In this video, we make a westbound journey on a London Underground S7 Stock Hammersmith & City Line train from Bromley-by-Bow to Edgware Road, calling at all stations (Bow Road, Mile End, Stepney Green, Whitechapel, Aldgate East, Liverpool Street, Moorgate, Barbican, Farringdon, King's Cross St Pancras, Euston Square, Great Portland Street, Baker Street and Edgware Road.
Journey time - 30mins
The Hammersmith & City Line shares the same track with the District Line from Barking to Aldgate East, with the Circle and Metropolitan Lines from Liverpool Street to Baker Street and with the Circle Line from Edgware Road to Hammersmith (from 2010 onwards). This means that the line no longer serves any stations exclusively, joining the Circle and Waterloo & City Lines in that regard.
The journey we make follows the oldest section of the London Underground. The line from Farringdon to Paddington was the world's first underground railway public transportation system. It opened in January 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway which was subsequently extended in both directions to Hammersmith in 1864, Richmond in 1877 and via Earl's Court, Kensington and Tower Hill to form the Central London circle (now the Circle Line) in 1884. As the line is subsurface instead of deep tunneling, the tunnels were constructed using the Cut and Cover method. Today, the route is served by three London Underground lines, the Circle Line, Hammersmith & City Line and Metropolitan Line.
Bow Road station is unique because it is one of very few stations in the country to be partially above ground and partially underground. This marks the beginning of the long underground section of the line running all the way to Edgware Road with temporary below street level sections that are not in tunnels. It is also possible to see Mile End station from the platforms at the preceding Bow Road station and vice versa.
The Hammersmith & City Line will connect with the Elizabeth Line at six stations, firstly at Whitechapel, then Liverpool Street, Moorgate, Barbican, Farringdon and then Paddington. The Elizabeth Line will not stop as frequently as the Hammersmith & City Line. For example, the journey from Whitechapel to Paddington is 11 stops on the Hammersmith & City Line compared with just 5 stops on the Elizabeth Line. This will slash journey times through Central London and help to ease congestion on the tube when the new railway begins operations in 2021.
Despite the fact that the Elizabeth Line does not serve Moorgate or Barbican, the 205 metre long Class 345 Aventra trains will result in such long platforms that it will be possible to use them to interchange between these stations, such is the length of the new trains.
Edgware Road station is where the Hammersmith & City and Circle Line services branch off to Hammersmith, stopping at a different station at Paddington. The District Line terminates at Edgware Road before going southbound to Wimbledon while the Circle Line continues round to join the main District Line route via Westminster and Tower Hill before following the Hammersmith & City Line back to Edgware Road again.
In the past, this section of the London Underground was part of the original Circle Line route but in 2009, changes were made to allow the Circle Line to serve the Hammersmith branch with the Hammersmith & City Line in order to increase service frequency and reliability. This caused controversy at the time because a separate branch takes away the "Circle" Line aspect from it as the line is no longer a unique circle around Central London. The UK Independence Party actually pledged to cease all Circle Line operations on the Hammersmith branch and returning the Circle Line to its original route in their unsuccessful 2010 election campaign.