R.o.B Underground London’s Underground Railways
Introduction
The History of London and its development is a mini version of Britain’s development as a whole. Without the development of transport the country would not be as it is today nor would London be one of the financial centres of the world. Its proximity to water saw the Romans arrival to form the port of Londinium with the Saxons and Vikings following and then Normans (the last people to invade Britain). All of these groups saw the strategic importance of London though it was only the Romans that connected the city to the rest of the country with roads but with the fall of the Roman Empire transport development literally drew to a stand still until the development of canal networks and road systems. Cities such as London were mostly self contained environments only the rich or those with essential need travelling beyond the city but with the industrial revolution in the mid 18th Century the city started to expand as more industry set up on the banks of the Thames and the other rivers in the area. With this development came the need for workers most of whom came from the country side where there was another much lesser known revolution taking place this time in the form of an Agricultural revolution with new farming techniques and tools doing away with small farm plots and large farms taking over requiring less workers. London was to grow to such a scale that with people moving there for work that by the mid 19th century and the full the growth of railways to the city congestion was rife and the streets which were not designed for such traffic levels were almost at stagnation point as traffic drew to a standstill. In this article we will look at the reason for London’s need for, not just one but multiple underground railways not all of which are or ever were under London Underground control. The City of London normally referred to as ‘the City’ is in actuality only one square mile in size with a long history dating back to medieval time and is the oldest local authority in England. It is sited in an ‘artesian basin’ ringed by hills to north and south with water from the Chilterns and north Downs flowing under the city which is built on chalk, sand and clay making it an ideal place for the River Thames to flow. This was one of the reasons for industries that were water dependent to establish their works there due to the natural water supply for the steam boilers etc and also for the Thames so that the final product could be despatched all around the country with easy delivery of high quality coal possible by ship from Newcastle and Sunderland. What people refer to as London, today, is in fact the area that grew around the City after 1800 as the population grew from 1,800 in 1800 to 2.5 million by 1850. The need to house the workers for the factories swamping surrounding villages with industry east of the ‘City’ and on the south bank of the Thames wide spread due to the ease with which products could be dispatched from the pool of London, which is the area between Tower Bridge and London Bridge. London was first used by the Romans, making the river a focal point of trade around the country, ships sailing from the Thames to all parts of the British coastline and abroad not just in Roman times but all through history until the ships became so big that they could not come up the Thames to London but served the Thames Estuary the goods carried from there by railway. As Britain developed its empire grew, London naturally becoming the centre of finance and politics for the empire, Companies establishing their headquarters there to be as close as possible to their ships and the heart of government. One of the many problems with the design or lack thereof of the city was that road transport in the early 19th century was not able to handle the goods that the ships brought in and took away due to the constricted layout of the city’s streets which were not designed or planned to handle such large amounts of traffic, canals helped the dispatch of goods though this was a slow method due to the tidal nature of the Thames which was also often congested. Today Greater London covers 610 square miles most of which has been built on.
With the arrival of the London and Birmingham Railway on 17 September 1838, Road traffic soon started to grow as goods from the industrial north midlands started to arrive in the city for sale, further working or transhipment abroad, with bringing with it more people looking for work. As many more proposals for railways approaching the city were made a Royal commission was held in 1846 to discuss the future of railways in the capital, ruling that railway termini must remain outside the city limits. The city at the time measuring 6¾ square miles, the Circle line forming what could arguably be described as the city centre. This move exacerbated the traffic problem which was gradually getting worse with not only goods having difficulty moving through the narrow streets, but also people going to and from work whether in an office or factory or for leisure purposes, though only a limited number would have been able to afford their own carriage or an early form of taxi known as a Hackney carriage. The river bridges to the south bank were also prone to congestion due to their being the only ones for some miles to the west of the city no crossings east of the city due to the width of the river though ferries did work from one bank to the other, tolls payable on the bridges and by 1836 175,000 people crossed London and Blackfriars Bridges a day. As more houses were built the city naturally grew outwards though it was common for several families to live in one small house, sometimes the house having only three rooms and four or five families. The expansion in population and city size saw the need for some kind of Public transport and on the 4th July 1829 a service using a 20 seater omnibus was introduced from the ‘Yorkshire Stingo’ public house in Paddington (no GWR yet) to the bank of England. The service was expensive to use though not as expensive as getting a cab or the stagecoach and was instantly popular with those that wanted to live in the suburbs in newly built houses constructed for those with some status in the city, and commuted in to the city for work. The idea had first come from Paris where a similar vehicle was in operation. The idea worked so well that by 1836 other companies were following suit and London’s public transport developed. The problem was that the roads were still only made from compacted mud even though it was tamped down to form a hard surface when it rained and with so much traffic the roads literally formed quagmires which were all but impassable even to pedestrians even though stepping stones were used at points along any one road. Then in 1861 George Frances train introduced to the streets of London his ‘street train’ in Bayswater, Victoria and Kennignton which was a great improvement to public transport which was still not affordable for the lower classes. The idea which had first been introduced to Birkenhead near Liverpool in 1860 and in Darlington in 1863, was not a total success as it caused many complaints due to the type of rail that was used. The rail known as ‘Step Rail’ had part of it raised above the roads surface the tram using flat tyred wheels running on the inside flat with the step used as the guiding edge. The London tramway was removed after six months due to the complaints, but also due to the lack of patronage, despite this the point was made that two horses could move a 50 seater tram running on metal rails far easier and economically than they could a 20 seater omnibus on the road. These developments in transport stimulated further growth as those that could afford it moved further away from a gradually worsening city that had serious population over crowding problems as well as the traffic difficulties.