0:00:02 > 0:00:04Five, four, three, two, one!
0:00:04 > 0:00:06CHEERING
0:00:08 > 0:00:11- Happy New Year!- Happy New Year!
0:00:13 > 0:00:16It is all fun on the underground as well.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19It is the beginning of 2013.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22London Underground is 150 years old this year.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26What about happy new year? Come on!
0:00:26 > 0:00:28LAUGHTER
0:00:31 > 0:00:34The city would be unthinkable without it.
0:00:34 > 0:00:40London is the greatest place on the Earth. It is the place to be.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42The Bible talks about heaven, this is heaven.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Come through, my bredren.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50The Tube will be spending its anniversary year
0:00:50 > 0:00:52celebrating its own history.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55It is our 150th birthday,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58we were the first subterranean railway in the world.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03They are sending a steam train back underground...
0:01:05 > 0:01:08..and inviting royalty to inspect the latest upgrade work.
0:01:08 > 0:01:13150 years I've worked at Farringdon and I have never met a Royal.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18On the Tube, history is everywhere.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Down every tunnel.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22Makes you realise how much we owe to these people, I think.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27In every sign and design.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31And in the lives of the unsung people who built it
0:01:31 > 0:01:36- and run it today. - Worst shift in my bloody life.
0:01:36 > 0:01:42There are little-known stories of ambition, innovation and troubles.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47The money in the ticket machines had actually melted into one block.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49That is how hot it was.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52With access to all areas of the network,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55this is the Tube's hidden history...
0:01:55 > 0:02:01First-time users would come through here and just think, "Wow, this is it. We are underground."
0:02:01 > 0:02:04..revealing why the Tube was first built
0:02:04 > 0:02:07and how it's shaped London ever since.
0:02:07 > 0:02:12This man is more responsible than many people for modern London.
0:02:37 > 0:02:38150 years ago,
0:02:38 > 0:02:42the very first underground train arrived at this station.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Farringdon, the original terminus.
0:02:53 > 0:02:565am, and like his colleagues, every morning for 150 years,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00station supervisor Iain McPherson is opening up.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Let's open the show!
0:03:05 > 0:03:08You are kidding me!
0:03:12 > 0:03:20Right. OK then. OK, mate. Right.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Looks like I am going to have to do points.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29There is a track failure and it looks like I will have to go on the track.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32The signals, our points, are failing.
0:03:32 > 0:03:33It is probably because of the rain.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Oh, God, I can't believe it.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Today! Of all days.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Rain has been causing problems at Farringdon
0:03:46 > 0:03:47since the Underground began.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52Today, Iain suspects it has caused the electrical points to fail.
0:03:54 > 0:04:00Just, aye, hold it there. All of the signals are at red now.
0:04:01 > 0:04:07Nothing can move. The track is live. It is only 630 volts.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13Iain needs to go on the track to secure the points.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18But at 630 volts DC, putting a foot wrong could be fatal.
0:04:30 > 0:04:37Jesus Christ! This is the worst shift I have ever had to experience
0:04:37 > 0:04:39in my bloody life!
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Farringdon is prone to flooding.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48The track is built along the bed of a river.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51We are on the bed of the River Fleet in effect.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56It is now, in the 21st-century, it is down in sewers below but
0:04:56 > 0:04:59when there is heavy rain it floods.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03And hence, even today, constant signal failures
0:05:03 > 0:05:05because of all the water egress.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09The Victorians always, if there was a cheap answer,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12they usually went for it. It has got to be said.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18In the 1850s, London was facing a now familiar problem.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23'The problem which no big town in the world has been able to
0:05:23 > 0:05:26'beat is one of too much surface traffic.
0:05:26 > 0:05:27'Snarl-ups and the delays
0:05:27 > 0:05:30'they cause are unpleasant facts of modern city life.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35'Traffic hold-ups make running to time all too much a matter of chance,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38'causing bunching, slow running and a lot of passenger irritation.'
0:05:47 > 0:05:53In 1800, London was 1 million people. By 1850 London was 2.5 million.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59That's a 150 percent increase in population, it just exploded.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01And there was no room to move.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06The Industrial Revolution had created new factories,
0:06:06 > 0:06:10and sucked in workers from the countryside.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12The financial centre was flourishing,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15and London had become the largest city in the world.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20You had a total of around 300,000 people altogether coming into the city
0:06:20 > 0:06:25every day on buses, carts, and walking.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32During the boom years of the railways, a law was passed
0:06:32 > 0:06:35stopping stations from being built in the centre of London.
0:06:37 > 0:06:41Rail companies had been forced to build their main stations like
0:06:41 > 0:06:44Paddington, Euston and King's Cross along the edge of the central area.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53With no other way to reach the square mile from the stations,
0:06:53 > 0:07:00the streets were full. London was choking on its own success.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Looking on at the influx of labourers into London was
0:07:15 > 0:07:20the great, great, great-grandfather of this woman, Caroline Hutton.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Looking at London, it must have changed completely,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27because there were more machines there was less
0:07:27 > 0:07:28need for people in the country,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31and because there was less need for people in the country they were
0:07:31 > 0:07:34coming up to London, they were coming up to London to make more machines.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36It is a vicious circle, isn't it? It goes on and on.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Charles Pearson was a wealthy lawyer who had risen up through
0:07:39 > 0:07:40the city's ranks.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45By 1839 he had become the solicitor for the City of London.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Pearson was concerned about the problem of transport
0:07:48 > 0:07:50for London's new labourers.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55With no way to commute in or out of the city
0:07:55 > 0:08:00they were being crammed, 30 or 40 per house, into slum dwellings.
