The Circle line is a spiral-shaped
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
line, running from
Hammersmith in the west to
Edgware Road
Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...
and then looping around central London back to Edgware Road. The railway is below ground in the central section and on the loop east of
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
. Unlike London's
deep-level lines, the Circle line tunnels are just below the surface and are of similar size to those on British main lines. Printed in yellow on the
Tube map
The Tube map (sometimes called the London Underground map) is a schematic transport map of the lines, stations and services of the London Underground, known colloquially as "the Tube", hence the map's name. The first schematic Tube map was des ...
, the line serves 36 stations, including most of
London's main line termini. Almost all of the route, and all the stations, are shared with one or more of the three other sub-surface lines, namely the
District
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
,
Hammersmith & City and
Metropolitan lines. On the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines combined, over 114 million passenger journeys were recorded in 2011/12.
The first section became operational in 1863 when the
Metropolitan Railway opened the world's first underground line between Paddington and with wooden carriages and steam locomotives. The same year a
select committee report recommended an "inner circle" of lines connecting the London railway termini, and the Metropolitan District Railway (commonly known as the
District Railway) was formed to build the southern portion of the line.
In 1871, services began between
Mansion House and
Moorgate
Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall.
The gate was demolished in 1762, bu ...
via Paddington, jointly operated by the two companies. Due to conflict between the two companies it was not until October 1884 that the inner circle was completed. The line was electrified in 1905, and in 1933 the companies were amalgamated into the
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...
. In 1949, the Circle line appeared as a separate line for the first time on the Tube map. In 2009, the
closed loop around the centre of London on the north side of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
was broken at Edgware Road and extended west to become a spiral to Hammersmith.
Starting in 2015, the signalling system was upgraded as part of a programme to increase peak-hour capacity on the line. The six-car
C Stock trains were replaced from 2012 to 2014 by new seven-car
S Stock trains.
History
Origins
![High Street Kensington 1892](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/High_Street_Kensington_1892.jpg)
In 1863, the
Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway, opened in London between
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
and
Farringdon, connecting the
Great Western Railway's relatively remote terminus at Paddington with
Euston and
King's Cross stations and
the City, London's financial district. In the same year, a
select committee report recommended an "inner circle" of railway lines connecting the London termini that had been built or were under construction. In the next year, the Metropolitan District Railway (commonly known as the
District Railway) was formed to build and operate a railway from South Kensington to Tower Hill. The Metropolitan western extension from a new station at
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
to
South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
opened in 1868. By May 1870, the District Railway had opened its line from West Brompton to Blackfriars via Gloucester Road and South Kensington, services being operated at first by the Metropolitan. In 1871, the District had built a terminus at
Mansion House, and on 18 November 1876 the Metropolitan opened its terminus at
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
. Because of the conflict between the two companies, it took an Act of Parliament before further work was done on the inner circle. In 1882, the Metropolitan extended its line from Aldgate to a temporary station at
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...
and the District completed its line to
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
. On 6 October 1884, the temporary station was replaced with a
joint station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
and the inner circle was complete. The Metropolitan provided the clockwise, or "outer rail", trains; the District the "inner rail", or anti-clockwise. Many breakdowns occurred, due to the unbalanced wear and tear inflicted upon the train and carriages caused by travelling in a single circular direction. Equally, services were further disrupted due to petty squabbles between the two rivals including an incident whereby the Metropolitan Railway forcibly removed (using three trains) the District Railway's parked carriages which had been chained to the track.
Other circle routes
As well as the inner circle, other routes circumnavigated London, although these were not complete loops. From 1872, the
L&NWR
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom.
In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lon ...
began an "
outer circle" service from Broad Street to Mansion House via Willesden Junction and Earl's Court, diverting an earlier service that had run to Victoria; and the
GWR began a "
middle circle" service from Moorgate to Mansion House via Latimer Road and Earl's Court. Both of these routes were cut back to Earl's Court: the "middle circle" in 1900 and the "outer circle" in 1909. The GWR service survived as a shuttle service from the Hammersmith & City line to Addison Road, now Kensington (Olympia), until 1940.
