The 1920 stock was constructed by Cammell Laird in Nottingham, England, these where the first stock to have air-operated doors, consisting of 40 carriages, 20 control trailers and 20 trailers, there where no driving motors constructed with these.

They where used with twenty converted 1906 or gate stock driving motors which had been converted to air-operated doors especially for their operation with the 1920 stock. These driving motors where replaced in 1930 with twenty examples of 'standard stock' driving motors.

The stock was introduced on the Piccadilly line, however they where unsuitable for operating on the open sections of the line and became considered drab in comparison to the new 'standard stock' trains, being installed onto the line. The motors where replaced and the carriages refurbished, the most notable of which was the abandonment of longitudinal seating for a central section of bay seating, beginning in 1927. The stock was then transferred to the Bakerloo line in 1930 for local workings.

A second refurbishment had been planned for use on the Northern and City line between Moorgate and Finsbury Park, however this was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. The 1920 stock carriages where retired from service in 1938.

Between 1946 and 1948 the carriages where scrapped, with the exception of five carriages which where reconstructed into an instruction train, until they where scrapped in 1969.