The London Tweed Run

Are your sartorial senses dismayed by today’s lycra-clad cyclists? Celebrate proper cycling attire at the annual Tweed Run, a refined bike ride through London in which all participants are dressed in tweed. Many of the bicycles used match the traditional clothing, and you’ll see unicycles and vintage bikes amongst the mass of cyclists. Places for participants have now been allocated, but spectators can watch along the route – keep an eye on the Tweed Run website for details. 13 Apr

The E4 Udderbelly Festival

Get ready to giggle as the upside-down purple cow returns to the South Bank for another summer of top comedy, circus and cabaret. Not only does the E4 Udderbelly Festival give you the chance to see hilarious acts such as Richard Herring and Stephen K Amos, but the festival space also boasts a huge outdoor bar which is great for sunny afternoons. Visit the festival website for ticket and schedule information. 12 Apr-14 Jul 

Asia House Festival

Immerse yourself in the Orient at the fourth Asia House Fair, which features the best in arts, crafts and design from across Asia. More than 35 stalls will be present, offering unusual handmade gifts from the likes of China Life, Memsahib and Treasures from the Silk Road. Visitors can also enjoy Afternoon Tea in Mackwood’s Tea Room. Entry is free and you can check the fair’s opening times on the Asia House website. 12-14 Apr

The RHS Orchid and Botanical Art Festival at Royal Horticultural Halls

See spectacular displays of orchids at the Royal Horticultural Society’s show, which presents displays from prominent British and international growers. Visitors can also shop for beautiful plants, listen to talks by orchid experts and marvel at the largest botanical art display of the year. Tickets are £8 and can be booked on the RHS website, where you can also view the show’s opening times.  11-13 Apr

Spring Open Weekend at the London Transport Museum Depot, Acton

Celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground at the London Transport Museum’s Depot, which houses more than 400,000 items. As well as seeing the Metropolitan Steam Locomotive No. 1 in steam, families can ride the model railway, listen to talks, see fascinating displays and even make their own model steam train. Tickets are £10 and the event runs from 11am-5pm both days. 13-14 Apr

More London events

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, the oldest subterranean railway in the world. A major exhibition at the London Transport Museum opens this week, celebrating one of the most distinctive elements of the Tube – design. The multicoloured lines on the iconic map make order out of chaos, and also provide inspiration for artists and scientists alike. Here are some of our favourite re-imaginings.

The Real-time Tube Map

This fascinating map plots the live location of each train on the Tube network, using departure data from Transport for London. Matthew Somerville created it in 2010 at a ‘hack’ weekend – a gathering of designers and web developers who create projects from scratch over several days.

The History of Music Tube Map

Pop, rock, punk and funk are all there on this brilliant Music on the Tube map, which charts 100 years of popular music thanks to the efforts of the folks on the Guardian’s Culture Vulture blog. Each station is an artiste, and it’s fun to see where Michael Jackson intersects with Basement Jaxx and Bob Dylan links up with The Rolling Stones.

The Geographically Accurate Tube Map

Have you noticed that stations on the London Underground’s map can appear to be in different parts of the capital, yet are minutes away by foot? The map is designed to be easily read and understood, but this geographically accurate version from Project Mapping reveals the true locations of the stops, relative to each other.

The Electric Tube Map

The recently-completed Overground network (the orange line on the map) can take you in a complete ring around the city, albeit with several changes in between. Taking this as artistic inspiration, The Electric Tube uses concentric circles for the orbital sections of the Circle Line and Overground network and straight lines for the Central and Piccadilly Lines. It accurately shows where each train line connects, and uses a sine wave for the Northern Line’s Bank branch which crosses the Circle Line no fewer than three times. The map was the brainchild of Oliver O’Brien from the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London.

 The Bikes on the Tube Map

Bicycles are only permitted on certain parts of the Tube (mainly lines outside of the centre, such as the Circle and District lines) and at certain times (outside of rush hours). This handy map from Transport for London points them out, as well as detailing the lines on which carrying a fold-up bike is allowed while a regular bike is not. An invaluable resource for cyclists wanting to take the Underground to speed up part of a journey.

Find more events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Tube.

By Bengt Bjorkberg

Standing on a platform in Moorgate station and seeing a steam train roll in is not an everyday occurrence, but I had the pleasure of experiencing it this month. OK, it was not a surprise as such, I had gotten my tickets, and London Transport Museum had pulled out all the stops to ensure that this would be a truly unique experience. Not only were there a station manager and police constable in period clothing, there was even a brass quintet entertaining passengers in the station lobby, not to mention the number of passengers that had put on their Sunday best. In fact the number of fellow commuters who seemed to have period Sunday best, ca. 1880-1940 surprised me and I felt under dressed myself!

Whatever interest you may have in trains and underground transportation; there is something magical about the old carriages being pulled by a steam locomotive. I admit that I, like most six-year-olds, dreamt of becoming a train driver for at least a week, but also must admit that I have been known to call roadside assistance for a flooded engine, so I have no specialist interest as such.

