 .

The London Underground is also colloquially called the Tube. This comes from having been nicknamed the ‘Twopenny Tube”. Where did this term first originate?

The Daily Mail

London bus drivers who feared the Underground would threaten their livelihoods

Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister

The Cockneys of London

The network was thus dubbed by The Daily Mail just five days after the Tube opened

9 .

Which of these is correct?

The first Tube line was built and financed by a private company

The first Tube line was the Circle Line

The first Tube line went from Westminster to St Paul’s

The first Tube line was abandoned after 4 days

The Metropolitan Railway was the name of the company that built the first Tube line and it ran between Paddington (then called Bishop’s Road) and Farringdon Street

10 .

Which line is sometimes called ‘London’s Pride?’

The Metropolitan Line

The Victoria Line

The Bakerloo Line

The Northern Line

The Victoria Line was opened on the 7th of March in 1969

Author: Augusta Harris