Carving through centuries of buried secrets, the London Underground is far more than a transit system: it is a 160-year-old subterranean labyrinth. Over the decades, phantom trains, ghost sightings, and strange folklore have spread through its tunnels as relentlessly as the tracks themselves. Some of these enduring tales grew out of misunderstood history, while others were born from pure fiction.
These are just three of the urban legends that haunt the world's oldest tube network.
Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and Dr Thomas Barnardo are recorded as the only two people to ever have their coffins transported via the London Underground,
during their funeral processions.
William Ewart Gladstone (1898): Following his death at Hawarden Castle in North Wales, his coffin travelled by train to Willesden, where it was transferred onto a District line underground train to reach Westminster for his lying in state and state funeral at Westminster Abbey. Gladstone had been on a tour of the world's first underground line with the directors and engineers of the Metropolitan Railway Company and, along with his wife, took part as passengers in a trial ride of the new railway in 1862. He had also been a shareholder in the London Underground since its flotation.
Dr Thomas Barnardo (1905): After the children's charity founder passed away in Surbiton his body lay in state at the Edinburgh Castle, Limehouse, in the East End. His coffin was then processed through the streets to Liverpool Street station, from where his coffin was placed on an underground line train for the final stretch of his journey towards his burial site in Barkingside.
The Central line, which is the only underground line to Barkingside,
didn't take over this part of the line until 1948.
In 1905, the only way to get from Liverpool Street station to Barkingside
was via steam train, operated by Great Eastern Railway.
It was a specially chartered GER train that was used for the journey.
Therefore, William Gladstone is the only person to have their coffin transported on the underground.