Saying that, the sound, smell and sight of this mode of transportation still awakes some romantic interest in the old days and this journey showed me what it may have been like. From the old “What to do in air raids” posters that are still in the third-class carriages to the detailed re-creation of the gas lamps in first-class carriage 353, to the Metropolitan Railways coat of arms on the locomotive, it all served to make it a unique experience of how it used to be.

Even if you did not have tickets, there was a chance to see the train along its route as it travelled from Moorgate to Edgeware Road and back. Judging by the number of smiling TfL workers, Transport Police officers and commuters who took the opportunity so snap a picture, it was worth the standard fare to see the train go by.

Did you encounter any of the Steam and Heritage Train Journeys this January? Tell us about it in the comments below

In one of the tastier celebrations of the Tube’s 150th birthday, The Park Lane Hotel’s pastry chef has created a London Underground-themed afternoon tea.

Among the treats on offer are a London Bridge roll, Circle and District Line roulade and Royal Oak smoked salmon bagel. The sweet offerings include Limehouse curd and Victoria plum jam and clotted cream, a white chocolate Oreo Swiss roll Cottage and a selection of London Underground pastries.

The London Underground Afternoon Tea at The Park Lane Hotel costs £41 per person and is available until 10 February. The tea is served from 3pm to 6pm weekdays and 2pm to 6pm at weekends. Bookings must be made in advance. To book, call The Palm Court on +44 (0)20 7290 7328 or visit www.palmcourtlondon.co.uk

Royal Mail has released a special set of stamps to celebrate 150 years of the London Underground.

The first train ran along the Metropolitan Railway from Paddington Station to Farringdon Street exactly 150 years ago today. The network now has 270 stations and carries 1.2 billion passengers a year.

The new stamps illustrate the Tube’s history, from steam-powered trains to Art Deco stations and the modern Canary Wharf station. They’re available at UK Post Offices from today or at www.royalmail.com/underground.

The year 1863 began with the opening of the world’s first underground railway – London’s Tube – on 9 January, 150 years ago today! Further significant events from 1863 include:

• JANUARY: In railway-related news, construction began in Sacramento, California, of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States.

• FEBRUARY: US inventor Alanson Crane patents a fire extinguisher that uses a combination of sodium bicarbonate and sulphuric acid to shoot pressurised water (the world’s first fire extinguisher was patented in England in 1723)

• MARCH: A Royal Wedding in the UK when The Prince of Wales Albert Edward (later Edward VII) married Princess Alexandra of Denmark at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

• APRIL: George Gilbert Scott’s design for the Albert Memorial was formally approved by Queen Victoria (it took 10 years to build and opened in 1872).

• MAY: The Salon des Refuses exhibition opens in Paris, featuring works of avant-garde artists including Manet’s Le dejeuner sur l’herbe.

• JUNE: The Victoria & Albert Museum‘s recently opened North Court featured its first exhibition this year – a display of the wedding presents given to the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandria.

• JULY: Madame Tussauds has been open in London’s Baker Street for 21 years. The exhibition at this time featured around 400 famous figures in wax including Horatio Nelson and Sir Walter Scott.

• AUGUST: You could enjoy a summer visit to Hampton Court Palace gardens, which were opened to the public by Queen Victoria in 1838.

• SEPTEMBER: London Zoo‘s public aquarium (the first in the world) has been open for 10 years.

• OCTOBER:  The Football Association is founded at the Freemason’s Arms on Long Acre, London.

• NOVEMBER: US President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address in Pennsylvania.

• DECEMBER: In more railway news, Romania’s first mountain railway opens between Anina to Oravita.

London Transport Museum

Your first stop for any transport-related tourism. At the London Transport Museum you can find out all about the world’s first underground railway, learn about its famous roundel logo and pick up Tube merchandise in the shop, from Tube map iPad covers to books about the Tube.

The museum is great for kids, with plenty of interactive exhibits, including vintage buses to climb on and a simulator giving you the chance to drive a Tube train. This year, the museum is hosting a special anniversary exhibition about poster art on the Tube and has a programme of special events to mark the 150th anniversary.

London Transport Museum Depot at Acton

If the London Transport Museum whets your appetite, head to the museum’s store in West London where you can see the rest of the collection which is not in display in the main museum. There are more than 370,000 objects here, including vehicles, signs, posters, uniforms and photographs. The depot is not open every day and can only be visited on a guided tour or during open weekends. This year’s open weekends are in April and October.

Brunel Museum

The Tube isn’t the only London icon celebrating a big birthday this year; the Thames Tunnel, which connects Rotherhithe and Wapping, turns 170. Built by Marc Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel, this is the oldest tunnel in London.