The Midland Railway briefly ran a
super outer circle
The Outer Circle was a London & North Western Railway service in London that operated from 1872 to 1908. The route was from the District Railway station at Mansion House to Earl's Court, then via the West London Railway to Willesden Junction and ...
from St Pancras to Earl's Court from 1878 to 1880.
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...
now runs services between Clapham Junction, Willesden Junction and Dalston Junction and between Dalston Junction and Clapham Junction.
Electrification
![Experimental Train](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Experimental_Train.jpg)
Wooden carriages were originally hauled by
steam locomotives leading to smoke-filled stations and carriages, unpopular with passengers. At the start of the 20th century, the District and Metropolitan were seeing increased competition in central London from the new electric underground tube lines and trams, and conversion to electric traction was seen as the way forward. Experiments were carried out on the Earl's Court to High Street Kensington section, and a jointly-owned six-carriage train began passenger service in 1900. Following this, an
AC system was suggested, and this was accepted by both parties. However, the District was looking for a way to raise the finance needed and in 1901 found an investor, the American
Charles Yerkes
Charles Tyson Yerkes Jr. ( ; June 25, 1837 – December 29, 1905) was an American financier. He played a part in developing mass-transit systems in Chicago and London.
Philadelphia
Yerkes was born into a Quaker family in the Northern Liberties ...
. He formed the
Underground Electric Railways of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited (UERL), known operationally as the Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an und ...
(UERL), and his experience in the United States led him to favour
DC, with
third-rail pick-up similar to that in use on the
City & South London Railway and
Central London Railway
The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...
. After arbitration by the
Board of Trade, the DC system was taken up, and the railways began electrifying the routes, using multiple-unit stock.
The District and Metropolitan Railways bought different designs of
electric multiple unit. Both had open saloons; the Metropolitan trains with gated ends, the District
B Stock with sliding doors in the middle of each car. When their introduction was attempted on 1 July 1905, a Metropolitan train overturned the third rail on the District Railway, requiring all Metropolitan trains to be modified before running again on the District lines. A fully electric service began on 24 September, initially with six-car trains, later reduced to four-car. The Metropolitan trains were soon modified to enclose the gated end and eventually to add sliding doors in the middle. Trains were increased to five cars in 1918 and the Metropolitan introduced new stock in 1921, with three pairs of sliding double doors on trailer cars. In 1926 the Metropolitan took over all inner circle workings except for three trains on Sundays.
London Transport
![CO Stock at Barking](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/CO_Stock_at_Barking.jpg)
On 1 July 1933, the Metropolitan and the District Railways were amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form the
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...
. Metropolitan Railway electric multiple units were refurbished in 1934 at Acton Works to become eighteen five-car trains of
Circle Stock, at first painted red and cream, later painted red all over to reduce costs. These trains included first-class accommodation, but this was downgraded in 1940. From 1947, these were replaced by five-car trains of
O and P Stock, with doors remotely operated by the guard, released by the transfer of
F Stock to the Uxbridge line. The 1933 London Underground
Beck map shows a Metropolitan line north of and stations and a District line south of these points. On the 1947 map, the Metropolitan and District lines were shown together in the same colour and two years later in 1949 the Circle line was shown separately on the map.
In 1959–1960, Circle line trains were increased to six cars, the same length as those operating on the Hammersmith & City line, and the stock of the two lines was integrated with maintenance concentrated at Hammersmith depot, allowing
Neasden depot
Neasden Depot is a London Underground depot located in Neasden in the London Borough of Brent, between Neasden and Wembley Park stations on the Metropolitan line. It is the largest depot on the London Underground, and is currently responsible f ...
to concentrate on the new
A Stock. Aluminium
C Stock trains, with public address systems and originally unpainted, replaced these trains from 1970.
One person operation of the trains was proposed in 1972 but, due to conflict with the trade unions, was not introduced until 1984. In 2003, the infrastructure of the Circle line was partly privatised in a
public–private partnership
A public–private partnership (PPP, 3P, or P3) is a long-term arrangement between a government and private sector institutions.Hodge, G. A and Greve, C. (2007), Public–Private Partnerships: An International Performance Review, Public Adminis ...
, managed by the
Metronet Metronet may refer to:
*Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008.
*Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...
consortium. Metronet went into
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
in 2007 and the local government body
Transport for London took over responsibilities.
