Customer Reviews

The Metropolitan Line: London's First Underground Railway

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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I found this a most readable volume on the Metropolitan Railway. There is humour, and facts abound. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is interested either in the Metropolitan's history itself, or more generally, the history of London's transport development.

Clive Foxell never fails to delight with his books on the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint line and his latest offering
maintains his usual high standard. Those of us old enough to remember the early 1950s will appreciate just how much of the Joint line
atmosphere survived north of Rickmansworth up until electrification and Mr Foxell captures this brilliantly.
Highly recommended.

My fascination with the met came as a very young boy discovering, when seeing Betjamen's Metro-Land for the first time that I lived in the heart of it. Now that I've long since moved I've maintained that fascination. This book has helped further ignite that interest and, unlike so many books that are illustration led, this has a better balance of interesting prose and photos. There's nothing overtly new here but it does successfully bring together strands, stories and information that are otherwise scattered through multiple resources.

Whether you find this book a satisfying read and a valuable source of reference will depend on your hopes at the outset. The Metropolitan Railway, the first in London, came to comprise the line from Hammersmith to Aldgate, a branch from Paddington (Praed Street) to South Kensington, and branches emanating from Baker Street to Uxbridge, Stanmore, Watford and Aylesbury, Brill and Verney Junction. If you are seeking a broad survey of all these lines with an equality of coverage, then this is not the book for you. However, if you are particularly interested in the adventures of the Metropolitan line in Buckinghamshire then there is much of interest. The author sets out to use a high proportion of photos and information not previously published. Those of some of the people involved in the railway are especially evocative. I cannot recall, in any other previous publication, personal information such as that given for the photograph on page 85.

It is also good to have graphic reminders of the devastation caused to London's railways by terrorist attacks more than a century ago as well as in two World Wars. Some will be surprised by the considerable commercial importance of freight haulage by the `Met' in the earlier part of the 20th century, including that from Smithfield Market.

However, hinted at in the Preface to the book, you become aware that both text and photographs place their major emphasis on the Met's Aylesbury and Chesham lines and their partners in these operations. The Great Central Railway and its Marylebone Station, the subsequent steam operations of the LNER and LMR, the Chiltern Line, now under the ownership of Deutsche Bahn, and plans for the future that go almost 80 years beyond the time when the Met was absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board and now remains only a name on the map of the Underground.

Thus a fascinating book, but one for which the title is somewhat misleading.

I read the other reviews for this book, and thought it sounded interesting. Interesting must be an understatement! If you are interested in the Met, or live along the line, this is a must. If you live in Buckinghamshire, then it brings it alive. I'm not geek, but seeing signs on platforms, that relate to an early era, brings it all back to life. Well written, and easy to read. Brilliant!