There is a Line in the affairs of men which, Taken at the Fleet leads on to Fortune On such a Line we are now afloat And we must take the Current as it serves us." ..slightly adapted🎇 . We'll forget being "bound in Shoreditch and in miseries"....
I think naming it Victoria makes the line seem older than it actually is. I always have to remind myself that it was opened in the 60s as it sounds like it should have been opened at the turn of the 20th Century and named either in honour or memorial of Queen Victoria.
I have a weird perspective. I knew what the Victoria line was and thought it cool when I was too young to have any real idea how far in the past Queen Victoria reigned.
Stockwell-Kings Cross: Stocking Line Brixton-Kings Cross: Bricking Line Brixton-Walthamston: Brickwall Line ... yes, these are terrible. No, I'm not sorry.
@@henrybest4057 (Train announcements accompanied by "The Ride of the Valkyries".) Don't give TfL ideas. There's a never ending stream of "customer announcements" already. Most are pointless. "If you are walking along, take care." Duh!
As long as you go in the correct direction ! Is it Kings Cross where it is easy to miss the signs to the Southbound platform and leap on a train on the Northbound for a nice 10 minute round trip to Highbury & Islington ?
@@Redrally It might be Euston - that left hand 90 degree to the Southbound platform where the NB passage goes straight on. I remember going the wrong way one evening - I may also have forgotten that Kings Cross is North of Euston on the Victoria but South on the Northern. So I did not backtrack there. One of the confusing places on the Underground. A bit like the Bakerloo I forget which way it is from Edgware Road to Paddington. Not the first time I have gone the wrong direction.
I was one of two passengers on the day in 1968, aged ten. The fare was threpense one way for one stop, Tottenham hale to blackhorse lane and the same for the return journey. I used to live at 26 station road N17, we could hear the trains that ran under our house from the sidings enroute to the main line. As I remember, there was a deep routed fire in the tunnel at Tottenham hale, when the Victoria line was under construction. Could you research this as I can find no reference anywhere. Keith
As a young American, living in a rural area in Kentucky, I found it fascinating to ride the Underground in London. Me and two Army buddies arrived at Victoria Station in December, 1968, by bus from Dover. We were stationed in Germany and this was our first 'Leave Time". Wegot off the bus, and walked into that cavernous station, and took the Underground to Gower Street where we had heard was a nice but cheap hotel. For 4 days we "patrolled" London by foot and by the subway. Two things that are still vividly etched in my mind is first . . . the SMELL! Fumes and stale air once you started descending down to the tracks. Second was the odd "recorded" warnings of "Mind the Gap". We had no idea what that meant!!! In fact, the dialect was difficult to understand. Our ears had not yet tuned to the way our "English cousins" spoke. It took us TWO DAYS to figure out what "Mind the Gap" was trying to say to us! The American equivalent would be "Watch Your Step"! I LOVED TRAVELING AROUND LONDON AND OTHER AREAS OF ENGLAND!!!
British Rail tried very had to actually demolish the George Gilbert Scott designed gothic hotel attached to St. Pancreas Station - and replace it with a nasty concrete monstrosity. Conservationists managed to stop them. That building features prominently in one of the most evocative of all paintings of Victorian London, painted by John O'Connor and featuring Kings Cross at dusk in a November early evening. If British Rail had their ay, future generations would have been deprived of the inspiration for that masterpiece.
The opening sequence of Porridge shows St Pancras in the early 70s, a sad, miserable, dingy and grimy place. It's now been converted into a shopping centre but I believe there are still some train services hidden away somewhere.
Victoria Station (all of it) is normally chaotic. "What do you mean, you've been standing around for half an hour. I walked pass 6 times and did not see you."
My cousin (visiting from Canada): I’m at M&S Me: That’s no help at all, there are 5 branches of M&S in the immediate vicinity of the station, can you describe where you are? Cousin: M&S…
Jago: "But Which Stage To Open First?" - I would have opened a middle section, completely unconnected to anything. That would have confused everyone. 02:23
I am old enough to remember using the London Underground before the Victoria Line opened. In the mid 1960s my family lived in North Staffordshire, and some of our relations lived in the Purley/Croydon area. Getting from Euston to Victoria involved a fiddly journey with a change, or else a very long way round the Circle. No doubt it would have been just as inconvenient if we had arrived at Kings Cross or St Pancras. Having a fast, direct route from Euston to Victoria was wonderful, and what better to call it than its destination? The Victoria Line as a name has always seemed fine to me.