It was designed to carry cargo from one side of the river to the other, but that proved too expensive and so the tunnel opened instead as a tourist attraction in 1843, with visitors paying a penny to walk beneath the river.

In 1869, the first passenger trains ran through the tunnel. It was later used as part of the East London Underground line and is now part of the London Overground. Take one of the Brunel Museum’s excellent guided tours, where you can enter the Grand Entrance Hall of the tunnel.

Museum of London and Museum of London Docklands

At these two museums, you can learn about the Tube’s construction and how it affected a growing city. At the Museum of London’s People’s City gallery, which looks at the rapid expansion of the city between the 1850s and 1950s, you can find out how the Tube and new technologies in transport transformed the way people navigated the city.

Over at the Museum of London Docklands, the New Port, New City gallery examines how the docklands area has boomed in the past few decades, including the building of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). You can also see part of a DLR carriage on display.

Have we missed anything? Let us know where else you can learn about the Tube

So get your diaries out and pencil in an important date. On 9 January London Underground will celebrate its 150th anniversary. That’s right, a century and a half since the first underground journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the Metropolitan Railway. A range of events are planned for 2013, starting on 13 January with a recreation of that first journey.

But if trainspotting isn’t your thing, consider marking the occasion another way. In fact, what better to way to celebrate the Tube’s big birthday than by burying your head in a book about the Underground?

Penguin is the official publisher for the event and will mark it with the release of several tie-in titles. There are short paperbacks themed on individual lines, with the authors offering a personal reflection or a piece of inspired fiction; a definitive history of the Tube; a new collection of Poems on The Underground and a book charting the evolution of London Underground’s iconic design.

Already out is:

• Underground: How The Tube Shaped London by David Bownes and Oliver Green: From the London Transport Museum curators and archive comes an official history of the Underground, which is described as a rich work of social, design and engineering history.
• Poems on the Underground by Judith Chernaik, Gerard Benson and Cicely Herbert: A new collection of the much-loved series, including poems not previously published in other anthologies.
• London Underground by Design by Mark Ovenden: Since the 1920s, the Underground’s design – its maps, carriages, posters – has been a part of Britain’s culture and design history. Available from 31 Jan

The specially commissioned Penguin Lines are:

• A Good Parcel of English Soil – The Metropolitan Line by Richard Mabey
• Drift-The Hammersmith and City Line byPhilippe Parreno
• What We Talk About When We Talk About The Tube -  The District Line by John Lanchester
• Heads and Straights – The Circle Line by Lucy Wadham
• A Northern Line Minute by William Leith
• Waterloo-City, City-Waterloo byLeanne Shapton
• The 32 Stops – The Central Line by Danny Dorling
• The Blue Riband –  The Piccadilly Line by Peter York
• Earthbound – The Bakerloo Line by Paul Morley
• Mind The Child – The Victoria Line by Camila Batmanghelidjh
• A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Lineby John O’Farrell
• Buttoned-up –  the East London Line by Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom

There are of course many other existing books on the subject. Journeys on the Tube offer fantastic people watching opportunities and so make for extremely fertile ground for fiction too. Here are a pick of the many publications already available:

• Underground, Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube by Andrew Martin. The author blends reportage, humour and personal stories in this engaging history. He attempts to untangle the Northern Line, visit every station in a day – and find out which gaps to be especially mindful of.
• Underground London by Stephen Smith. An alternative tour around London, as seen from below. Stephen Smith uncovers the secrets of the city by walking through sewers and tunnels under such places as Hampton Court, ghost tube stations, and long lost rivers like the Fleet and Tyburn.
• 253 by Geoff Ryman. This novel tells the stories of the 252 passengers and one driver on a seven-and-a-half minute journey from Embankment to Elephant and Castle. Each character has a page devoted to their stories.
• Mr Becks’ Underground Map by Ken Garland. This contains illustrated colour diagrams of the various maps issued from 1908 to 1964 and also diagrams from Harry Beck’s original sketch in 1931 until his last diagram in 1964.

What’s your favourite book about the Tube?

Last week a steam train chuffed into London’s Baker Street station as part of preparations for the Tube’s 150th  anniversary celebrations that are kicking off in January 2013. This BBC London newsreel explains some of the history of London’s underground as well as showing footage of the first steam train on the network for a good long while.

How are you planning to celebrate the Tube’s 150th birthday in London next year? Let us know in the comments below.

On sale from 10 December, the limited edition Oyster card features the Tube’s shiny new 150th anniversary logo, set against an attractive background of vintage Underground designs. You can use the cards in the same way as usual, either as pay as you go or by adding your Travelcard to it, and they will be available to buy at London Underground stations and TfL Travel Information Centres. The special Oyster cards come hot on the heels of the success of the cards created for the Royal Wedding and the Diamond Jubilee. Grab one while you can – it might be 150 years before they make another one!

Visitors to London from the UK and overseas can buy visitor Oyster cards in advance, although they may not feature the limited edition design.