0:08:02 > 0:08:08He spoke about how recent arrivals pined for the countryside.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12"The passion for a country residence is increasing to an extent that
0:08:12 > 0:08:16"it would be impossible to persons who do not mix much with the poor to know.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21"You cannot find a place where they do not get a broken teapot
0:08:21 > 0:08:26"in which to stuff, as soon as spring comes, some flower or something to give them
0:08:26 > 0:08:28"an idea of green fields and the country."
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Oh! Verbose!
0:08:33 > 0:08:37It suggests that he has great sympathy with people,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40with the poor who like the country.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43And perhaps are even thinking about their fathers who came
0:08:43 > 0:08:49up from the country, who knows? Who were labourers in fields
0:08:49 > 0:08:52and actually had flowers and things around them.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55In 1845, Pearson had a brainwave.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01His idea was to run trains in drains under the streets of London,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05connecting the stations ringed around the city and providing
0:09:05 > 0:09:08a way for workers to travel from better houses further away.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Pearson spent eight years lobbying city authorities for permission
0:09:15 > 0:09:19to build the railway on the grounds of social reform, with no success.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24In 1853, he changed tack, making the case that business would
0:09:24 > 0:09:27leave London if transport didn't improve.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31Finally, the House of Commons approved a bill,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33allowing Pearson's railway to go ahead.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37Do you feel like people are generally aware of the existence of Charles Pearson?
0:09:39 > 0:09:41No, not really.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46He is not a name that sticks out, not like Brunel or someone like that.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48So it is a shame. It is a shame.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Pearson persuaded a ragbag of investors to back the risky venture.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59A private company called the Metropolitan Railway was formed.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01Work would begin on the next phase, construction.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07But building the railway brought its own problems.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13In the 1850s, the area around Farringdon was one of the poorest in the country.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21Not a salubrious place to be in at all.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25So by the time of the 1840s and 1850s,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27it was not a pleasant place to be.
0:10:27 > 0:10:34They say Fagan's Den in Oliver Twist was actually based,
0:10:34 > 0:10:38well, they reckon Turnmill Street or Cowcross Street.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41If you wanted to be murdered in London
0:10:41 > 0:10:47you came to the Clerkenwell area in the 18th and 19th century.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52The first underground lines were built just under the surface,
0:10:52 > 0:10:54using a technique called cut and cover.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59They dug a trench, placed the railway inside, and put a roof on top.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07It was impossible to do it without causing considerable disturbance on the surface.
0:11:09 > 0:11:14A terminus at Farringdon, still half a mile from the city, was chosen.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19Let's get it as far into the city at the lowest possible cost
0:11:19 > 0:11:23and the furthest end it could get, Farringdon.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Any further would have started to cost big bucks.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32With little by way of compensation, over 12,000 people were moved out
0:11:32 > 0:11:36of their homes to construct the line between King's Cross and Farringdon.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39The middle classes saw it as good
0:11:39 > 0:11:44because it was cleaning out slums, it was getting rid of scum.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46And cleaning up the city.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50It was seen as socially improving because you are environmentally
0:11:50 > 0:11:56improving the area by demolishing all of these dens of iniquity.
0:11:56 > 0:12:02The gin dens, the brothels. And all the rest of it. So overall,
0:12:02 > 0:12:07society, London in particular, definitely benefited.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11But there were always casualties and, as usual,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15it was usually the poor.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18And it usually is the poor that suffer. That's life.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Progress marched on for the railway,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28and a line was constructed from Paddington, east to Farringdon.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33The company then turned its attention to the actual
0:12:33 > 0:12:35trains that might run on it.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Various outlandish schemes had been suggested.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43A smokeless way, running on atmospheric power.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Trains pulled by hydraulics and cables.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Instead, they chose a cheaper option.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52Steam.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Special locomotives were designed, with condensing boilers meant
0:13:00 > 0:13:03to trap the steam rather than release it into the tunnels.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12Today, steam is returning to the Underground.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15They will be running a steam train packed with
0:13:15 > 0:13:18VIPs around the oldest stretch of the circle.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25We have an older carriage which is a Jubilee carriage
0:13:25 > 0:13:28for Queen Victoria's Jubilee, no less.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30It was a chicken shed
0:13:30 > 0:13:35about 20 or 30 years ago and now is a beautiful first-class carriage.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38It is our 150th birthday,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42we were the first subterranean railway in the world.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Chief operating officer Howard Collins wants to celebrate the Underground's past,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49without making the Tube look like it is stuck there.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55I have this reoccurring, almost nightmare, that an American tourist
0:13:55 > 0:13:59would saunter onto the Tube and think, "Gee, haven't improved much in the UK!
0:13:59 > 0:14:01"They still have steam down there."
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Think about it, 1863, there was a civil war in America still going on.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Queen Victoria hadn't been around that long on the throne.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17In a West London train depot, an original Metropolitan Railway locomotive
0:14:17 > 0:14:19is being coaxed back to life.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30Heritage operations manager Andy Barr is in charge of getting
0:14:30 > 0:14:32her back to the track she left over 100 years ago.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36So much of this technology has not changed.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39The essentials are still the same.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44Some source of combustion, heats up some sort of source,
0:14:44 > 0:14:48usually water, always water, and that makes the thing go forward.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51They are very, very, very simple machines.