On 7 July 2005, at about 08:50,
bombs exploded on two Circle line trains. One was travelling between
Liverpool Street and Aldgate and the other was at
Edgware Road
Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...
. The bombs killed 15 people, including the two suicide bombers. Following the attacks, the whole of the Circle line was closed until 8 August.
A day before a ban on drinking alcohol on public transport in London came into force, a party was held on 31 May 2008, mainly on the Circle line. Thousands of people attended and 17 were arrested by police due to disorderly behaviour, eventually causing several stations to be closed.
Extension
Prior to 13 December 2009, Circle line trains travelled in both directions around a simple loop with 27 stations and of track. In 2006, there were fourteen trains in service on the line with an interval between trains of minutes during peak hours and 8 minutes off-peak; the minimum running time around the circle off-peak was minutes, although timetabled stops at stations extended this.
In December 2009, the Circle line was extended to include the Hammersmith & City route from Edgware Road to Hammersmith. Rather than continuously running around the circle, trains now travel from Hammersmith to Edgware Road, generally going around the circle once before terminating at Edgware Road, and returning via the same route; occasionally, trains may also continue clockwise through Edgware Road to additional stations. The change was made to improve reliability and increase the service frequency on the Hammersmith branch.
In March 2020, following the UK government's implementation of lockdown restricting all non-essential travel, the Circle line, along with the
Waterloo & City line
The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampsh ...
, was suspended.
Route
Map
Railway line
The Circle line is long with 36 stations.
Almost all of its track, and all of its stations, are shared with the other London Underground sub-surface lines: the
Hammersmith & City line from Hammersmith to just north of Aldgate; the
Metropolitan line from Baker Street to Aldgate; and the
District line
The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...
from
Tower Hill station to
Edgware Road station Edgware Road is the name of two London Underground stations near the junction of Edgware Road and Marylebone Road in Central London:
* Edgware Road tube station (Bakerloo line)
* Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City l ...
,
(except for a short connecting section near Gloucester Road). The line is electrified with a four-rail DC system: a central conductor rail is energised at and a rail outside the running rail at , giving a potential difference of .
The running rails are not electrified. Much of the double track railway from the
Hammersmith terminus to
Westbourne Park station
Westbourne Park is a London Underground station in the Notting Hill area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, between Ladbroke Grove and Royal Oak stations, and is in Travelcard Z ...
is on a high brick viaduct.
East of Westbourne Park the line passes beneath the
Great Western Main Line before resurfacing at
Royal Oak station and running alongside the tracks of the main line to an island platform just north of the suburban platforms at
Paddington station
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...
.
The line enters a cut and cover tunnel at the end of the platforms and meets the District line and the other end of the Circle line from Bayswater at Praed Street Junction before passing through Edgware Road station in a cutting. After
King's Cross St Pancras station the line exits the tunnel before passing over the
Ray Street Gridiron
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (gra ...
beneath which pass the
City Widened Lines
The Widened Lines (also known as the City Widened Lines; formerly known as the Moorgate Line) is a double-track railway line forming part of the Thameslink route between St Pancras and within Central London.
For most of their life the Widen ...
which are currently used by
Thameslink
Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...
services.
The line continues underground after
Farringdon station
Farringdon is a London Underground and connected main line National Rail station in Clerkenwell, central London. The station is in the London Borough of Islington, just outside the boundary of the City of London. Opened in 1863 as the terminu ...
; there are bay platforms at
Moorgate station.
After passing through Aldgate station, the terminus of the Metropolitan line, the line joins the District line shortly before Tower Hill; this part of the line includes stations on the
Victoria Embankment
Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London. It runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge in the City of London, and acts as a major thoroughfare ...
, on the north bank of the Thames, as far as Westminster station.
West of Gloucester Road station the line turns off the District main line to join the District line's Edgware Road branch just before High Street Kensington station.
In Bayswater the line is in a cutting, concealed from above by a façade of two five-storey houses at Nos. 23 and 24
Leinster Gardens
Leinster Gardens is a street in Bayswater, London. It is lined with tall, ornate, mid-Victorian terraced houses, many of which are listed buildings.
Layout
Leinster Gardens is mostly made up of a half-lined avenue lined with tall, ornate, ...
