London Underground Goes Bold with Annual ‘No Trousers Tube Ride’

The annual No Trousers Tube Ride made a colorful return as participants braved freezing temperatures to ride the London Underground in their underwear. Commuters gathered in Chinatown’s Newport Place, showing off their bare legs before heading to the Tube. Similar scenes unfolded at Waterloo station, where women in vibrant knickers performed high kicks and raised their arms in celebration.

Riders strolled down escalators, snapped selfies on platforms, and posed inside carriages, flaunting an eclectic mix of underwear styles and colors. From pink knickers and black Y-fronts to grey boxers adorned with red hearts, participants laughed and smiled throughout the free-spirited event.

Some attendees added unique touches to their outfits. One man paired a white shirt, black tie, and brown waistcoat, while another opted for warmth with an orange puffer jacket, matching beanie, and a blue scarf. Organizers, via their Facebook page, encouraged participants to dress “as normal or lowkey as possible so it looks like you’ve just forgotten your trousers.”

Described as “a fun activity just for the sake of fun,” the tradition originated in New York in 2002, conceived by comedian Charlie Todd. He envisioned the humor in people entering subway trains dressed for winter—minus their trousers.

“It would be unusual in New York, although you can see anything on our subway system,” Todd explained to the BBC. “But what would really be funny is if at the next stop, a couple of minutes later, when the doors open and additional persons got on, not wearing trousers as well. And they act like they don’t know each other, and they act like … it’s no big deal and they just forgot their trousers.”

The first event saw seven men boarding a train at consecutive stops without trousers, pretending not to notice one another. By 2008, the event had gone global, with 900 participants in New York and nine other cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto.

Today, over 60 cities worldwide host the No Trousers ride, including Shanghai, Berlin, Istanbul, Lisbon, and Tokyo. Todd highlighted the event’s purpose: “The whole point is just to create unexpected moments of joy, delight, and confusion. You know, it’s meant to be a bit of harmless fun. Certainly we are living in a climate where, you know, people like to have culture war fights. My rule in New York was always the goal of this event is to amuse other people, to give people a laugh. It’s not to be provocative, it’s not to irritate someone. So hopefully the spirit of that continues.”