There is, sadly, no trace of any of the stations that were built on the first Underground line, which initially ran between Farringdon and Paddington and was soon extended to Blackfriars via Kensington, Westminster and the Victoria embankment.
These stunning pictures here give us a flavor of what they were like, simple buildings that look rather like a country station. And that’s what, in essence, they were. Although today they are part of central London, at the time the first Underground lines were being built in the 1860s and 1870s, it connected a series of villages that were surrounded by fields and woods.
1. Construction site to the west of Waterloo Bridge, 1866-1870
2. Building the Metropolitan District Railway, 1867
3. Construction work on the site of Blackfriars Station
4. Paddington Station in 1868, the year it opened
5. Bayswater Station, just after completion
6. Gloucester Road Station under construction, 1866
7. Notting Hill Gate Station
8. District Line construction outside Somerset House, 1869
9. Metropolitan District Railway construction, 1866
10. High Street Kensington, 1868
11. Notting Hill Gate, 1866
12. Construction work near South Kensington Station
13. Bayswater Station upon completion, 1866
14. Gloucester Road Station, 1868
15. High Street Kensington’s roof taking shape
