Circle line
A spiral rather than a ring: 36 stations from Hammersmith to Edgware Road and round central London, linking most main-line termini.
About the Circle line
Despite its name, the Circle line has not been a closed loop since 2009. Trains start at Hammersmith, run east to Edgware Road, and then travel once round central London before finishing back at Edgware Road. The line is yellow on the tube map, is 17 miles (27 km) long and serves 36 stations, including most of London’s main-line termini.
The loop takes in King’s Cross St Pancras, Liverpool Street, Victoria and Paddington, as well as Baker Street, Farringdon, Tower Hill, Westminster and South Kensington. Almost all of its track, and every station, is shared with the District, Hammersmith & City or Metropolitan lines; the only exclusive stretches are short links between Aldgate and Tower Hill and between Gloucester Road and High Street Kensington.
Unlike the deep-level tube lines, the Circle runs just below the surface in tunnels comparable in size to those on main-line railways. In 2024 its busiest station was King’s Cross St Pancras, with 77.13 million entries and exits, followed by Victoria with 62.69 million. Paddington and all the stations on the loop are in Zone 1; those on the Hammersmith section are in Zone 2.
Circle line stations
36 stations, 36 of them with a change to another tube line (marked with a navy ring and the colours of the other lines).
Hammersmith (Circle and H&C lines) to Edgware Road (Circle line)
Main route, 37 stations
History
The Circle grew out of the world’s first underground railway, opened by the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon. The same year, a select committee recommended an “inner circle” of lines connecting London’s railway termini, and in 1864 the Metropolitan District Railway was formed to build the southern half. The Metropolitan reached South Kensington in 1868; by May 1870 the District had opened from West Brompton to Blackfriars, and in 1871 it built a terminus at Mansion House.
Rivalry between the two companies held up the final link. The Metropolitan opened its Aldgate terminus on 18 November 1876, but further work required an Act of Parliament in 1879, and the inner circle was finally completed on 6 October 1884. The Metropolitan worked the clockwise “outer rail” and the District the anti-clockwise “inner rail”. Steam-hauled wooden carriages left stations full of smoke until electrification; after a first attempt on 1 July 1905, a fully electric service began on 24 September 1905.
Both companies became part of the London Passenger Transport Board on 1 July 1933. The route appeared on the tube map as a line in its own right for the first time in 1949. Trains were lengthened to six cars in 1959–60, aluminium C Stock arrived from 1970, and one-person operation, proposed in 1972, was introduced in 1984. On 7 July 2005 bombs exploded on two Circle line trains, one between Liverpool Street and Aldgate and one at Edgware Road, and the whole line stayed closed until 8 August.
Until 13 December 2009 trains ran continuously in both directions round a 27-station loop. The line was then extended along the Hammersmith & City route from Edgware Road to Hammersmith, a change made to improve reliability and increase frequency on the Hammersmith branch. New seven-car trains followed in 2013–14, and a signalling upgrade began in 2015.
Trains and service
Every train follows the same pattern listed by TfL: from Hammersmith to Edgware Road, once round the loop, and back. TfL publishes two sets of departures from Edgware Road. Outbound trains run on weekdays and Saturdays from 04:55 to 00:43 and on Sundays from 06:38 to 00:33, with 7 in the busiest hour (8 on Sundays). Inbound, the first weekday train is at 05:14 and the last at 00:55 (Saturday the same, Sunday 07:07 to 00:41), with 7 in the busiest weekday hour. The last weekday departure from Hammersmith is 00:30; on Sundays trains leave there from 06:22 until 23:40, with 6 in the busiest hour. Use our tube times for intermediate stations.
The Circle has no Night Tube service. Because it touches so many lines, almost every station is an interchange: King’s Cross St Pancras alone connects with five other tube lines, while Embankment links to the Bakerloo and Northern, and Victoria to the Victoria line.
The trains
Since June 2014 every Circle line service has been worked by seven-car S7 Stock, part of Bombardier’s Movia family, with a top speed of 62 mph (100 km/h). The first ran on the Circle on 2 September 2013. A train carries 865 passengers, against 739 on the six-car C Stock it replaced, and at 117 metres it is 24 metres longer, so platforms had to be extended. Because this is a sub-surface line, with tunnels just below street level and similar in size to main-line ones, the trains are full-size rather than tube-profile. They are maintained at Hammersmith depot, with overnight sidings at Barking and near High Street Kensington. A control room for the sub-surface railway opened at Hammersmith on 6 May 2018 as part of the move to Thales CBTC signalling.
Frequently asked questions
Not continuously. Since 13 December 2009 trains run from Hammersmith to Edgware Road, go round the loop once and terminate at Edgware Road, then return the same way. The change brought the Hammersmith & City line route to Hammersmith into the Circle and improved reliability.
None. Every one of its 36 stations is shared with at least one other line – the District, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan or another tube line. Only two short stretches of track are the Circle’s alone: between Aldgate and Tower Hill, and between Gloucester Road and High Street Kensington.
Although the inner circle was completed in 1884, it was worked for decades by the Metropolitan and District railways. On the 1947 map the Metropolitan and District were shown in the same colour, and the Circle was shown as a separate line for the first time in 1949.
No, there is no Night Tube on the Circle line. The last weekday departures from Edgware Road are at 00:43 outbound and 00:55 inbound, and the last weekday train from Hammersmith leaves at 00:30. For overnight travel see our Night Tube guide.
As of December 2012 the journey from Edgware Road around the loop and on to Hammersmith took 72 minutes off-peak. In 2006, when trains still ran round a closed loop, the minimum off-peak running time for one circuit was 51½ minutes.