The Subterranean Railway
Page 41
rivalry with Forbes, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
‘Watkin’s folly’, ref1, ref2
Watling Estate, ref1
Wealdstone, ref1
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice, ref1
weighing machines, ref1
Wells, H.G., ref1
Wembley, ref1, ref2
Wembley Park, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Wendover, ref1
West Brompton, ref1, ref2
West Croydon, ref1, ref2
West Hampstead, ref1
West India Dock, ref1
West Indians, ref1
West Kensington, ref1, ref2
West London Advertiser, ref1
West London Line, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
West London Railway, see West London Line
West Ruislip, ref1
Westbourne, river, ref1
Westbourne Grove, ref1
Westminster, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Westminster Central Hall, ref1
White City, ref1
White Star Line, ref1
Whitechapel, ref1, ref2, ref3
Whiteleys, ref1
Willesden, ref1, ref2
Willesden Green, ref1
Willesden Junction, ref1, ref2
Williams, Watkin, ref1
Willing, J., ref1
Wimbledon, ref1, ref2
Windsor, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Wire, David, ref1
Wolseley, Lieutenant General Sir Garnet, ref1
women staff, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Wood Green, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Wood Lane, ref1, ref2
Woodcock Hill and Woodcock Dell Estates, ref1
Woolwich, ref1, ref2
workmen’s trains, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Wright, Whitaker, ref1
Yerkes, Charles Tyson, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
in America, ref1
his death, ref1, ref2
District Railway takeover, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
fares policy, ref1, ref2, ref3
forward thinking, ref1
and J.P. Morgan, ref1
and profit-sharing notes, ref1, ref2
property speculation, ref1
and UERL, ref1
Yerkes Observatory, ref1
Zeppelins, ref1
ILLUSTRATIONS
Traffic chaos on the streets, print by Gustave Doré
The ‘Great Victorian Way’ by Sir Joseph Paxton (Copyright © TfL reproduced courtesy of London Transport Museum)
The pneumatic railway at Crystal Palace (TfL)
Charles Pearson (TfL)
‘Cut and cover’ at Parliament Square
Notting Hill Gate station (TfL)
Sir Edward Watkin (TfL)
James Staats Forbes (TfL)
A Circle line train approaches Aldgate (TfL)
Station advertising on the underground railways (TfL)
First-class travel
Earls Court station (TfL)
Inhospitable carriages on the first tube trains
Boat race day at Baker Street station
The Big Wheel at Earls Court (TfL)
Central London Railway locomotive (TfL)
Building a station using the Greathead shield (TfL)
A 1908 map of the Underground
A 1932 map of the Underground
A modern-day version of Harry Beck’s map of the Underground (TfL)
A 1905 poster advertising the ‘Twopenny Tube’ (TfL)
Down Street station, Mayfair (TfL)
Charles Yerkes (TfL)
A station assistant at Queens Park station (TfL)
Gatewoman at work during the First World War
Lord Ashfield and his daughter at the reopening of the City & South London Railway (TfL)
Sudbury Town station (TfL)
An Underground poster advertising season tickets (TfL)
The cover of the 1930 Metroland booklet (TfL)
Display of animals killed by trains at Charing Cross station, 1929 (TfL)
Frank Pick (TfL)
A 1930 poster encouraging people to go to the cinema (TfL)
A 1925 redesign of the famous roundel (TfL)
Crowds at Colindale on their way to RAF Hendon (TfL)
A crowded escalator during the Blitz (Getty Images)
Tube Refreshments Special
West Indian applicants for London Transport jobs (TfL)
A poster advertising the newly opened Victoria line (TfL)
Canary Wharf station (TfL)
The subterranean railway beneath Piccadilly Circus (TfL)
Traffic chaos on the streets was the stimulus for the creation of the Underground. This print by Gustave Doré also shows the unsightly bridge, built to connect the Metropolitan with the railways of south London, which wrecked the view of St Paul’s Cathedral.
The Victorians dreamt up many schemes for urban railways, but most were hopelessly unrealistic, like the ‘Great Victorian Way’ (above) by Sir Joseph Paxton which was intended to link the main line stations, as the Circle line would eventually do. Some far-fetched schemes, such as the pneumatic railway at Crystal Palace (below left), were actually built.
Charles Pearson (1793–1862), without whose vision the Underground may never have existed.
The ‘cut and cover’ method of building was incredibly disruptive to anything in its path. Here Parliament Square, with the Houses of Parliament in the background, is being excavated for the building of the District line. Today, the grass of the green in the middle of the square is part of a thin covering over the tunnel.
Early stations, such as Notting Hill Gate, which opened in 1868, were light and airy compared to many of their successors.