The "Mayfair" Line?? Can't quite see the locals abandoning their Jags and Ferrari's to get to Annabel's Club on Berkeley Sq by alighting at Green Park and walking. "But dahling, how marvelous. Our own tube line to get to Blackhorse Road."
In Amsterdam, we have very clear, but confusing, line names. The first line, the "East line" is actually two lines that run from the central station almost directly south, then a little bit east. The Second line was the "Amstelveen line" which ran to Amstelveen. The only clear name, so this line is no longer. The third line, the "Ring line" was build on an alignment for a former future rail line that encircled (and evaded) the city centre, the resulting metro line is the longest of all and does a semicircle, then goes to the southernmost point of the network, on one of the east lines, forming an elongated inverted question mark shape. Due to it (just) not connecting at the end of the semicircle to the "east" lines, the ring line is said to be "open". The newest line is the North/South line, which runs from the new North station in the northeast to the existing South station in the southwest. It will be extended to the airport en the east, so it will be the line with the greatest east-west extension while the ring line will keep having the greatest north-south extenstion.
I bow humbly in admiration of your command of he English language. If you are from Amsterdam, English is most likely NOT your first language. So many Europeans make us folks from the United States look so uneducated! I CAN speak some German, but could NEVER write as perfectly in German as you did in English.
@@mikelastname1220 Ha, and I already see a spelling error in my reply (build/built). The Netherlands has always been a trade nation, English + one other language (French/German/Spanish) is mandatory in school, and most TV shows come in English, with Dutch subtitles. So the younger generations are mostly fluent in English. But thanks for the comment. P.S. I am not from Amsterdam, but from Groningen, another city in the Netherlands, but have also lived in Belgium.
Interesting. A strangely similar thing happens in the U. S. when it comes to numbering Interstate Highways. An Interstate number that ends in an Even number is considered primarily, ultimately an East-West route, and one that ends in Odd number primarily a North-South route. But sometimes this is not true. For instance, Interstate 4 runs 213 km from Tampa, Florida to Daytona Beach, Florida (ultimately from "West" to "East"), but for most of its length, it runs North-South.
The Piccadilly Line mostly runs north-south, in a huge U. One day they'll connect both ends, via Barnet, Edgware, Stanmore, Watford. None the less, they insist on calling train directions east-west.
Thanks for this 😊 I remember the excitement travelling into town on the newly opened line. Such a contrast to the Bakerloo where the carriages were barely illuminated by round 20 watt bulbs in pre-war rolling stock ( not sure what war?). Spotting the different murals at each station behind the benches.
RATP: "Alors, we're going to build a new metro line. The number will be 14, because the previous line was 13." TfL: "Right, so the first point of order, as it has been for donkeys: what are we going to name the new line?"
If they were going to go with naming the line based on location of the start and end points then they should have gone with “King Vic”. It’s a nice twist on the shortening of a punch of pubs called the Queen Victoria and it’s got the bonus of screw with the average tourist who is going to ask who this “king vic” was. 😂😂😂😂
I'd say both names are fitting. Though I wonder, had they named it the Viking line, maybe Crossrail would've got a more interesting name too, instead of the Elizabeth Line.
We have the (Queen) Victoria line. We will, hopefully, soon have the (Queen) Elizabeth line. I guess the next line will be called the (Queen) Mary line.
@@bobblue_west In that case the next line will be called the Diane Abbot Line !! Even with the tracks guiding the train let's hope the trains remember where to go !!
@@bobblue_west 25 March 1807, King George III signed into law the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, banning trading in enslaved people the British Empire So her dad abolished it What did you want her to do?
Shakespearian delivery of the narration today, why did we not get the 'Bristow' line I wonder, maybe it would have reflected badly on the LT paper pushers that spent all the time debating, but what wonderful opportunity for station idents as cartoons. As an aside (and as a Vic line user from the top end) did you know that on takeover of Walthamstow Central by the Overground, the signs were misspelt 'Waltamstow'?
