The Mythology of the London Underground

Reasons for Stress Anxiety and Fear When Travelling on the Tube

May 4, 2009

Travelling on London Underground is tolerated by commuters, yet feelings of anxiety may be embedded in our collective unconscious.

The London Underground system, and subways the world over, are technological wonders used by millions of people daily. Yet descending beneath the surface of the earth is subconsciously regarded with unease. In many cultures these regions are known as the Realm of the Dead, Hades, Hell, the Underworld - a place from whence there may be no return.

Four Mythological Heroes and Their Underground Journeys

Orpheus descended into the Underworld to be reunited with his wife Eurydice. Despite entrancing the dead with his singing voice, his enterprise failed tragically.

Theseus ventured below to tackle the Minotaur. He lacked the mythical equivalent of our London Underground Map to guide him to the monster's lair - just a ball of string thrust into his hand by a girl who loved him. In 1918 in New York, this myth inspired the use of multi-coloured 'strings' painted on subway walls to guide passengers.

Odysseus, in order to return home, visited the Underworld to gain valuable advice from the dead.

Aeneas travelled to Hades to speak to the spirit of his dead wife, Dido, but her bitter ghost refused to acknowledge him.

Art and Engineering Reflect Ancient and Modern Mindset

To modern sensibilities such myths seem irrelevant.. Yet in 1872 printmaker, John Martin, published his illustrated version of Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton describes the bridge from Earth into Hell. In his interpretation of this scene, Bridge Over Chaos, Martin substitutes Milton's bridge for a causeway with a tunnel stretching into infinity. At that time, in London, Marc Isambard Brunel was boring his subterranean Thames Tunnel. Martin's vision was influenced by engravings anticipating the Tunnel's completion.

Public Fears During the Industrial Revolution

Martin, engineer and reformer as well as acclaimed artist, touched the contemporary imagination with this and other images. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution great feats of urban engineering had left the public with a sense of fear and awe. This sensation of being overwhelmed was accompanied in some quarters by outrage that men should trespass into the Underworld. For them Hell was real.

Nevertheless, the Thames Tunnel (known by cynics as The Great Bore), from Wapping to Rotherhithe, opened in March 1843 and for twenty-three years was a subterranean pedestrian crossing point from one side of the Thames to the other. Despite having been the scene of occasional banquets and orchestral concerts for the rich, ultimately it became the haunt of the dispossessed, known by them as 'The Hades Hotel'. Today it is part of the London Underground, or Tube, system.

Modern Attitudes to Travelling on London Underground

Compared to our 19th century forebears, Londoners today may appear blase about the Underground. The exploits of heroes and heroines of antiquity hardly seem relevant to the relentless routine of the daily journey under the streets of the capital. After all, during the Second World War Londoners were happy to snuggle up together on Underground platforms whilst Hell raged above.

Yet traumatic events on the London Underground can lay bare ancient fears that were once buried deep, so that when the journey is over and commuters finally ascend towards the light, feelings of sub-conscious relief are no less intense than those of any mythical hero. They endured the journey once - most commuters go through hell twice a day. That is heroic!

Sources:

Labyrinths of Iron: A History of the World's Subways Benson Bobrick (Newsweek Books, 1982)

Art and the Industrial Revolution Francis D Klingeder (Granada Publishing, 1975)