0:14:54 > 0:14:55Exactly 150 years ago,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58the Metropolitan Railway was ready for its grand opening.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07They invited 79-year-old Prime Minister Lord Palmerston
0:15:07 > 0:15:11but he declined, saying he hoped to remain above ground a little longer.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Undeterred, the company held a gala banquet at Farringdon station
0:15:15 > 0:15:19for the investors and all the politicians they could muster.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23Morning, Leon. How are you? That is a lovely tie.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25Hi, Nick.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29In 150 years, not much has changed.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Stephen, morning, an historic day.
0:15:33 > 0:15:39Good morning. If it all goes wrong, you just sack me, sack me!
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Except today, the investors and politicians are one and the same.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46There's more Lords in one compartment than in the House of Lords.
0:15:47 > 0:15:48Thank you. That's great.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53On 9th January 1863,
0:15:53 > 0:15:57the first ever Underground train pulled away from Paddington station.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21It was so popular on its first day
0:16:21 > 0:16:24that Farringdon had to close due to overcrowding.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Howard is leading from the front today.
0:16:39 > 0:16:45Money can't buy this. This is the best position to be in.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49I suppose it's one of the perks of being the boss of the Underground.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52I'm sure these chaps won't mind if I blow the whistle.
0:16:52 > 0:16:53WHISTLE TOOTS
0:16:55 > 0:16:56How was that?
0:16:56 > 0:16:58That was great!
0:17:13 > 0:17:14Oh, look.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25Look at the smoke!
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Imagine it used to be like that all the time.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Imagine that back and forward every few minutes, 100 odd years ago.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09In its first year, the railway was so in demand that services were
0:18:09 > 0:18:11increased to a train every ten minutes.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16But with more trains, passengers began to
0:18:16 > 0:18:19complain about the sulphurous atmosphere underground.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25The company reacted by running a vigorous PR campaign,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28promoting the health benefits of steam and smoke.
0:18:36 > 0:18:37Passengers piled on
0:18:37 > 0:18:41and the Metropolitan paid a healthy dividend to the shareholders.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46# Take that night train to Memphis Take that night train to Memphis
0:18:46 > 0:18:49# When you arrive at the station... #
0:18:49 > 0:18:53In the next few years, driven by steam and profit,
0:18:53 > 0:18:54other companies joined in.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59The District Railway opened in 1868
0:18:59 > 0:19:02and a reluctant joint-venture between rival companies
0:19:02 > 0:19:06drew a circle around the centre of London by 1884.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11So far, all the Underground lines were shallow,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13running only metres below ground.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19In 1890, all that would change
0:19:19 > 0:19:22thanks to a revolutionary piece of equipment.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31It's still here, abandoned in disused tunnels underneath Moorgate.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Paul Cowell is station supervisor.
0:19:44 > 0:19:45The echoes of history.
0:19:45 > 0:19:46HE LAUGHS
0:19:58 > 0:20:02This big shield here, that's what they used to build it with.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04I think it's called the Great Head Shield.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Look, it says it on there - Great Head Shield.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Great Head, Great Head Shield. They just left it all there.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18The Great Head Shield was the tunnelling machine
0:20:18 > 0:20:20pioneered by the Brunel family,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23that made it possible to dig through the clay deep under London.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Labourers would crouch in the compartments
0:20:28 > 0:20:30and dig out the clay with shovels.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38I think what they did, they worked in front of it, digging it out,
0:20:38 > 0:20:39then the holes that they dug,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42this was pushed while they are digging it out,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46and then all the spoil was taken out and then they just go through
0:20:46 > 0:20:50the whole process again and start digging a little bit at a time.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55The shield gradually pushed forward while the labourers dug
0:20:55 > 0:20:57and protected the earth around it from collapse.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01It's very, very similar to what they do today.
0:21:01 > 0:21:07It's just that men aren't used to do it, it's a bloke sitting behind it, pushing a button and off it goes.
0:21:07 > 0:21:08BANGING
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Oh, that's the pumps. I should have warned you about the pumps!
0:21:14 > 0:21:19In 1890, the City and South London Railway pioneered the machine,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22digging the first railway tunnel under the River Thames,
0:21:22 > 0:21:23from Stockwell to the City.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Your body must have ached like hell at the end of the day,
0:21:32 > 0:21:37once you've done probably a 12-hour day of digging in wet soil.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43Makes you realise how much we owe to these people, I think.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44It does cross my mind, though.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48Would they be proud of us, like we are proud of them? I wonder.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53You would like to think they would, but who knows?
0:21:55 > 0:21:59There are now dozens of disused stations and tunnels under London,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01abandoned as demand has changed.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11You've still got some old wartime posters.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14There's not much left of them now, but there's still a few there.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42The deep Tube line was a great success.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45With little regulation, there was a frenzy of investment
0:22:45 > 0:22:48with more companies opening new lines,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51like the Waterloo & City Railway in 1898
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and the Central London Railway in 1900.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00But one other innovation drove this extraordinary expansion.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Every new deep level line had trains running not on steam,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18but on electricity...
0:23:21 > 0:23:26..like the one driven by modern-day Piccadilly line driver, Dylan Glenister.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36That must have been quite an experience -
0:23:36 > 0:23:40rather than seeing Maxim arc lamps outside,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43to see electric lamps and electric bulbs,
0:23:43 > 0:23:48to get into a railway carriage and have electric lighting in it.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50For the kids, it must have been a real treat.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53MUSIC: "Malambo No 1" by Yma Sumac
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Probably better than their front room, do you know what I mean?
0:24:06 > 0:24:10They probably thought, "This is great, why can't our house be like this?"