. Trains then call at the second Paddington station on Praed Street before rejoining the Hammersmith & City line at Praed Street junction and terminating at the four-platform Edgware Road station.
Services
, there are six trains per hour, calling at all stations,
requiring 18 trains in service.
The journey from Edgware Road around the loop and continuing to Hammersmith takes 72 minutes off-peak.
[ In the Tube timetable - Tube station box select "Hammersmith (H&C Line)" and press ''Get Timetable''. Select Edgware Road timetable and then view timetable.] Together with the Hammersmith & City line over 114 million passenger journeys are made each year.
Paddington and all stations on the loop are within Zone 1, with those on the line to Hammersmith in Zone 2.
Two trains per day run from the District line station at Barking to Edgware Road via Victoria (as of February 2015).
Announcements
Historically there has been difficulty in relaying the direction of travel a train is headed in a clear message: variations such as "eastbound" and "westbound", and "clockwise" and "anti-clockwise" can be ambiguous. As passengers became more accustomed to digital devices, TfL considered stopping such announcements and now uses key stations along the route to describe a service (e.g. "via.
High Street Kensington").
Rolling stock
From 1970 to 2014, services were provided using six-car
C69 stock trains, each car having mostly transverse seating and four sets of double doors per side to minimise loading times.
The C69 stock trains were replaced by
seven-car S Stock trains, the first running on the Circle line on 2 September 2013. By June 2014 all services were provided by S7 Stock trains. The trains are part of Bombardier's
Movia family,
and have a top speed of .
A 7-car S Stock train has a capacity of 865 passengers compared to 739 for the 6-car C Stock train it replaced.
[ Note: The table erroneously says "Length per car", instead of "Length per train".] With a length of , the S Stock trains are longer than the long C stock train, and required station platforms to be lengthened before their introduction.
Depot
The line's depot is at Hammersmith, close to Hammersmith station, originally built by the Great Western Railway to be operated by the Metropolitan Railway when the joint Hammersmith & City Railway was electrified in the early 20th century. Sidings at Barking, Farringdon and near High Street Kensington (known as Triangle Sidings) stable trains overnight.
Four Lines Modernisation (4LM)
It was planned that a new signalling system would be used first on the sub-surface lines from the end of 2016,
but signalling contractor Bombardier was released from its contract by agreement in December 2013 amid heavy criticism of the procurement process and London Underground subsequently awarded the contract for the project to
Thales
Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded ...
in August 2015.
With the introduction of S7 Stock, the track, electrical supply, and signalling systems are being upgraded in a programme planned to increase peak-hour capacity on the line by 27 per cent by the end of 2023.
A single control room for the sub-surface railway opened at Hammersmith on 6 May 2018, and
Communications Based Control (CBTC) provided by Thales will progressively replace 'fixed block' signalling equipment dating back to the 1940s.
The rollout of CBTC has been split into sections, each known as a Signal Migration Area (SMA), and are located on the line as follows:
List of stations
''The line then continues to Edgware Road where trains terminate, then reverse to traverse the loop in an anticlockwise direction to Hammersmith.''
Urban myths
Owing to its traditionally circular nature, the line has generated many
urban myths
''Urban Myths'' is a British biographical comedy drama television series first aired on 19 January 2017 on the Sky Arts. Each episode featured a story surrounding popular culture which may or may not be true, ranging from Muhammad Ali talking ...
over the years, including a dead man travelling around undiscovered, a school or office using the service to save infrastructure costs and, as an
April fool
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
in the ''
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
'', a new
particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams.
Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...
to coexist alongside passenger services.
See also
*
Cromwell Curve
The Cromwell Curve was a short section of railway line on the London Underground between Gloucester Road and High Street Kensington stations. The line was opened by the District Railway (DR) on 5 July 1871. The tracks formed a triangle across ...
*
Tokyo Toei Oedo Line and
Hamburg U3, two underground lines with similar arrangements
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Circle LineClive's UndergrounD Line Guides
{{DEFAULTSORT:Circle line (London Underground)
London Underground lines
Railway lines opened in 1884
Transport in the City of London
Transport in the City of Westminster
Transport in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Transport in the London Borough of Camden
Transport in the London Borough of Islington
Transport in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Railway loop lines
Standard gauge railways in London