In the 1990s, someone had the brilliant idea to extend the Jubilee Line east, all the way to Stratford. This was the Jubilee Line Extension, or JLE, and it was a disaster of epic, beautiful proportions. The budget started at £2.5 billion and ended at £3.5 billion—and that’s after they forgot to count the cost of waterproofing the tunnels.
The extension opened in stages from 1999 to 2000, and let me tell you, the engineers were sweating. They had to bore under the River Thames twice, and at one point, the tunnel flooded so badly that the tabloids had a field day with headlines like “Jubilee Leak.”
But the stations became instant icons. Westminster station looks like the inside of a nuclear reactor, with exposed metal and concrete. Canary Wharf is so cavernous you could land a small aircraft inside it. The architects clearly said, “Screw it, let’s make it look like a Bond villain’s lair.”
London Underground extension celebrates anniversary
Surprising Facts to Blow Your Mind
Here’s a juicy one: the Jubilee Line was supposed to be called the Fleet Line, named after the River Fleet. But the Queen’s Jubilee happened, and the PR department decided “Fleet” sounded too much like a cleaning product. So they changed it last-minute.
Another shocker: the line has 27 stations, but two of them—Stratford and Stanmore—are actually above ground. So technically, it’s not entirely a tube. It’s more of a “tube-and-a-bit-of-sunshine” line.
And get this: during construction of the extension, workers discovered a Roman road near Bermondsey. The archaeologists were thrilled. The engineers were not—they had to stop digging for three weeks while the historians took photos.