0:24:10 > 0:24:13I love all that. It's like everything was in its infancy.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Dylan's particular passion is the array of unique tiling patterns
0:24:25 > 0:24:27found in the early Underground stations.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32At home he has a collection of over 800 discarded tiles.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36In the early days - 1905, 1906 - a lot of Londoners...
0:24:36 > 0:24:40Not all of them, but most of them couldn't read or write.
0:24:40 > 0:24:41They had quite a poor education.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46The only way, apparently, that they could identify which station they were at
0:24:46 > 0:24:50was by recognising the colours or the patterns on the platform.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53If they were travelling to Covent Garden, they'd think,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57"I need to get off at the station with the orange bands over the top."
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Or, "I'm getting off at Gloucester Road, that is the one with the green and white patterns."
0:25:03 > 0:25:06But it's a great little legacy, to still see that.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11It makes perfect sense. What more simpler method could you use?
0:25:11 > 0:25:13"What station are you from?"
0:25:13 > 0:25:16"The one with the orange bits going over the top." It's great.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19- You can imagine it? - Yeah. "Coming out for a beer, Alf?"
0:25:19 > 0:25:22"Yeah, I'll meet you at that station with the green things over the roof."
0:25:22 > 0:25:24"Yeah, all right."
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Thrusting competition between the private companies
0:25:35 > 0:25:38created a labyrinth of tunnels underneath London.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44The problem for the passengers was that the companies didn't work together.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47You had to buy a separate ticket for each line.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50At some stations like Holborn,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54you couldn't change lines without coming up to the surface.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58'Of course, I remember what transport in London used to be like.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02'No proper system, cut-throat competition between rivals,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04'stealing each other's customers.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07'That's how it was when I was a schoolboy.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10'In 1933, somebody did something about it
0:26:10 > 0:26:13'and formed London Transport as we know it now.'
0:26:16 > 0:26:23In 1933, intense public demand to make the system simpler led Parliament to create a new body,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27bringing all the different private companies together - London Transport.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33It was a public corporation but commercially funded.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37'The chairman, Lord Ashfield, with his deputy, Frank Pick,
0:26:37 > 0:26:40'felt that now the whole system, all 2,000 square miles of it,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44'was all of a piece, it ought to look all of a piece.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46'All the parts should have the same sort of style.'
0:26:48 > 0:26:52For the Underground, it was to be a new era of commercial ambition
0:26:52 > 0:26:54led by visionary design.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09TANNOY: The next station is St James's Park.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Under the new regime,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15crucial jobs would be given to people like this man.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Mike Ashworth is the Tube's head of design and heritage.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21He is responsible for the look and feel of the whole system.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26For him, the past is part of the present.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29I love this. My home station, I do love this.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34This was originally one of the WHSmith newsagent stores.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38This is where you bought your paper and your magazines and your cigarettes.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41This is actually one of the last ones that survived.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Some of them, you can still see the lettering on the board.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Mike is on the job from the moment he sets off for work.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54The silly things that annoy me -
0:27:54 > 0:27:58this is one of the most useful things we've ever put on our stations,
0:27:58 > 0:28:02and unfortunately, when we come to fit them, we managed to leave...
0:28:02 > 0:28:06One of the things I hate most, is galvanised junction boxes.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11I don't want to sound as if I'm the conscience of the Underground.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Put that on my gravestone, you know?
0:28:13 > 0:28:16"This man cared so much for London Underground,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20"he conked out in a fit one day over a piece of galvanised cable."
0:28:20 > 0:28:25But we are a civic monument to London, we are an international brand
0:28:25 > 0:28:29and I want our stations to be still looking good in 40, 50, 60 years' time.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36The secrets of the Underground in the 1930s are revealed by Mike's office,
0:28:36 > 0:28:39the Tube's Westminster headquarters at 55 Broadway.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45'This is our address, the headquarters of London Transport.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49'It is from here that a goodly proportion of our day is organised.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52'Shunting us to and fro over the torturous expanse
0:28:52 > 0:28:56'of brick and stone which is London - the largest city in the world.'
0:28:58 > 0:29:04Built in 1929, at the time 55 Broadway was the tallest office block in London.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08The corridor here on the seventh floor,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11which is one of the plushest corridors,
0:29:11 > 0:29:14this used to be the corridor of power.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Originally, these were senior officers' rooms.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23In fact, tucked away behind the copier and mail room
0:29:23 > 0:29:26there is still the executive officer's bathroom.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28There is still actually a bath in this building.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33It was one man's ambition that drove the construction of 55 Broadway -
0:29:33 > 0:29:37managing director and later chief executive, Frank Pick.
0:29:37 > 0:29:42Pick is, in many respects, an incredibly complex character.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47There is still an awful lot we don't know and probably never will know about Frank Pick.
0:29:47 > 0:29:48Pick was a shy man.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55This rare footage is one of the only moments he was ever caught on camera.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57He's on the right, leaning on his umbrella.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03So, yes, always wrote in green ink.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08Occasionally, I sometimes buy a green cartridge for my fountain pen
0:30:08 > 0:30:13and sign documents thinking that I'm Frank Pick.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15He was very, very tenacious.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18He famously once was on a journey on the Metropolitan line
0:30:18 > 0:30:21and saw some men leaning against shovels on the trackside.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24When he got off the train, the story goes that he actually wrote
0:30:24 > 0:30:28a memo to the line manager to ask why they were leaning on the shovels.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34Pick had been rising through the ranks since he started as an assistant in 1906.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39He had pioneered early design, including a font
0:30:39 > 0:30:42specially commissioned from calligrapher, Edward Johnston.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46With the characteristic diamond over the I
0:30:46 > 0:30:49and a perfect circle as the O, it's been in use ever since.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Suddenly in charge of the largest transport group in the world,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57Pick went all-out on design.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04'More ephemeral than most art forms, the poster can afford to be
0:31:04 > 0:31:07'up-to-the-minute, stylish, sometimes even flippant.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12'In a series of posters illustrating the diverse opportunities
0:31:12 > 0:31:15'that the capital and its countryside offer the people
0:31:15 > 0:31:18'seeking rewarding use of their leisure, modern artists have made
0:31:18 > 0:31:22'the Underground stations a constantly changing picture gallery.'
