Published in conjunction with TFL, this is a comprehensive guide to the London Underground, combining a historical overview, illustrations and newly commissioned photography.

Travel under the streets of London with this lavishly illustrated exploration of abandoned, modified, and reused Underground tunnels, stations, and architecture.

Did You Know? In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as ‘a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it.’ According to one psychologist, Tube commuters can experience greater levels of stress than a police officer facing a rioting mob or even a fighter pilot going into a dogfight. Underground trains have only twice been used to transport deceased people in coffins: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo. Some of the most bizarre items handed in to lost property include 250lb of sultanas, a 14ft canoe, a child’s garden slide, a harpoon gun, a pith helmet, an artificial leg, someone’s brother’s ashes and a sealed box containing three dead bats. WITH well over a billion passengers a year, more than 250 miles of track, literally hundreds of different stations and a history stretching back at least 160 years, the world’s oldest underground railway might seem familiar, but how well do you actually know it? This book offers a feast of Tube-based trivia for travellers and lovers of London alike.

What is visible to the naked eye has been exhaustively raked over; in UNDERGROUND LONDON, acclaimed travel writer Stephen Smith provides an alternative guide and history of the capital. It's a journey through the passages and tunnels of the city, the bunkers and tunnels, crypts and shadows. As well as being a contemporary tour of underground London, it's also an exploration through time: Queen Boudicca lies beneath Platform 10 at King's Cross (legend has it); Dick Turpin fled the Bow Street Runners along secret passages leading from the cellar of the Spaniards pub in North London; the remains of a pre-Christian Mithraic temple have been found near the Bank of England; on the platforms of the now defunct King William Street Underground, posters still warn that 'Careless talk costs lives'. Stephen Smith uncovers the secrets of the city by walking through sewers, tunnels under such places as Hampton Court, ghost tube stations, and long lost rivers such as the Fleet and the Tyburn. This is 'alternative' history at its best.

London's underground railways are an expression of the spread and diversity of the most international of capitals. Indeed, for many Londoners, the subterranean network is the very essence of the city, its arteries carrying the pulse of urban life from the heart of the metropolis out to its farthest extremities and beyond. How to capture that breadth in one work of art? How to celebrate a single system while also reflecting the millions of lives that it transports every day? That was the challenge facing Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger. His response was to create a vast, permanent work of public art across the entire network, layered with rich cultural and historical references. In each of the Underground's 270 stations, he placed a uniquely designed labyrinth, an ancient symbol representing spiritual and imaginative voyages akin to the countless circuitous journeys made on the Tube. Designed by the award-winning studio Rose, Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Mark Wallinger is a compelling record of this extraordinary project. But more than that, it is also a vivid celebration of the London Underground and of London itself. Striking photographs of all the labyrinths in situ reveal the diverse face and fabric of the network and its users, while fascinating 'I-never-knew-that' facts about each station and their surrounds bring surprising perspectives to the daily commute. Transport historian Christian Wolmar tells the story of the emergence and development of London's subterranean rail network and the important role it has played in shaping the metropolis and those who live in it. Novelist Will Self responds to Wallinger's piece with a personal reflection that takes us into the depths of memory and through the disorientating effects of urban life; while writer and academic Marina Warner, in conversation with the artist, explores the historical and mythological significance of the labyrinth and places the project in the context of Wallinger's practice. Much more than a document of the creation of a work of art, this book is also a unique portrait of a system that keeps London going, the very lifeblood upon which it depends and thrives.

Why is the Victoria Line so hot? What is an Electrical Multiple Unit? Is it really possible to ride from King's Cross to King's Cross on the Circle line? The London Underground is the oldest, most sprawling and illogical metropolitan transport system in the world, the result of a series of botch-jobs and improvisations.Yet it transports over one billion passengers every year - and this figure is rising. It is iconic, recognised the world over, and loved and despised by Londoners in equal measure. Blending reportage, humour and personal encounters, Andrew Martin embarks on a wonderfully engaging social history of London's underground railway system (which despite its name, is in fact fifty-five per cent overground). Underground, Overground is a highly enjoyable, witty and informative history of everything you need to know about the Tube.

Since its establishment 150 years ago as the world's first urban subway, the London Underground has continuously set a benchmark for design that many transit systems around the world - from New York to Tokyo to Moscow and beyond - have followed. London Underground by Design is the first meticulous study of every aspect of that feat. Beginning in the pioneering Victorian age, Mark Ovenden charts the evolution of architecture, branding, typeface, map design, interior and textile styles, posters, signage and graphic design and how all these came together to shape not just the identity of the Underground, but the character of London itself. This is the story of some of the most celebrated figures in design history - from Frank Pick, the guru who conceptualised the design of the modern Tube with his idea of 'design fit for purpose', to Harry Beck, the creator of the Tube map, and from Marion Dorn, one of the leading textile designers of the 20th Century, to Edward Johnston, creator of the distinctive font that bears his name. Rich with stunning illustrations, London Underground by Design shows that design is about more than aesthetic pleasure, but is crucial to how we get around.