The abandoned Underground line that would’ve whizzed Londoners to the beach

One of the amazing things about the London Underground is that other versions of the network pops up in unexpected places around the UK and even the world. Aside from the numerous other Underground systems in cities such as New York and Paris there are numerous other quirky examples of the global Tube.

A railway that runs using old Tube trains on the Isle of Wight and the London Underground station that existed at Disneyland Paris for 20 years are two of the best known. But did you know there was once a plan to build an Underground railway mimicking the London Underground in Brighton?

Yes indeed, and what a great idea it would have been! By the 19th Century the seaside resort had seemingly become so popular with Londoners that plans were indeed afoot to build such a thing! The story of the line is outlined in the book ‘London’s lost Tube schemes’ by Antony Badsey-Ellis.

READ MORE: What happened to the seaside town where Londoners went for a family holiday

The Brighton Underground railway was first proposed in 1898 and was to be 1.5km long. It would have connected the London Brighton and South Coast Railway LB&SCR station to King’s Road on the seafront, and would have had entrances under the promenade leading directly to the beach.

Anyone who knows Brighton today will appreciate just how useful this could have been with the massive hike from the seafront up the hill to the station leaving travellers puffed out. It would have enabled passengers to get on the train at London Bridge and take the LB&SCR to the station in Brighton before switching trains to take the Tube to the beach.

But the 19th Century was a tough time for raising the necessary funds, and there was always opposition to projects from competitor rail companies and local property owners, who didn’t want their homes and businesses being undermined by tunnels. The City and South London Railway with its tiny electric trains was at this point the only underground railway that actually worked in the UK.

Running from Elephant and Castle to the City, its backers were not seeing great returns from their huge investments. Sadly, though somewhat predictably, the promoters behind the Brighton railway – who had started raising £120,000 to back the scheme – soon withdrew it.

But it was at this time that Tube railways were also first being proposed in Manchester and Glasgow. The Glasgow subway actually opened in 1896, but Manchester of course didn’t get an underground and ended up with a tram-based Metro instead almost 100 years later!

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