0:31:22 > 0:31:28This is the man who really introduced the whole idea of typeface and brand.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32This man really is more responsible than many people for modern London.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37Innovative posters like this one drew new passengers into the Underground.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42You think you're lost in London and you see the Underground symbol,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45you know that you're safe, so to speak.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48From there, you know you can get to where you really need to get to.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50This wasn't just some pleasant pastime,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54this wasn't just somebody with a bit of artistic know-how
0:31:54 > 0:31:58indulging himself and going, "I think we should have some lovely posters."
0:31:58 > 0:32:01This is, at the end of the day, absolutely considered.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05This was about making money for the shareholders of the company,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07it was about making the company more effective,
0:32:07 > 0:32:10and it was about making the brand recognisable.
0:32:10 > 0:32:11They certainly got it right,
0:32:11 > 0:32:16for the simple reason that we haven't changed that symbol since 1920.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18We've occasionally played with it,
0:32:18 > 0:32:21but that symbol still means the Underground.
0:32:28 > 0:32:33The circle and crossbar design has been the logo for the Underground since 1908.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36'By its easily recognised visual characteristics,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38'London Transport signposts the traveller
0:32:38 > 0:32:41'and speeds him through this giant sprawl -
0:32:41 > 0:32:44'the circle and crossbar on every bus stop and station.'
0:32:44 > 0:32:47London transport is taking credit for it here.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50In reality, nobody knows its origin,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53although there are rumours it was stolen from the Paris Metro.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02It was all part of a plan to aggressively increase the number of passengers.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Deep level tunnelling was expensive and had to be paid for.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10In 1935, Pick had a big idea to boost income.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27He would build cheap overground extensions to the deep level lines,
0:33:27 > 0:33:30drawing people in from further and further away.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40In the north London suburb of Highgate,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44there's a disused 1930s station once intended to form part of Pick's plan.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54Dylan is here, on the lookout for an historic item to add to his collection.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58Found an old milk bottle.
0:33:58 > 0:34:04"This bottle costs 4d, please rinse and return. Contents, one pint."
0:34:04 > 0:34:07Isn't that amazing? 4d. It's got to be pre-1971.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12What a lovely little thing to find.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17I wonder if it was the last pint of milk they drunk in the old stationmaster's office.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24"There you go, Bert, that's the last cup of tea, mate, and this station will be finished."
0:34:26 > 0:34:28Yeah. Incredible.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30Everything tells a story.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Built in 1939, this station was to be the beginning of a new branch
0:34:35 > 0:34:39of the Northern line, extending into the countryside outside London.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44The Second World War interrupted construction
0:34:44 > 0:34:47and the platforms here never saw a Tube train.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56It would have been interesting, just to see
0:34:56 > 0:34:59if they did put posters up, what they would have had there.
0:34:59 > 0:35:00What do you think?
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Actually, I suppose, being a fairly new station,
0:35:03 > 0:35:05it might have had stuff like, you know,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08"Buy a new house in Highgate and escape to the country air.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12"New houses from £600. £40 deposit and pay by instalments"
0:35:12 > 0:35:14or something mad like that.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19I know a lot of the garden suburbs came about
0:35:19 > 0:35:22as the Underground extending out into the countryside.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24With the construction of stations
0:35:24 > 0:35:30like Morden, Edgware and Bounds Green, a major change was occurring.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33And the Underground system, over which it presided,
0:35:33 > 0:35:35had grown since 1914 to look like this.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Instead of meeting demand for transport,
0:35:38 > 0:35:40the Tube was now creating it.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44Actively selling the suburban dream to an aspiring middle class.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47New stations to the east, new stations to the west.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52I wouldn't be surprised if estate agents at the time thought,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54"Oh, we've got a bit of advertising space there.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58"Let's advertise the fact we can sell-off this lovely selection
0:35:58 > 0:36:02"of houses, starting from £400, you know, or a detached house for £600."
0:36:02 > 0:36:06You know, all these new families coming out and thinking,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10"Oh, this is great. We're out of London now. We've got our own house.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13"We can afford to buy a car," and all that sort of stuff.
0:36:13 > 0:36:14It must have been amazing.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23I know, I can just imagine,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25I'd like to think there was a poster from, I don't know,
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Willard & Co estate agents. You know, just little houses.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Escape to the countryside. You know, that dream.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38Yeah, we'll have some of that, you know. No mobile phones then.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41It would have been writing the number on the back of a ticket stub.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45Highgate 65992, or something. Lovely! Off you go.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Nearly 10 million people, all wanting to go somewhere.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Travelling to work, travelling for pleasure.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Moving in and out and through London.
0:36:59 > 0:37:0110 million Londoners alone
0:37:01 > 0:37:05and visitors on top of that, all needing transport.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09The Tube was creating new suburbs - extending the borders of London.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22Transport lives by people.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26By those who travel on it, by those who run it.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Innumerable passengers, thousands of vehicles...
