The tube
People are obsessed with the London Underground – this is a fact. Since 1863, the network tunnels and trains that run underneath this historic city has fascinated many, and for quite a good reason. There are so many things to learn about the underground that the learning never stops. When I was studying for my tour guide badge qualification in Westminster, our interior building exam was on the London Transport Museum. I must admit, I was a little dismayed. Surely, something like the National Portrait Gallery would have been ‘more interesting’? Boy, was I wrong. Instead, I became fascinated, catching the bug for wanting to learn even more about the Underground. Years later, I got the opportunity to volunteer as a guide for their Hidden London programme and the learning continues for me today. Proclaiming myself just as obsessed with the Underground as others, here are some of the reasons why it is such a remarkable and interesting subject.
Illustration shows the trench and partially completed cut and cover tunnel close to Kings Cross station, London. The railway eventually opened in 1863. Illustrated London News
FROM YESTERDAY TO TODAY Whistlestop history
It was Charles Pearson in 1845 who had the initial idea, and Sir John Fowler was the man to design the engineering solu- tions. Sir John Wolfe-Barry designed most of the District Line, and Marc Brunel de- signed the Tames Tunnel, which is now part of the Overground. When it was first being built, the London Underground that we know today was a series of separate tun- nels operated by separate companies. Later an American financier Charles
Tyson Yerkes (pronounced to rhyme with turkeys) came to London in 1900. He had left Chicago following a previous scandal and some questionable methods in raising funds for his projects, he got involved in the transportation developments in London once he saw it. First he established the Underground Electric Railways Company and purchased the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway – now part of the Northern Line. He then acquired the District Railway
(now District Line) and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (now the Piccadilly Line), and partially built the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (now the Bakerloo Line). All of this raised the eyebrows of banker J.P Morgan but somehow Yerkes kept the mogul at bay. Some financial hic-
20 FOCUS The Magazine July/August 2019
www.focus-info.org
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