London Banter - View Single Post

Piccadilly Pilot · September 13th 04, 07:39 AM posted to uk.transport.london

"Nick Cooper" wrote in
message ...
On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 02:03 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(Nick Cooper) wrote:

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 18:35:41 +0000 (UTC),
wrote:

Has anyone an earlier date than 1900 for the use of the expression
'the tube'?
I believe the 'Daily Mail' referred to the 'Two-penny Tube' on 4
August 1900; but was the Underground called 'the tube' before then?

You have to remember that "tube" is descriptive of the tunneling
method used for the deep lines, as opposed to the shallow
cut-and-cover of the early District/Metropolitan. Since the first
real "tube" was the City & South London Railway between Borough and
King William Street opening 18/12/1890, there's not going to be any
reference much earlier than that. The "Two-Penny Tube" was
specifically the Central London Railway which opened 30/07/00 (between
Shepherd's Bush and Bank), reflecting their flat-rate fare structure
that was an early marketing ploy, but it would have had to rely on
"tube" being a existing recognised nomenclature.

Have you evidence of that last claim? All I'm aware of is that the
soubriquet "twopenny tube" was coined by a newspaper referring to the CSLR
(now the Central Line). I am not aware of evidence that there was any
previous usage of the term "tube".

Well, it's self-evident that the meaning of the term "tube" would have
to be at least vaguely familiar for calling the CLR (not the CSLR) the
"twopenny tube" to work. Logically, nobody would coin a phrase like
"twopenny tube" if they would then need to explain what a "tube" (in
that context) was. As a comparison, Dyson vacuum cleaners are _now_
marketed as, "The most powerful cyclone cylinder cleaner in the
world"; they weren't at first because nobody would have known what a
"cyclone cylinder cleaner" was!
--

The terms "tuppenny" and "tube" were both words in common usage at the time.
When it was explained that the flat fare to travel the whole line was
tuppence ("two pence" to the metricated amongst us) and that it ran through
an iron pipe or tube I doubt the vast majority of people would have had
difficulty understanding the concept.

It could even be the case that the name was already known to someone on the
staff of the newspaper and transferred to the CLR since there is an alley in
Malmsbury, Wilts known as "Tuppenny Tube".
http://www.yourguide.org.uk/malmesbury/mwalk.html
http://www.malmesbury-memories.co.uk/tuptube.html