0:37:31 > 0:37:34But the new suburban stations created their own problems
0:37:34 > 0:37:36for the Tube.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39The system had grown up as a tangle of different lines.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45This is how the Underground map looked in 1932.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51That was the year one man would change the way
0:37:51 > 0:37:53we understand the Tube.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57Harry Beck, the designer of its now famous map.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01Ken Garland is a graphic designer and was Beck's friend.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Beck left Ken his original drawings of the map.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12This is the first edition.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16It's the first poster version
0:38:16 > 0:38:19of Beck's diagram.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23It is, to me, amazingly elegant.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28It's a strange thing to say about a diagram
0:38:28 > 0:38:31and very few diagrams could be called elegant
0:38:31 > 0:38:33but I think this can.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35It has, in its colours and its lettering,
0:38:35 > 0:38:42and its configuration, a sort of rightness about it.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44And I love it so much.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Harry Beck was a lowly electrical draughtsman,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51who'd occasionally worked as a freelancer for the Tube in the 1920s.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54In 1932, he was unemployed.
0:38:54 > 0:38:59Then he had a brainwave. A new way of viewing the Underground.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03Based on his experience of drawing electric circuits.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07He would emphasise connections and simplify everything else.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11He stretched and shrank distances.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Kept to horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines
0:39:15 > 0:39:19and rounded every angle to 45 or 90 degrees.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Unsolicited, he sent the sketch to the Underground headquarters.
0:39:26 > 0:39:33Hard to believe that the Publicity Department of the Underground,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36or whatever it was called then, just couldn't understand
0:39:36 > 0:39:39how this could mean anything to the general public.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42And they just rejected it.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47He went back with it and they said, "Oh, all right, we'll give it a go."
0:39:47 > 0:39:49And this is the go they gave it.
0:39:49 > 0:39:55It says on the back, "a new design for an old map.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57"We should welcome your comments.
0:39:57 > 0:39:59"Please write to the publicity manager."
0:39:59 > 0:40:03It looks to me from this as thought they weren't at all sure.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06They printed a trial quantity.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09They put it in three or four of the most prominent Tube stations -
0:40:09 > 0:40:14Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17And, later, the following day,
0:40:17 > 0:40:19they went to say, "How's it going?"
0:40:19 > 0:40:23They said, "Going? They went within an hour! The public love it!"
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Harry Beck's life project had begun.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33Although still a freelancer, Beck would be custodian of the map -
0:40:33 > 0:40:37drafting by hand a new version for every alteration.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43But, in the 1950s, disagreements emerged between Beck
0:40:43 > 0:40:47and his employers over geography.
0:40:47 > 0:40:48Look at this!
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Here's a diagonal going out this way and a horizontal going that way.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55Both of them lead to Wimbledon.
0:40:55 > 0:41:01This is a little bit whimsical, perhaps.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Just a little bit. In this was the seed of future disagreements.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15In 1960, Beck went to his local Tube station and was met by a new map,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17with someone else's signature at the bottom.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24Beck could not believe it. He was deeply, deeply shocked.
0:41:24 > 0:41:30He had thought the diagram was his, to be modified at his hand
0:41:30 > 0:41:33at the suggestions of his clients.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37For the last 14 years of his life, Beck carried on creating maps
0:41:37 > 0:41:41at home and sending them in as the Underground evolved.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45They were all politely - but firmly - rejected.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48He and his wife had no children
0:41:48 > 0:41:53and I formulated a notion that this was, in a way, his baby.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56Could you bring across the next one?
0:41:56 > 0:41:58It was that close to him?
0:41:58 > 0:42:01It was very, very close.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05- Why do you think they let Beck go? - God knows!
0:42:05 > 0:42:08I think, maybe they'd had enough of this guy.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12This guy's been doing this bloody diagram ever since 1933.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14It's time we had a go.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18I think they probably, in view of what's happened on this diagram,
0:42:18 > 0:42:22were upset about the separation of the Wimbledons.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28Beck was posthumously recognised in 1997
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and his name now appears on every map.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39It's a bugger to get in. These are so badly designed.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41I've told them about this, you know.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48The map gets an update every time the system changes -
0:42:48 > 0:42:51roughly every six months.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54The biggest change in this one
0:42:54 > 0:42:58is the new Outer Circle line.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02You can now do an outer circle without coming into the city centre.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06Beck's design has influenced the look of Metro maps
0:43:06 > 0:43:09all over the world.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13It takes you north, south, east, west.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15On top or inside, above ground or below.
0:43:15 > 0:43:22It carries you along with 11,999,999 other people every day.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25After the war, the Tube was nationalised.
0:43:25 > 0:43:26But it received no subsidy.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Bakerloo line, madam. Platform five, that way.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36In the age of the car, passenger numbers started dropping.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39In the booming economy,
0:43:39 > 0:43:43the cash-strapped Tube struggled to find people to work for it.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47'Ours is a crowded island but, for many years now,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50'there's been full employment.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54'You gradually become more prosperous.'
0:43:54 > 0:43:57In 1956, they found a creative solution.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01Not only did they advertise for staff across the UK,
0:44:01 > 0:44:06they set up recruitment offices in Barbados and Jamaica.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10They even offered to put up many of the new arrivals in hostels.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15'Now, take getting a train away.
0:44:15 > 0:44:17'New staff had to learn how to do that
0:44:17 > 0:44:19'because there's only one right way.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23'But that's not all there is to working on a platform.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26'Rules, regulations, timetables.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30'They had to combine common sense and knowledge with a bit of psychology.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32'And we had to teach them.'