I grew up in Walthamstow in the 50s - 60s. My secondary school was not far from being over the line between Central and Blackhorse Road, so us lads immediately became tunnelling experts and swore we could hear the digging going on from the playground (very unlikely). Amidst all the publicity at the time, I seem to remember an article, may have been in the local rag, about the history of a proposed line to Victoria from Walthamstow back to when the Chingford to Liverpool Street line was built in Victorian times. The proposal was to have a junction at what was then Hoe Street station, with a line going underground there and pretty much following the route of what was to become the Victoria Line nearly a century later. A quick bit of research has not unearthed any confirmation of this, unfortunately. Thank you for all the great videos!
The Victoria line is my nearest and favourite line. Having only just opened when I was a boy, I very much remember the 'new' smell at Seven Sisters station, the banks automatic ticket machines to use to save queuing at the ticket office window and the automatic ticket gates too (with a LUGGAGE slot next to them). A few nerdy facts to add... The platform ceilings after Seven Sisters aren't covered as a cost saving measure. Just black gloss paint straight onto the iron tunnel segments, giving the three stations (Tottenham Hale, Blackhorse Road & Walthamstow Central) quite a dark, spooky feel compared to the rest of the line. Even though Blackhorse Road had a British Rail station literally opposite on what we now call the GOBLIN line, the maps on the station walls and inside the trains never showed it as an interchange, just a 'tick', as London Underground call them. This was because at the time the Victoria line opened, the GOBLIN line was earmarked for closure and the thinking was 'whats the point of altering all the maps in a year or so's time?' It wasn't until the 1980's that the GOBLIN lines future looked more secure and the GLC funded new platforms alongside the tube station, closed and demolished the old station and showed it as an interchange. And quite late in the day, two late alterations were made... One would have been to run new tunnels from Finsbury Park for the Piccadilly line, cutting a more direct route to where Harringay Green Lanes Station is today (and possibly siting a station there too, as agin, the GOBLIN line was die to close and a new tube station would have 'replaced' the Britsh rail station) and the Victoria line would have taken over the existing Piccadilly line tunnels to a point beyond Manor House - which would have become a Victoria line Station - where new tunnels would have continued to Seven Sisters. This would have sped up the Piccadilly line and broken up the very long gap between Finsbury Park and Seven Sisters (the longest on the line), which London Inderground were uneasy about. In the end, the current layout was chosen as it was cheaper. The other would have been for the Victoria line to surface at Wood Street and initially take over the Chingford branch north of that point, then to teminate there at surface level with a nice cross platform connection with the BR line (the Victoria line has loads of cross-platform connections - it was foremost in the designers minds). Again, sadly to cut costs, it was decided to terminate the line at Walthamstow Central (then called Hoe Street). It was this final cost saving measure that persuaded the Chancellor to sign the cheque and give the line the go ahead!
It should have been named the 'Yerkes Line' after our hero.......but you could only travel on it if you'd 'borrowed' the fare from someone, with no intention of ever paying it back.
@@BarryAllenMagic Thanks for responding so quickly. I had to laugh at myself because when I read your first comment, I thought it was "Yankees"!!! Thus, the American connection. So, you care to explain (if there is humor) your initial remark? Are you referencing the lady pilot (WASP) name Yerkes, or the psychologist, or who? I'm wanting to enjoy the joke here, if there is one!!!
@@mikelastname1220 Yerkes _was_ an American. And his role in acquiring and financing bits of the tube network gets mentioned in a lot of Jago's videos. He was highly influential, but his methods could be unscrupulous.
I loved the introduction. Nothing to do with railways but it reminded me of the wonderful Frank Muir telling a highly convoluted story about two medieval newspaper barons (Muckswill and Mudduck) who owned tow regional newspapers the punch line was ... you may have thought ... but it was the Bicester Times it was the Worcester Times. Hope that raises a smile.
As I've only ever known it as the Victoria line, I've never given it much thought. The Viking Line would be great though. They could play the opening bars of The Immigrant Song before every announcement..
Interesting side note (probably), I had always been told that King's Cross was the overground station, while St. Pancras was the underground station and they just happened to be at the same location. I've used King's Cross many times, but never been to or through St. Pancras. So, I would love to see a video on the history behind these two stations.
