The London Underground, also known more casually as The Tube,
was the first underground railway system built to serve a city
population in the world. The Metropolitan Underground railway, as
it was known on opening in 1863, served a mere seven stations at
its inception, though significantly two of those original stops
will be instantly familiar to Sherlock fans - Baker Street and
Gower Street (the latter being a short stroll from North Gower
Street, the home of Speedy's Café).
From these humble beginnings the Underground began to grow
exponentially over the decades. An exact history of the sheer
growth of the system isn't called for here (though you can find
extremely thorough histories if you are inclined), but in its
current form the London Underground is comprised of eleven
distinctive lines, serving a total of 270 individual stations -
though on-going construction work will see this number bolstered
further by 2018.
Most trains that operate on Tube lines have the colours of the
rails and bars inside their interiors painted to match the line you
see on a London Underground map, useful to help designate
destinations when multiple lines may operate from a single
platform, as the Circle and District lines do for
example.
The busiest London Underground station on the network is
Waterloo, which saw 88 million people pass through the stop in in
2012.
Onscreen in Sherlock, Sumatra Road is a fictitious Underground
station, but 'ghost stations' do in fact exist on the network -
Aldwych, the location for the disused platform that appears in The
Empty Hearse, being one of them. Sumatra Road is a reference to the
infamous 'Giant Rat of Sumatra', as fleetingly mentioned in 'The
Adventure of the Sussex Vampire' in the original canon, with Lord
Moran filling in as the large rodent.
Sherlock made use of numerous stations across the Tube network
in The Empty Hearse. As well as the aforementioned Aldwych which is
located on a disused and publicly inaccessible section of the
Piccadilly line, filming took place at Westminster [Circle,
District / Jubilee] where Sherlock and John enter from above ground
and cross through the ticket barriers, and Charing Cross [Northern
/ Bakerloo] where the pair break through a maintenance access and
descend deeper into the system. The Tube car bomb that the pair
discover was actually a set built onstage at Upper Boat studios in
Cardiff, the green bars inside designating it as a District line
service.
The best place to stop to easily see an onscreen tube location
is Westminster [Circle / District / Jubillee], where you can see
the spot Sherlock and John enter the Underground network on the
eastern side of Whitehall, as well as the station concourse they
cross.
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