When you walk the Tube, there are plenty of options for the order you walk it in. You can walk each line in alphabetical order; or you can walk it from east to west or north to south; you can even walk it randomly; but if you've got an interest in history, I highly recommend you walk it in chronological order (as I did), so you can see how the Underground grew from humble beginnings to the city-wide network it is today. The table below shows the order in which the lines were opened, based on the opening dates of the oldest sections of the lines we know today. I walked the lines in roughly this order, and I'm glad it did, as it turned my tubewalk into a walk through Tube history.
(A quick note on the East London line. When I walked the Tube, the East London line was closed and being re-engineered as part of the London Overground, but because London Underground was running a bus replacement service, this meant the East London line was technically still part of the Tube, and would be until it re-opened. So I walked it... and I'm glad I did.)
| Line | Date Opened | Section | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan | Farringdon to Paddington | Opened as the Metropolitan Railway | |
| Hammersmith & City | Paddington to Hammersmith | Opened as part of the Metropolitan Railway | |
| District | Gloucester Road to Westminster | Opened as the Metropolitan District Railway | |
| East London | New Cross Gate to Wapping | Opened as the East London Railway | |
| Circle | Inner circle completed | The first section to open was High Street Kensington to Gloucester Road, which was opened as part of the Metropolitan District Railway on , but the Circle line first came into being when it was completed in 1884 | |
| Waterloo & City | Waterloo to Bank | Opened as the Waterloo & City Railway | |
| Northern | King William Street to Stockwell | Opened as the City & South London Railway; King William Street station was just south of the current Monument station | |
| Central | 30 Jul 1900 | Shepherd's Bush to Bank | Opened as the Central London Railway |
| Bakerloo | Baker Street to Lambeth North | Opened as the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway | |
| Piccadilly | Hammersmith to Finsbury Park | Opened as the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway | |
| Victoria | Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington | Opened as the Victoria line | |
| Jubilee | Baker Street to Charing Cross | The Jubilee line incorporated the Baker Street to Stanmore section from the Metropolitan/Bakerloo lines, which was originally opened on ; the original route went from Green Park to Charing Cross, but the extension re-routed the line via Westminster |