I’m the opposite, been to St.Pancras countless times, never used Kings Cross (unless you count the time when St.Pancras was closed and passengers alighted at, what was it called, Kings Cross City?). In the 1980’s St.Pancras seemed forgotten and under valued, it’s now a brilliant mix of old and new
The irony of your remark is that until the redevelopment for the Eurostar and new Thameslink platforms, the trains terminated above street level at St Pancras!
King's Cross was built as the London terminus of the Great Northern Railway, which became part of the original LNER in 1923 (then British Rail, etc.), and whose mainline is now part of the East Coast Main Line. St Pancras was the terminus of the Midland Railway (which used to run its own trains up to Sheffield and Manchester, and even through to Scotland), which was grouped with the London & North Western Railway (and others) to form the LMS, before also becoming part of British Rail. Unfortunately, the Midland always played second fiddle to the ex-LNWR's West Coast Main Line out of Euston, and as other commentors have mentioned, St Pancras was pretty neglected by the 70s. Nice to see how it's been revived since then, though!
@@samuell.foxton4177, quite - but the old St Pancras goods station at ground level (which is now the site of the main station concourse) remained unused for decades, and Thameslink trains stopped at the old Kings Cross Midland station.
As usual Jago old boy my cheek muscles are at breaking point But @ 2:45 you showed a frame or two of I think Kings Cross that had me stunned I grew up in SE London moved north up a bit to the left as the crow flies so am a irregular user of the East Coast Line So the point of my rambling is I'm stunned at the visage all these years and never noted WOW again a Victorian sculpture in brick
Victoria Line is perfect for visitors to London because it tells you the main station it goes through. I wish all the names made so much sense. I first worked in London in the 80s and have travelled there many times since and still can't remember where the Jubilee line goes!
Great film, it has a nice cadence to it. I'm glad there is a tube line is called Victoria. I know it has more to do with the station of that name, but I feel it still honours the late queen.
Speaking as an outsider, I'd say the present name is about right, since it _is_ the most direct way to Victoria mainline from much of the West End (and vice versa), given its relative lack of connections compared to Kings Cross. You'd also have to admit that it sounds rather pleasing. But if I were to suggest an alternative name, maybe it could be the Walton Line?
I love the Victoria Line. I use it every to go to and from work. I go from Brixton to Finsbury Park. It is my fave journey, step free for my dodgy ankle and mobility impairment. The Victoria Line is my very favourite line
I enjoy the journey and one late night, I pray I might hear your dulcet tones announcing the stops along the way. Anything but "special bus service" please. I cannot get to London so know that you have transported me. Zone one, mind... unless Heathrow.
hi jago, since you mention the Viking line, and this may be tricky since i couldn’t get very far myself, would it be possible to do a video on the “Finsmoor line”? it would have taken the northern and city railway, including the branch to Alexandra Palace, and runs via the current overground to West Croydon and beyond. i found out about it on the londonist “what could have been” map, and since my local station is Drayton Park, i would be very interested in this!
The line didn't need to acknowledge St Pancras, since St Pancras is already acknowledged in the mainline Bedpan Line. Oh, all right, that's not its official name, but anybody who travels anywhere between BEDford and St PANcras must surely refer to it sometimes by its nickname!?
When the Victoria |Line was originally designed the signalling was installed to allow for 4 car trains as the predicted off peak usage was thought to be too low to justify 8 car trains. The use of 4 car trains was never implemented but the 4 car signalling on the section North of Victoria survived until the replacement of the original signalling system. I presume the next video will be about the naming of the Fleet Line, strangely enough there are still traces of the Fleet Line name in some of the London Underground Engineering Drawings and Station name codes. Too difficult to change. There were also some of the Fleet Line track circuits in use on the north of the Circle though they might have been replaced by the sub-surface re-signalling by now. The other line that would have needed a name was the proposed Holborn to Waterloo Line - Holloo ?? There were some drawings done for that as well as a proposal for operating it with 67TS as used on the Victoria Line operating in ATO but with the driver staying at the same end to save the time taken to change ends at the termini. I don't think stepping back had been 'invented' then and may not have worked with a single train. It probably would have required 4 drives - not very economic. By the way the Bakerloo name was created by the press & public not London Transport who wanted to keep the name the Baker Street & Waterloo railway but the public won.
