Temple tube station

Temple is a London Underground station located at Victoria Embankment in the City of Westminster, close to its boundary with the City of London. It is on the Circle and District lines between Embankment and Blackfriars, and is in fare zone 1.

The station was opened in 1870 with the name The Temple, from the Temple area in the vicinity of Temple Church, and from the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, two of the four Inns of Court of London. The definite article in the name fell out of use quite early.

History

The Temple station was opened in the parish of St. Clement Danes on 30 May 1870 by the District Railway (DR; now the District line) when the company extended its line from Westminster to St. Paul's station (now called Blackfriars). The construction of the new section of the DR was planned in conjunction with the building of the Victoria Embankment and was achieved by the cut and cover method of roofing over a shallow trench.

The DR connected to the Metropolitan Railway (MR; now the Metropolitan line) at South Kensington and, although the two companies were rivals, each company operated its trains over the other's tracks in a joint service known as the "Inner Circle".

London Underground

The London Underground (or simply the Underground or the Tube) is a public rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. The network is considered the oldest rapid transit system, incorporating the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 and is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, now part of the Northern line. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2014/15 carried 1.305 billion passengers, making the Underground the world's 11th busiest metro system.