Happy 150th Birthday London Underground: The World's First Underground Railway Amazing images show London houses being demolished to make way for the Tube in 1863

Londoners sleeping underground in subway for protection during German bombing raids, 1941.

Since the first stretch of track was opened between Paddington and Farringdon, then known as the Metropolitan Railway, the network has expanded to 12 lines.
Carrying 1,107 million passengers a year and serving 270 stations, it links central London to Surrey, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Buckinghamshire.
The network carried record numbers of passengers in 2011/12, with 1.171 billion journeys made, according to Transport for London (TfL).
This is 64 million more passenger journeys than the previous year, which itself had set a new record. More pictures after the cut......

During the morning rush hour London’s busiest Tube station is Waterloo, with 57,000 people entering during the three-hour peak. The busiest station in terms of passengers each year is also Waterloo with 82 million.
Today the Underground provides jobs for around 19,000 people.
The entire network adds up to 249 miles, 45 per cent of which is in tunnels and 114,500 miles is travelled by each Tube train each year.

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The Jubilee line hits the deepest depths of 32 metres (105ft) below sea level, while the Northern line reaches 68.8 metres (221ft) below ground level.

Men at work: This photo by Henry Flather shows the construction, undertaken between 1866 and 1870, of the Metropolitan District Railway's underground lines which included the destruction of houses

Grafting: Workers are pictured building the Victoria Line in the 1960s. It was eventually opened by the Queen in 1969

Workmen removing a concrete wall during construction of the Central line extension to Bank, circa 1912.

An underground train being transported on wheels through the streets of London, 1926.

  A crowded carriage during morning rush hour, 2012.