London And The Victorian Railway

During the reign of Queen Victoria Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the world, provoking a social and economic revolution whose effects are still being felt today. Since the latter part of the eighteenth century the process of industrialisation had built a firm foundation for nineteenth century growth and expansion. At the heart of this was the successful development and application of steam technology. Before brilliant engineers and entrepreneurs such as James Watt and Matthew Boulton had made steam power a practical reality that had radically improved Britain's core industries, namely the mining of coal, minerals and other raw materials and the production of iron, textiles and manufactured goods.

With its advanced industrial technologies Britain was able to attack a huge and rapidly expanding international market. At the start of Queen Victoria's reign, Britain's standing as a global industrial and trading power was already unrivalled. The complex structures of international trade developed by the Victorians and the maintenance of the process of wealth generation derived from them were dependent upon efficient means of communication.

In many ways, the Victorians owe their unique place in history to their imaginative and successful exploitation of three new communication technologies, the steamship, the railway and the electric telegraph. During the reign of Queen Victoria Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the world The steamship has a long, pre-Victorian ancestry, dating back at least to when the Marquis de Jouffray d'Abbans steamed his little boat, the Pyroscaphe, across the Seine.

The first steam-assisted crossing of the Atlantic took place in when the Savannah sailed from Georgia to Liverpool in hours. By the Atlantic crossing had been reduced to 22 days and steam ships had begun to operate on the major Imperial and trade routes to India, South Africa and Australia. The first two concentrated their efforts on the Atlantic and their rivalry launched the period of frenetic competition on that route that was to continue throughout the Victorian period and well into the twentieth century.

In April the Great Western sailed from Bristol to New York in 14 days and 12 hours, establishing the modern steamship era and the famous Blue Riband contest for the fastest transatlantic passage by passenger ships. Competition was intensified by the setting up by Samuel Cunard of a new shipping line. In July his first ship, the Britannia, crossed the Atlantic in 11 days and 4 hours. By the German liner the Deutschland could cross the Atlantic in under 5 days. Brunel's response to the challenge posed by his rivals was to design a bigger and better ship.

In July , the keel was laid in Bristol for a new ton iron super ship. Designed for speed and comfort, this was to be the most revolutionary steamship of the early Victorian period. Equipped with cabins and state rooms for passengers and the largest and most lavish dining room afloat, and the first large ship to be screw-driven, the Great Britain set the standard for large liners for many decades to come.

By the Great Britain, refitted to accommodate up to passengers, was operating an efficient London to Australia service and continued to do so for nearly twenty years. The success of the Great Britain encouraged Brunel and his backers to create one more ship.

A Selection of Great Victorian Railway Stations

Designed to carry passengers and enough coal to sail to Australia without refuelling en route, the ship was feet long, feet wide and weighed over 18, tons. Nothing on this scale had ever been considered before, and when she was finally broken up in , the Great Eastern was still the largest ship in the world.

The records of scale set by the Great Eastern were only finally broken by the super liners of the Edwardian era, the Lusitania of , the Titanic of and the Imperator of On the Great Eastern's maiden voyage in June the ship carried only 38 paying passengers. Scale and technical virtuosity were not enough and the smaller, simpler and faster ships of Samuel Cunard captured the traffic. This became a pattern and the ship never sailed with all berths filled. Increasingly a white elephant, the Great Eastern came out of passenger service in and was chartered by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company to lay telegraph cables across the Atlantic and from India to Aden, a task for which her huge size and powerful engines made her eminently suitable.

From an early date the British government realised that the successful operation and maintenance of an expanding trade empire depended upon fast, regular and reliable steamship services, supported by coaling and supply stations scattered all over the world. The primary function of the Royal Navy in Victorian Britain was the protection of these trade routes and their supply bases. As a result, the government sponsored the development and maintenance of the routes and, increasingly, the cost of building the ships.