0:48 - The normal 3rd rail next to the far running rail makes sense, one spot for workers to avoid, and as far as possible from the platform. However, the center 3rd rail, up on high chairs in the center of a pit looks like a recipe for disaster, in case somebody falls in. What were they thinking? The bright white insulators help a bit.
Except it sounds like a tube line to South Africa and that would not have been politically correct while apartheid was still a thing. Naming a line is always going to be a case of finding the least obnoxious name and the most relevant. Victoria line is just plain safe. Elizabeth line is just plain boring. I hope they are more inventive for CR2 although by the time it’s open it most likely be called the Georgian line after little Prince George’s ascension to the throne of New Mercia and Wessex with the rest of Britain having devolved into other independent states.
@@neilchisholm797 They could just call it the long overdue, fucking expensive line of the LODFUKDEAR Line instead. I mean, the tourists would surely love the story of how it came to be called that...
“It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines” is itself one of Jago's best lines, AND one of his worst lines. It brought an instant smile to my face indeed, and yet so corny I can't digest all of it, and I can now see kernels in my toilet. Goddammit.
My opinion - The "Viking Line" sounds awful ! I'm glad that idea was quashed. I love the Victoria Line. It's so fast -- Finsbury Park to Victoria in less than 10mins. The other day, I went Bounds Green to F. Park - (change onto Vic Line) to Victoria - (change onto Dist/Circ Line) to South Kensington. All in less than 30 minutes. Brilliant.
Your surname isn't Hill is it Muswell? You are right though. The Picadilly line interchange to the Victoria Line is great at Finsbury Park and so handy.
As a non-Londoner, although I am very familiar with Victoria station, I never connected the Tube line to the mainline terminus. I think it’s not a very natural name for a line, just picking one of the places it serves to represent the whole thing. I always associated it with Queen Victoria and justified that in my head with her being one of Britain’s most important (recent) monarchs. I thought the line was named directly in her honour, not after Victoria station.
Viking Line Abp (established in 1959) is a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of ferries and cruiseferries between Finland, the Åland Islands, Sweden and Estonia.
And then there was,"Mark Lane",[LT&SR], which conveniently was the name of a lawyer,who cracked the JFK assassination! Who knew,and the engine was built in the 1890's! History Mystery??? Thanks for an indirect routing on the Under/ Overground! Jago,is always interesting!! Thanks again for your time and effort 👍🙏👏🙂😊🙌
I always liked Victoria bc it feels like it's named after Queen Victoria. If we have the Jubile and soon(late) to be purpCrossEliz then it's nice to have a tube for Victoria as well.
When you said at 0:24 "it was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines", I heard that in the voice of Greg Davies impersonating Chris Eubank...badly :P
I am an occasional visitor to Walthamstow and did use the Victoria line until I discovered the London overground route from Liverpool Street, which is faster and more pleasant.
They should have done what I always said - and named all the stations after actors in Carry On Films! I'd love to catch the Tube from Sid James West and change at Hattie Jacques Corner! C'mon - who wouldn't?
Here in Sweden we do have a Viking Line which is a cruise ship company that goes mainly from Stockholm to Åland and Finland. In the 80's they did sort of a rebranding and started using NG LI as the name in ads and such. It's probably the most well-known four letter company here after IKEA, though the full name still is Viking Line. As for the Victoria Line, it's fine I suppose, even though Viking Line would have been somewhat more badass I guess. The line itself always felt a bit bland an uninteresting, even though it's history as a line built for the tube network from the beginning is interesting and the engineering feat also worth knowing.
When the Victoria Line was opened, it was conceived that passenger services on what's now the GOBLIN (Gospel Oak to Barking Line) would eventually be withdrawn due to shortage of demand, as they ran from St Pancras to Barking via Walthamstow Queen's Road at the time and were relatively infrequent; this is why no direct interchange between the two lines was built at Blackhorse Road until much later.
What's great about the Victoria line is the way it seamlessly connects with the Northern at Euston and Stockwell as well as the Bakerloo at Oxford Circus. I think that interweaving of its with what were existing platforms deserves its own video. How did they get the platforms to be directly opposite to ones that were already there?
