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Jim Brittin · September 19th 04, 09:32 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
are says...

Date: 12/09/2004 19:35 GMT

Has anyone an earlier date than 1900 for the use of the expression
'the tube'?
I believe the 'Daily Mail' referred to the 'Two-penny Tube' on 4
August 1900; but was the Underground called 'the tube' before then?

The Gilbert & Sullivan operetta "Patience" (first performed in April 1881)
originally included reference in Act II to:

"A Chancery lane young man-
A Somerset House young man,-
A very delectable, highly respectable
Three-penny-bus young man!"

By 1900, when D'Oyly Carte restaged "Patience", some sources suggest he had
become a "two-penny tube young man". It's not often a transport query veers off
in this kind of direction I'll agree, but I'm sure there's some group of G & S
buffs out there who track every change of libretto with the same fervour as
railway enthusiasts record changes in locos and rolling stock. I wonder if they
can provide an answer?

It is indicated in "The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan" that
Gilbert changed the phrase to 'twopenny tube' for the 1900 revival of
'Patience'. As this revival started at the Savoy Theatre on 7th November
1900 it would appear that the Daily Mail reference pre-dated this.