Before leaving home, Mr Monkey had printed out a walking route from www.london-footprints.co.uk. He started at Farringdon tube station, one end of the first underground railway in London. When the Metropolitan Railway opened on January 10th 1863, 25,000 Londoners flocked to experience the new form of travel in the first twelve hours. Mr Monkey noticed a low wall between a car park and a flower stall. When he looked over the wall, he was able to look down on the Metropolitan line curving off to the Barbican, and what used to be the London, Chatham and Dover Railway taking mainline trains to Blackfriars*.
You can read a contemporary report about the opening of the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 at the Guardian website, and see the route Mr Monkey planned to take at the london-footprints website.
* Unfortunately, Mr Monkey put his head in front of the Blackfriars line, but it is there, honestly.
Copyright Rik Shepherd and Mr Monkey. This page last modified 28 February 2006