Representation of the Rocket which heralded the dawn of the railway age. Electric traction was also available for the above-ground main-line railways, but was hardly adopted before WWI. The huge capital cost, the commitment to steam locomotive design and construction, and the ready availability of cheap coal acted as disincentives to electrification. There may well have been a failure on the part of British venture capitalists to see the potential of electric traction. Much of the money for constructing the London tubes came from American financiers, chief among whom was Charles Tyson Yerkes of Chicago.

The Americans had electrified urban transit earlier than the British and had made great profits, not least from associated property development, and they hoped to be similarly successful in Britain. In fact, the large profits were rather illusory, but the Americans built a quality system that brought social gains if not private profits The First World War saw a freezing of most developments in railway and urban transport but not of usage. Full employment, the massive use made of railways by the government to move troops and munitions, and lack of regular maintenance and replacement, left the physical stock of the railways in poor condition.

The wartime experience of running the railway system as a whole network convinced the government that there were economies of scale to be had, and that competition between lines was largely impractical. Perhaps the effective competition of coastal ships on some routes and for some commodities before the war, and the probability of competition from motorized road transport following the improvements made during the war, combined with the government's faith in a regulatory body, convinced it that oligopoly was safe.

For commuters into London, perhaps the most important development on the railways in the period between the two world wars was electrification. The Southern Railway pressed ahead, electrifying about a quarter of its track mileage. It adopted electrification to take advantage of the benefits of higher speeds and reliability. The better acceleration of commuter trains making many stops was of particular importance. Electrification widened the range of locations that City or West End workers could commute to.

Despite these advantages, electrification was not widely adopted by the other main-line companies, partly because of a shortage of funds for the large-scale investment, and partly because of a natural conservatism. The interwar London streets saw the proliferation of the motor bus, at first complementing and then competing with trams.

The motor bus became a large-scale people mover after reliability had been improved, and the pneumatic tyres gave a more comfortable ride. Unregulated routes and services encouraged unsafe and anti-social practices. Bus drivers were inclined to operate only in the peak hours when they could fill their buses, or raced each other to the next stop to pick up passengers.

As a result of the high competition, the wages of bus workers were low and the hours long. The London Traffic Act of was an attempt to curb some of these abuses, but was only partially successful. As a result of continuing problems, the idea of coordinating all London's passenger transport gained popularity. It was believed that cooperation might be more efficient than competition. The London Passenger Transport Board was established by an Act of Parliament in to coordinate all of London's buses, trams and tubes.

It was independent—one of the first Quasi Non-Government Organizations quango —and non-profit making, and took over the assets of five railways, 14 tramways, and 60 bus undertakings. It was the first example in the world of such coordination, and was remarkably successful under the guidance of Lord Ashfield as Chairman and Frank Pick as Chief Executive Officer. In the lates, it began extending the tubes, often above ground, as more middle-class people moved to the outer suburbs creating London urban sprawl; areas such as Ruislip, and Harrow became dormitory towns.

History of rail transport in Great Britain – - Wikipedia

The number of passenger journeys on all railways reflected this growth, rising from million in to over 1. More movement was required but other forms of transport, such as coastal shipping were very vulnerable to attack. Again, the government operated all the railways as one system. Prewar debates about the value of coordinated transport, plus wartime experience, combined with a postwar Labour government led to the nationalization of virtually all types of transport—airlines, railways, canals, buses and most road haulage—in the lates.

They were placed under the British Transport Commission, but a separate executive was established for London Transport. This body outlived the Labour government and managed London's transport until when the Greater London Council took over many of its policy-making roles.

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The s to s saw limited development of the London underground, especially compared to other capitals with greater civic pride, such as Paris and Tokyo. A new underground—the Victoria Line—was driven through from Walthamstow to Brixton. It was the first new line for over half a century. Construction began in and was completed in The justification was not narrowly financial, but was based on wider cost-benefit arguments about the value of a more comfortable journey, 17 because much of the line would take traffic from heavily used existing lines.

The outer ends opened up new areas to the tube system. Construction of the Jubilee Line, essentially a duplicate route from central London to the north-west suburbs, was authorized in the late s on a similar basis, to take traffic from the heavily-used Bakerloo Line between Baker Street and Charing Cross.

It was opened in from Stanmore to Charing Cross and subsequent extensions were authorized to cross the Thames to help expand and revitalize the Docklands developments being encouraged by Conservative governments of the s. Ironically, it was pressed forward by the champion of free-market economics, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in order to revive the ailing Canary Wharf property development company, which had undertaken renovation of the docklands and needed a quick form of transport to the City.

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The km Jubilee Line Extension was given an added urgency when the millennium showpiece—the Millennium Dome—was planned for construction on a brown-field site in North Greenwich. The line opened in stages in to ensure visitors are able to visit the millennium celebrations. The station at North Greenwich became the first in the UK to use glass platform doors Given London Transport's recruiting problems in the s and s, which necessitated employing workers from the Commonwealth, the logical response was a shift to personnel reductions.

The Victoria Line used DOO operation right from the start of operations in it could also run without a driver , as did the Jubilee Line a decade later. In the s, older lines such as the Circle were converted to DOO by installing cameras and large monitors on stations so the driver could see the full length of the train.

By then, the motive was cost reduction rather than labour recruiting difficulties. Immediately after WWII, there was an attempt to disperse population and industry from big cities such as Birmingham and London to New Towns and depressed regions, based on the recommendations of the Barlow Commission of This was meant to have a double benefit of easing congestion and pollution in the cities and creating employment in depressed regions.

The Location of Offices Bureau established as a government agency in , encouraged decentralization of both government and private offices.

Victorian Technology

It used a large-scale advertizing programme to press the advantages of New Towns and areas of higher unemployment. A number of government departments were moved out of central London. Some measure of its success might be seen in the decline in the s when the number of commuters to London by public transport dropped from nearly 1 million a day in to just over , in This decentralization policy was scrapped by the Thatcher government, which believed that market forces should be allowed to operate and that dirigiste government policies were a misallocation of resources.

This put even more pressure on London's transport at a time when government was disinclined to invest public money in state-run organizations. The number of people commuting to the capital by public transport then rose to , in and , in Current economic conditions and increasing road congestion has created rising demand with the result that the existing system is now stretched to capacity.

The GLC believed that fares were too high and were therefore encouraging use of private cars. Hence, it argued, reducing fares would encourage people to use public transport and reduce congestion. However, this innovative approach was seen as discriminatory to some London areas poorly served by public transport and was ruled illegal by the House of Lords.

In response to this setback, in the GLC introduced the Travelcard which allowed unlimited travel on both bus and underground and used zones rather than many tapering fare stages. Travelcard made travel much easier and cheaper if a number of journeys were made. In , the Capital Card was introduced, allowing unlimited travel on British Rail lines within London, as well as on London Transport tubes and buses. Again, there was enthusiastic take up, and in the mid- and lates, tube and rail usage increased, which was ironic when government policy did not favour public transport.

Another irony of the Thatcher-government years was the Docklands Light Railway.

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The government was very committed to redeveloping the London docks area, which had been largely abandoned when shipping moved down river to Tilbury. The government saw an opportunity for a brand-new prestige development of offices, shops and residential accommodation with wonderful views over the docks and Thames.

The dock area is very close to the City and hence highly desirable to well-paid City high-flyers enjoying the s economic boom. However, it needed a public transport link to the City. The cost of either an overground railway or an underground extension was so prohibitive that the government opted for a more cost effective solution—the Docklands Light Railway. This was much lighter and cheaper than the tubes, used shorter trains—only two carriages—with driverless computer-controlled operation and a different electric voltage. It was authorized in and opened in from Tower Gateway to Island Gardens in one direction and Stratford in the other.

It still has critics because it cannot be integrated into the underground and stands alone. It was a symbol of the late Thatcher government—innovative, privately built, exciting, but needing development. Subsequently, trains have increased in size, and extensions have been built, first eastwards to Beckton , and second, southwards across the Thames to Lewisham However, rush-hour capacity still leaves much to be desired.

That said, traffic has risen from 18, passengers per day in to 55, in As far as London is concerned, the postwar history of the railway system is one of lost opportunities. Some initiatives were taken, but many ideas never came to fruition. As part of British Rail's Modernisation Plans, electrification of the suburban services from Liverpool Street and King's Cross was undertaken, allowing quicker, cleaner journeys and greater capacity Electrification from Bedford to St.

Pancras and Moorgate followed in Ambitious plans in for further electrification were abandoned following government rejection. A major project outside London was the East Coast main line from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, which was finally fully electrified in although it had been in the plan Philip Hardwick , the architect of Euston, was articled to his father, Thomas Hardwick At the age of sixteen he started attending the Royal Academy Schools.

He began a four year architectural grand tour of Italy and France when he was twenty-three. He also designed Birmingham Curzon Street Station Hardwick was — a founder member of the Institute of British Architects, which became the Royal Institute of British Architects in He was also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

In he received the Royal Gold Medal for architecture. He was — with Charles Barry and Robert Smirke , one of the principal establishment architects of his era. Hardwick was a friend and defender of J M W Turne r and one of his executors. Betjeman was scathing about the current Euston Station, opened by the Queen in This seems a lame excuse for so inhospitable a building. In Gothic architecture, secular and domestic Scott declared:.

There are some simple stations between Lancaster and Carlisle which have always struck me as the best stations of the smaller kind I have seen in England. They are perfectly plain and unpretending and in the style of the old cottages in stone districts. I do not know whether the great station at Carlisle was by the same hand: Tite was indeed the designer of Carlisle Station completed in as he was of Carnforth, which was completed same year. Tite was an extremely versatile architect and was at one time President of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

In his latter years he was a Liberal Member of Parliament. All the important Yorkshire manufacturing towns were eventually served by the GNR. All the same I have an idea that St Pancras is the more practical station. Cubitt, perhaps because he came from a family of builders and engineers, looked at his job with equal pride but no romanticism. The roof of the clock tower heralds the coming of the new Italian villa ideals. Thomas Cubitt , who had begun his career as a carpenter, was the greatest London speculative builder and developer of the s.

Belgravia, Bloomsbury, Pimlico and Tyburn were largely built by him and he made an immense fortune. Unlike the station, it is of no remarkable architectural distinction, though the passing years have given it a charming patina. It is recommended for those wishing to spend a night in London before going on to Luton Airport. The two stations will supply a vivid lesson in the polarities of nineteenth-century architecture.

Lewis Cubitt was a very successful bridge designer — much of his work was overseas. He deserves more attention than he has received from historians. A railway is infinitely complex — calling for prowess in both civil and mechanical engineering, to say nothing of artistry. And Brunel had the imagination of an artist. He was responsible for building over a thousand miles of track. The gauge of his track was 7-foot-and-a-quarter inch.

As trains could be more stable than with a narrower gauge, high speeds could be attained — speeds of 60 mph were commonplace, locomotives were more powerful,; since they had bigger boilers, railway carriages could accommodate more passengers in greater comfort, freight trains could carry more. For all its advantages, the broad gauge was not adopted nationally. The last broad gauge train ran on May 22nd The proudly independent Great Western had finally to conform to the standard gauge used by the other railways — 4-feet 8-and-a-half inches.

The Great Eastern could reach a speed of almost 20 miles an hour. I am going to design, in a great hurry, a station after my own fancy. It is at Paddington, in a cutting, and admitting of no exterior, all interior and all roofed in. Now such a thing will be entirely metal as to all the general forms, arrangements and design; it almost of necessity becomes an Engineering Work, but, to be honest, even if it were not, it is a branch of architecture of which I am fond, and, of course, believe myself to be fully competent for, but for detail of ornamentation I neither have time nor knowledge, and with all my confidence in my own ability I have never any objection to advice and assistance even in the department which I keep to myself, namely the general design.