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Let the passengers off the car first, please.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39Mind the closing doors. Thank you. Mind the doors, please. Stand away.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45Rasta man, take them beautiful people away.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48Stand clear. Mind the doors.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52# We've got to move it, move it. We've got to move it. #
0:44:57 > 0:44:59I'm on my way to do that now, over.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04Sorry, ladies and gentlemen.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Customer service assistant Steve Parkinson, known as Parky,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13- has been working for the Tube for 35 years.- Very, very soon.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16He's dealing with a rush-hour crush
0:45:16 > 0:45:19of over 21,000 passengers at Moorgate.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22What happens - if your platform is overcrowded
0:45:22 > 0:45:27and there's too many people going down there - it becomes dangerous.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30- We pay you, my friend.- Yes, sir.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Our wages and these people and the Government.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36That's why I'm protecting you, sir. You're not going on there.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39- Too many people on it. Somebody will get killed.- Yeah, yeah.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41Oh, thanks very much.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44A couple of minutes, ladies and gentlemen. A couple of minutes.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46Parky grew up in Jamaica.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50I come from a village, somewhere you have never heard of.
0:45:50 > 0:45:56And, if my wife sees this, she would laugh because she says,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00"You come from a place where nobody knows about.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04"They cannot pronounce it."
0:46:04 > 0:46:07When Parky was 13, recruitment officers came to his village,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11looking for staff to work for the Tube.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13When somebody come around to make speeches
0:46:13 > 0:46:19on top of a pick-up truck with a loud-hailer, it's excitement.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22You know. Everybody gathering in the village.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26"Your mother country needs you, come to England."
0:46:26 > 0:46:32In those days, the average wage was 30 shillings a fortnight.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35£1.50 - today's money.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43And he tells us, you're going to get £8, £9, or £10 a week.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47You're going to go to England. That's what people did.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Aged 17, Parky was sent to London by his parents.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00This man was a friendly face among you. Mixing freely with the crowd.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03But like many others, he found the reality of living in London
0:47:03 > 0:47:06was worlds away from his expectations.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08I've heard that you've got rooms going.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11- I have got a room but I'm afraid I can't let you in.- I beg your pardon.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13I've can't let you in.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17Well, when I first started working for London Underground,
0:47:17 > 0:47:21you couldn't get a job as a supervisor or manager
0:47:21 > 0:47:24or anything of that sort.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28You were just given the low grade - the menial grade.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30And that's how it is - that's how it was.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35It wouldn't make me angry. Just make me more determined.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37That's why I'm still here.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42The United Kingdom has benefited from it.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47In many ways. Have a look around.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52There we go, ladies and gentlemen.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56# A distant echo... #
0:47:56 > 0:47:59Nowadays, around a third of Londoners
0:47:59 > 0:48:02and around a third of TfL staff are non-white.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04# To take them home to
0:48:04 > 0:48:06# The ones that they love... #
0:48:06 > 0:48:08The lip's hanging off, mate.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10It's all hanging off. I'm pissed.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12You go and enjoy yourself.
0:48:12 > 0:48:17Look at that! Yeah, man. Thank you, darling. Have a nice New Year.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19Keep it real.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23# Cold and uninviting... #
0:48:23 > 0:48:25Starved of funds in the '70s and '80s,
0:48:25 > 0:48:28the Tube's passenger numbers were falling.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33By 1982, they'd dropped by 30% from their post-war peak.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37The Tube became a beacon of dishevelled chic
0:48:37 > 0:48:39for bands like The Jam.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45# I said I was down in the Tube station at midnight... #
0:48:47 > 0:48:51And a source of inspiration for photographers like Wozzy Dias.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56# Down in the Tube station at midnight. Oh, oh, oh
0:48:56 > 0:49:01# Don't want to go down in the Tube station at midnight... #
0:49:01 > 0:49:06But it was still pulling in people from far and wide to work for it.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12This was a briefcase that I bought
0:49:12 > 0:49:16when I was the health and safety rep at King's Cross
0:49:16 > 0:49:19many...20 years ago.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22Aha, it works! Aha!
0:49:22 > 0:49:27Iain grew up in the Scottish Highlands in the 1970s.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30I didn't want to join the Underground or anything
0:49:30 > 0:49:33but unemployment in Scotland was...
0:49:33 > 0:49:37This made my father so proud.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42The Evening Standard. 11th December, 1990.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47It was just about five months before he died.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50"This is the face behind the mystery voice,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54"which is currently doing the impossible on London's Underground -
0:49:54 > 0:49:56"making commuters laugh.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59"Even the most hard-faced travellers crack when they hear
0:49:59 > 0:50:03"the dulcet Scottish tones of King Cross platform announcer
0:50:03 > 0:50:06"Iain Macpherson, whose wit and wisdom
0:50:06 > 0:50:09"is causing something of a stir."
0:50:09 > 0:50:12If there was a signal failure or anything had happened,
0:50:12 > 0:50:14it was like, what do you do?
0:50:14 > 0:50:16I felt really uncomfortable.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19I was standing there in full uniform,
0:50:19 > 0:50:21everyone was staring at me and expecting an answer.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24I have no answer.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26I told them what I was told.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30I said, "You'll never guess what's happened - again! I know.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33"The points have failed at Baker Street. Can you believe it?"
0:50:33 > 0:50:36That bulb has blown at Great Portland Street again -
0:50:36 > 0:50:38the one that blew last Wednesday.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42People can see through bullshit.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47And they can. And if you make it all up, it just doesn't work.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49If I didn't know, I would say,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52"Passenger, I don't know what's going on."
