 In 1837 Euston railway station opened , the first railway station connecting London with the industrial heartlands of the West Midlands and Lancashire . Railways were banned by a Parliamentary commission from operating in London itself , and thus the station was built on what was then the northern boundary of the city . Other main line termini north of London soon followed at Paddington ( 1838 ) , Bishopsgate ( 1840 ) , Fenchurch Street ( 1841 ) , King 's Cross ( 1852 ) and St Pancras ( 1868 ) . All were built outside the built @-@ up area of the city , making them inconvenient to reach . Charles Pearson ( 1793 – 1862 ) had proposed the idea of an underground railway connecting the City of London with the relatively distant London main line rail termini in around 1840 . In 1854 to promote the scheme he commissioned the first ever traffic survey , determining that each day 200 @,@ 000 walked into the City of London , 44 @,@ 000 travelled by omnibus , and 26 @,@ 000 travelled in private carriages . A Parliamentary Commission backed Pearson 's proposal over other schemes . 