In most cases, new platform tunnels were dug for one direction of the existing line along with a new platform for the Victoria line. Then one direction (_usually_ the same) of the Victoria was routed to the old platform for the existing line. At Euston, it looks like three new platforms were constructed, since the existing Northern line platforms were narrow islands. What's now platform 6 (City branch, southbound) used to be an island platform serving both northbound and southbound. To get more space and give cross-platform interchange, a new tunnel was dug for the northbound Northern line, as well as the new tunnels for the Victoria. Then the old northbound Northern line tunnel was filled in to become the circulating area between platform 6 and platform 5 (northbound Victoria). There's another problem here. The Northern line curves around substantially and actually, when heading southbound, the train is actually pointing somewhat north-east! The interesting consequence is that to go from Euston to King's Cross St Pancras on the Northern line, you head one stop southbound on the Northern line, but one stop northbound on the Victoria line. To get cross-platform interchange with the southbound Victoria line (and northbound with northbound, on platforms 3 and 4), here the Victoria line actually runs the wrong way round for a UK train line: they drive on the right-hand side. If the Vic was left-hand running at Euston, you'd get off a southbound Northern train at platform 6, then cross the platform and find you were going northbound on the Vic. (It's actually right-hand from just before Warren Street to just before Highbury & Islington). At Oxford Circus, the Bakerloo had platforms on the outside of the tracks, so the Victoria line platforms were constructed alongside. The same happened at Stockwell, which had had its original island platform replaced in the 1920s. (This may have been part of the project to enlarge the tunnels, so that the same Standard Stock could be used on the City & South London Railway as on the Charing Cross branch.) At Highbury & Islington, the northbound Northern City Line tunnel (now Great Northern's Moorgate service) was given to the southbound Victoria line, with new northbound tunnels built for each line. At Finsbury Park, the Northern City Line was cut back to Drayton Park, the Piccadilly's southbound track was re-routed to the NCL's northbound platform, then the northbound Victoria took over the old Piccadilly southbound, and the southbound Victoria uses the old southbound NCL. (A few years later, the Northern City line would be connected up to the main East Coast Main Line at Finsbury Park.) All in all, a complex and creative masterstroke of rethinking what was available, to get the best outcome for interchanges on all lines. It was noted that the Oxford Circus interchange wouldn't be possible if the Victoria line had been constructed for main-line trains rather than the smaller deep-level tube stock. Sources: cartometro.com/cartes/metro-tram-london/index.php and Wikipedia for the details.
The Bakerloo line. Named after the 2 stations it runs between Waterloo and Baker Street. Neither of which are the terminating stations anymore nor is the fastest route on the bakerloo but the jubilee.
During this video I became increasingly passionately indifferent about the name Victoria Line. It's a line that I have used during my years of London Commuting but I had to use the Central, Jubilee and Northern lines much more.
since we've got a thing for calling lines after all things monarchy related, I for one am looking forward to the Willy line. knowing tfl... they'll make it free for the first few days...
Hi Jago, I really liked the shot of the door closing and the round window sticker covering the Station name but I personally would have thought it would have been more impressive if it had been the door opening to reveal the station name "Victoria" at the moment you mention that the name they decided on was "Victoria Line". It would have been an aesthetically pleasing visual pun. Just thought I would mention it that's all. No criticism intended just that it might have been the best of puns or it might have been the worst of puns.
If writing puns was an Olympic Sport, Jago would win the Gold! Victoria Line as a name actually works quite well (better than calling Crossrail the Elizabeth Line). I think Viking might have worked, but the connection to Victoria and King's Cross would probably escape most people (including me) Having the line opened in stages with the first being between Victoria and King's Cross would not have worked. Where would the trains be stabled? I can only think of one underground line which left the trains on the running lines overnight- The Glasgow Subway, but even that now has a surface depot.
It was also going to run to South Woodford to join up with the Central line, so that commuters could get the Central into the City, or the the Victoria to the West End.
meanwhile in New York, we get the most creative line names. Like the flushing line or the archer avenue subway. fyi this is sarcasm; the most derived names for lines are things such as the sea beach line and the culver line.