0:50:52 > 0:50:54They told me they liked the honesty
0:50:54 > 0:50:56because they felt I was being honest.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10On 18th November, 1987,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13the years of neglect brought King's Cross station to a tragic low.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26At 7:25pm, an unknown smoker stubbed a cigarette out
0:51:26 > 0:51:29on the wooden Piccadilly line escalator, starting a fire.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38In the minutes after the fire began, staff members failed to operate
0:51:38 > 0:51:41the water sprinkler systems that would have doused it.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43There's smoke billowing out of the exits.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46Firemen running all over the place -
0:51:46 > 0:51:48trying to get in to help trapped people.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53Customers were still coming into the station,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55ten minutes after the fire began.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57When I was halfway up that escalator,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00almost immediately the fire broke through into the roof
0:52:00 > 0:52:03and debris started falling and rolling down the escalator.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10At 7:45pm, fanned by gusts of air from trains below,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13the fire flashed over - gushing upstairs
0:52:13 > 0:52:15and filling the ticket hall with heat and smoke.
0:52:15 > 0:52:19Here, the oven-like temperatures had incinerated the ticket kiosks
0:52:19 > 0:52:22and melted paint and plastic from the ticket machines.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27I mean, the money in the ticket machines
0:52:27 > 0:52:34had actually melted into one block of solid metal.
0:52:34 > 0:52:35That's how hot it was.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38When the fireball went up the Piccadilly line
0:52:38 > 0:52:40and through the ticket hall.
0:52:40 > 0:52:46Threw two firemen about 100-odd yards down the corridor
0:52:46 > 0:52:49and slammed them against the far wall.
0:52:51 > 0:52:5431 people died in the fire.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07The fact of the matter is that it looks as though
0:53:07 > 0:53:11the interests of safety are being sacrificed
0:53:11 > 0:53:14from the point of view of trying to save money.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17The escalator mechanism, where the fire began,
0:53:17 > 0:53:19was discovered to be greasy.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21The grooves filled with flammable particles
0:53:21 > 0:53:24from years without a deep clean.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26For all the Underground's faults,
0:53:26 > 0:53:31it had been neglected for so many years by all political shades.
0:53:31 > 0:53:36And it woke up, I think, governments - left and right.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38It certainly woke up London Underground.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47After the fire, public money began being spent on upgrading the system.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01It now receives nearly half its income in the form of subsidy
0:54:01 > 0:54:04from the Government.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06You'd better work, lift.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11- Stand clear of the doors. - Don't you say that to me.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13Thank you.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17The Tube is now undergoing a £10 billion upgrade.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19The oldest station on the network, Farringdon,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23is on the way to becoming the newest.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Just make sure these are OK.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29All clear.
0:54:29 > 0:54:30Today, the renovation work
0:54:30 > 0:54:33is receiving a special anniversary inspection.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40We're just waiting for Prince Charles and Camilla to arrive.
0:54:42 > 0:54:43Hopefully they'll see our sign.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46A bit nerve-wracking.
0:54:46 > 0:54:51150 years I've worked at Farrington and I've never met a Royal.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55By 2018, Farringdon will see up to 150 trains an hour,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59making it one of the busiest stations in the country.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05Morning! How are we doing? All right?
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Howard Collins is praying for sunshine.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11I hope the rain holds off.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13Oh, God, the rain's coming on!
0:55:15 > 0:55:17After seeing the construction work, Charles and Camilla
0:55:17 > 0:55:20will take trip on the Tube from Farringdon
0:55:20 > 0:55:22to a revamped King's Cross.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27It's quite a big deal.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31We've never had so many VIPs at Farringdon before.
0:55:33 > 0:55:36It deserves it though, this station. All these years.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50All the flashes and the rain comes on. Welcome to Farringdon!
0:55:50 > 0:55:53Just to spoil it.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Spoil our one moment of fame.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12Ladies and gentlemen...
0:56:12 > 0:56:18He's really pleasant. He's very quick but pleasant.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22He said, "How do you put up with all of this madness?"
0:56:22 > 0:56:26I struggle through. I struggle through.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Struggle through. What else can you do?
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Since the Tube began, London's population has grown
0:56:49 > 0:56:52from 2.5 million to 8 million.
0:56:52 > 0:56:58It's set to grow again - another million by 2030.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01If we're going to continue expanding at the rate we've been doing,
0:57:01 > 0:57:06the Underground has got to expand and got to continue expanding.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12I suppose, one of the ways you could do it is just have a continuous train
0:57:12 > 0:57:15from one end of the line to the other - similar to an escalator -
0:57:15 > 0:57:18that just goes round in a loop and the end of the train goes under
0:57:18 > 0:57:20a big tunnel underneath and comes back on itself
0:57:20 > 0:57:22and pops up at the other end.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24Or maybe just take the trains away and have a conveyor belt
0:57:24 > 0:57:27and you just step on it.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34The Underground can keep up if the people are behind the Underground.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37If London's behind the Underground.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41Or, an even better idea, just take all the tracks up
0:57:41 > 0:57:46and have like a laminated flooring all along where the track used to be.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49When people come into the station, instead of buying a ticket,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52just pay £1 and get a pair of roller skates.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05Londoners will essentially still be Londoners in 150 years' time.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08And I'd like to think they'd still be using the Tube.
0:58:08 > 0:58:13So, yeah, especially like this, when they celebrate Underground 300,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17it will still be the world's oldest Metro system -
0:58:17 > 0:58:20it will just be 150 years older than it is now. So, yeah.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd