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What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M. Harris  (2)
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Book Description
In 1900 an American financier called Charles Yerkes took charge of much of London's underground railway system which had been in service since 1863 and was, even then, showing signs of its age. Over the next five years Yerkes applied his business methods - which he described as "Buy up old junk, fix it up a little and unload it upon other fellows" - to the construction of much of the capital's deep-level tube system. When he died in 1905 he left the system on the verge of bankruptcy.Yerkes was one of many colourful characters who gave London its underground railway system. Sir Marc Brunel, father of Isambard, built the Thames Tunnel which carries the East London Railway between Whitechapel and New Cross. Whitaker Wright began to build the Bakerloo Line, fled to America in the face of mounting debts and was brought back to stand trial for fraud. He was convicted, sentenced to 7 years hard labour and collapsed in the Law Courts, having taken cyanide. An earlier fraudster, Leopold Redpath, was one of the last convicts to be transported to Australia for embezzling funds intended to build London's underground. In the late nineteenth century Sir Edward Watkin was determined to make his Metropolitan railway the pivot of a system which would carry passengers from Manchester to Paris and beyond via a channel tunnel, which he actually began to built close to the site of the present one. A century later the extension of the Piccadilly Line realised Watkin's dream: a passenger could begin his journey on the Underground to anywhere in the world. But the London Underground is more than a railway. In the twentieth century, under the enlightened management of Frank Pick, the Underground was responsible for some striking developments in industrial design. Bauhaus, Cubist and other innovative ideas were applied to station architecture, advertising and rolling stock. The works of such artists as Graham Sutherland, Rex Whistler and Lucie Attwell was exposed to large audiences for the first time, as was that icon of industrial design, Harry Beck's diagrammatic map of the Underground network. During the second world war the Underground provided shelter for Londoners, the D-Day planners, the government and a factory making components for Spitfires and Lancasters. Making use of extensive research in London's archives "Underground to Everywhere" examines all these aspects of the London Underground, from the Victorian origins to the twenty-first century as the fortunes of the system lie once again in the hands of an American manager, Robert Kiley, and London's first elected mayor, Ken Livingstone.
Synopsis
Since Victorian times, London's Underground has made an extraordinary contribution to the economy of the capital and has played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. This wide-ranging history of the Underground celebrates the vision and determination of the Victorian pioneers who conceived this revolutionary transport system. It records the scandals, disappointments and disasters that have punctuated the story and the careers of the gifted, dedicated, sometimes corrupt individuals who have shaped its history. It also offers an insight into the neglected, often unseen aspects of this subterranean system - the dense network of tunnels, shafts and chambers that have been created beneath the city streets.
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In 1900 an American financier called Charles Yerkes took charge of much of London's underground railway system which had been in service since 1863 and was, even then, showing signs of its age. Over the next five years Yerkes applied his business methods - which he described as "Buy up old junk, fix it up a little and unload it upon other fellows" - to the construction of much of the capital's deep-level tube system. When he died in 1905 he left the system on the verge of bankruptcy.Yerkes was one of many colourful characters who gave London its underground railway system. Sir Marc Brunel, father of Isambard, built the Thames Tunnel which carries the East London Railway between Whitechapel and New Cross. Whitaker Wright began to build the Bakerloo Line, fled to America in the face of mounting debts and was brought back to stand trial for fraud. He was convicted, sentenced to 7 years hard labour and collapsed in the Law Courts, having taken cyanide. An earlier fraudster, Leopold Redpath, was one of the last convicts to be transported to Australia for embezzling funds intended to build London's underground. In the late nineteenth century Sir Edward Watkin was determined to make his Metropolitan railway the pivot of a system which would carry passengers from Manchester to Paris and beyond via a channel tunnel, which he actually began to built close to the site of the present one. A century later the extension of the Piccadilly Line realised Watkin's dream: a passenger could begin his journey on the Underground to anywhere in the world. But the London Underground is more than a railway. In the twentieth century, under the enlightened management of Frank Pick, the Underground was responsible for some striking developments in industrial design. Bauhaus, Cubist and other innovative ideas were applied to station architecture, advertising and rolling stock. The works of such artists as Graham Sutherland, Rex Whistler and Lucie Attwell was exposed to large audiences for the first time, as was that icon of industrial design, Harry Beck's diagrammatic map of the Underground network. During the second world war the Underground provided shelter for Londoners, the D-Day planners, the government and a factory making components for Spitfires and Lancasters. Making use of extensive research in London's archives "Underground to Everywhere" examines all these aspects of the London Underground, from the Victorian origins to the twenty-first century as the fortunes of the system lie once again in the hands of an American manager, Robert Kiley, and London's first elected mayor, Ken Livingstone.
Synopsis
Since Victorian times, London's Underground has made an extraordinary contribution to the economy of the capital and has played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. This wide-ranging history of the Underground celebrates the vision and determination of the Victorian pioneers who conceived this revolutionary transport system. It records the scandals, disappointments and disasters that have punctuated the story and the careers of the gifted, dedicated, sometimes corrupt individuals who have shaped its history. It also offers an insight into the neglected, often unseen aspects of this subterranean system - the dense network of tunnels, shafts and chambers that have been created beneath the city streets.
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