An Underground reading list

The original question (9 May 2020)




10 May 2021
Wow, that took a while. I've collected all of the suggestions from comments below and from others, attempted to correct the titles & authors as needed, and attempted to organize the works into some sensible groupings... (Doubtless I've also introduced some errors along the way.) This is not intended to be an all-encompassing list of books about the Underground and related lines, only the ones someone has recommended.

Some of these books appear in multiple editions, occasionally published with slightly different titles (and even authors! e.g. London's Underground). Because of this, I've generally omitted publishers and dates; searching just the title and author will turn them up. That said, be diligent, you may find one title attached to completely different works; you may also find same work with slightly different titles for the exact same ISBN.


General
London's Underground (For the Modeller and Historian) - originally by H. Howson, later editions by John Glover (some prefer the earlier editions)
London's Lost Tube Schemes - Antony Badsey-Ellis
How the Underground Works - P.E. Garbutt
Tube Trains Under London - J. Graeme Bruce
London's Underground: The Story of the Tube - Oliver Green
Handling London's Underground Traffic - J.P. Thomas ("if you can get your hands on it, is well worth a read. It's fast approaching a hundred years old, but has stood the test of time. Much of LU's current management would benefit from a copy.")
Frank Pick's London - Oliver Green


History & people
The Man Who Built London Transport: a biography of Frank Pick - Christian Barman
Rails through the Clay: A History of London's Tube Railways - Alan A. Jackson & Desmond F. Croome
Steam to Silver - J. Graeme Bruce
Working the London Underground: 1863 to 2013 - Ben Pedroche
London Underground's Strangest Tales - Iain Spragg
Romance of London's Underground - W.J. Passingham


Building the system
Rails Through the Clay - Desmond Croome & Alan A. Jackson
Reconstructing London's Underground - H.G. Follenfant
London's Local Railways - Alan A. Jackson
Semi-Detached London - Alan A. Jackson
London's Lost Railways - Charles Klapper
Underground Movement - Paul Moss
The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground was Built and How it Changed the City Forever - Christian Wolmar


Stations
Tiles of the Unexpected - Douglas Rose
London's Disused Underground Stations - J.E. Connor
Mr Beck's Underground Map - Ken Garland
Underground Maps after Beck - Maxwell Robert
Underground Architecture - David Lawrence
Original London Underground Lift Stations - Jim Wright
The Underground Stations of Leslie Green - David Leboff
Do Not Alight Here: Walking London's Lost Underground and Railway Stations - Pen Pedroche
Tiles of the Unexpected Underground (2nd edition) - Douglas Rose (added 15 July 2024)
Specific lines
London's Metropolitan Railway - Alan A. Jackson
History of the Metropolitan District Railway Company to June 1908 - Alexander Edmonds
History of the Metropolitan Railway Vol.1-3 - Bill Simpson
The Metropolitan Line: London's First Underground Railway - Clive Foxell
Hammersmith & City Line 150 years - Mike Horne
The Jubilee Line Extension - Kenneth Powell ("mainly a photobook but I really like it")
By Tube Beyond Edgware - Tony Beard
The Aldwych Branch - Antony Badsey-Ellis
The History of the Bakerloo Line - Clive D.W. Feather
The Big Tube: A Short Illustrated History of London's Great Northern & City Railway - J. Graeme Bruce
London's District Railway: A History of the Metropolitan District Railway Company vol: 1 & 2 - Mike Horne
The First Tube: the Story of the Northern Line - Mike Horne & Bob Bayman

(These appear to be the same)
Northern Wastes : The Story of the Uncompleted Northern Line Extensions
Northern Wastes: Scandal of the Uncompleted Northern Line - Jim Blake & Jonathan James

Lines of the London Underground (Charles Edward Lee) Series
(separate volumes for Central, District, East London & Thames tunnel, Met, Northern, Picc.)
www.goodreads.com/series/80846-lines-of-the-london-underground-charles-edward-lee


Trains & stock
Underground Train Overhaul - J. Graeme Bruce
The London Underground Tube Stock - J. Graeme Bruce
London Underground Rolling Stock - Brian Hardy


Not directly TfL related but interesting anyway
Working to Rule: Railway Workshop Rules: A Study of Industrial Discipline - Kenneth Hudson ("I find this fascinating")
London's Historic Railway Stations - John Betjeman
London's Termini - Alan A. Jackson
-- "Both are concerned with the mainline termini, but there is plenty of Tube interest within the stories."
Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer - William D. Middleton (among many other things, Sprague invented interconnected electric multi-unit operation; Middleton was a fairly prolific writer on electric American railroads) (added 17 August 2022)


I heartily encourage readers, when you can, to purchase from your local independent bookseller, most will order almost any new book and it helps keep them in business. For used editions, www.bookfinder.com does an excellent job of finding who has a specific edition and what it will cost, and many independent sellers appear in the listings (even though they may use Amazon/eBay/alibris/etc to process the orders); you can even then contact the shop directly.


Places to Look Things Up
J Graeme Bruce
J E Connor
Piers Connor
Antony Badsey-Ellis
Clive Foxell
John Glover
Oliver Green
Alan Arthur Jackson
Mike Horne (aka M. A. C. Horne, see also www.metadyne.co.uk/Books.htm)

z!