Sir Edward Watkin (1819–1901), left, and James Staats Forbes (1823–1904), right, were bitter rivals when they ran, respectively, the Metropolitan and the District railways.
The London system was the only underground in the world to use steam trains as the principal form of traction. Here a Circle line train approaches Aldgate.
The underground railways made use of every possible space in their stations to advertise their services.
These first-class passengers on their comfortable, upholstered benches are being advised that their next station is Victoria.
A gas-lit Earls Court station before electrification. Its appearance is otherwise little different from today, apart from the stairwells that now lead down to the Piccadilly line. Earl’s Court was also, later, the site of the system’s first escalator.
The designers of the first tube railway thought that windows were not needed on trains because there was nothing to see between stations. They also installed several of these rather perilous island platforms, most of which have now been replaced.
Right from the beginning the system was overloaded at peak times and when there were special events, such as this example of boat race day (probably) at Baker Street.
The Big Wheel at Earls Court, seen in the distance from Barons Court with the recently completed Piccadilly lines in the middle, was built on District Railway land in 1895 and attracted thousands of people onto the Underground system.
The builders of the Central London Railway made the mistake of hauling the trains with extremely heavy locomotives, which caused so much vibration on the surface that they had to be replaced in 1904, just four years after the line opened.
The tube lines were all dug out of the London clay using variations of the Greathead shield. Here, the excavation is larger than normal because the site is to be a station – Museum, now closed.
Yerkes used his architect Leslie Green to design his stations to a set formula, using the characteristic ruby-red tiles that still adorn many of them. This one at Down Street, Mayfair, was closed in 1932.
Charles Yerkes managed to obtain finance for the creation of three new Tube lines and built them in just seven years, an almost miraculous achievement of whic
h few Londoners are aware.
A scene from Queens Park station in 1917 with a station assistant putting up a poster for an event at the Royal Albert Hall below one for a football match presumably at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground near Walham Green station, now called Fulham Broadway.
During the First World War, men called to the Front were replaced by women in many of the jobs on the system, including the opening and shutting of the gates at the end of every carriage which, in the early days of the tube trains, had to be hand operated.
Lord Ashfield and his daughter on the day of the reopening of the City & South London Railway following work to amalgamate it with the Hampstead section to create what would later become known as the Northern line.
Stations such as Sudbury Town designed by Charles Holden and opened in July 1931, were often the first substantial buildings in the districts they were intended to serve.
The Underground tried to create its own market, with posters such as this one encouraging people to move to the suburbs and selling season tickets which were cheaper, per mile, than those from stations nearer the centre.
The cover of the 1930 Metroland booklet was still selling the suburban rural dream.
Animals killed by trains, as lines expanded into the rural surrounds of London, included otters and owls, displayed here at Charing Cross station in 1929.
Frank Pick, the administrative genius behind London Transport, using his famous green-ink pen.
A 1930 poster encouraging people to go to the cinema. The Underground was careful not to give free promotion to any particular venue or film.
A 1925 redesign of the famous roundel by Edward Johnston, with the characteristically expanded capital U and D.
Between the wars, air displays at RAF Hendon attracted huge crowds, most of whom travelled there on the Underground to nearby Colindale station.
At the height of the Blitz, the stations became so crowded that people had to spend sleepless nights on the escalators – the deep stations proved to be ‘the best shelters of all’.
Special refreshment trains were run to provide basic food such as buns and tea to thousands of shelters.
Thousands of West Indians were encouraged to come to Britain to take up vacancies on the Underground and the buses. Here, London Transport’s recruitment officer Charles Gomm signs up the first batch of applicants in Barbados, 1956.
The tradition of eye-catching posters on the Underground continued with the opening of the Victoria line, the first new tube line in central London since Edwardian days.
Several of the stations on the Jubilee Line Extension are architectural masterpieces like this one at Canary Wharf but, unlike those built by Green and Holden, are characterised by their contrasting styles.
The subterranean railway beneath Piccadilly Circus.
This 1908 map is the first to show all the Underground lines. It is largely geographically accurate, except for the Metropolitan, which, oddly, has been bent towards the west, presumably to accommodate the key above it.
By 1932 the system had expanded into the suburbs, and the map had become a chaotic representation of the system. Many passengers, particularly those unfamiliar with London, must have been bewildered by its complexity.
The modern version of the Harry Beck map demonstrates the flexibility of the design as it incorporates several extra lines and many more stations but still follows the principles he first set out, such as using only 45° and 90° angles and eschewing geographical accuracy in favour of clarity.
A 1905 poster demonstrating that the ‘Twopenny Tube’ was used by all classes.