Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: London (7 page)

The Metropolitan Railway

Most of the spoil created by building the Metropolitan Railway was taken to the banks of the Thames where it was used to create the Victoria Embankment. But some of it was taken to the fringe of the built-up area and dumped at Stamford Bridge. In 1904 the site was bought by two brothers, Gus and Joseph Mears, who adopted it as a home for their new football club, Chelsea, the mounds of spoil being used to form the first terraces. The son of Joseph, also known as Jo Mears (1905-66), was chairman of Chelsea FC and of the Football Association and helped secure the World Cup for England in 1966. The ground was extensively redeveloped in the 1990s and new all-seater stands replaced the old terraces.

The Underground railway was successful from the start, despite the problems caused by steam trains operating underground. Amazingly, no accidents appear to have resulted from the dangerous practice of illuminating the carriages with gas lamps fed from gas held in tarpaulin bags on the roofs of the carriages, surrounded by flying sparks from the steam locomotives! The Metropolitan Line was built by the ‘cut and cover’ method: dig a trench along a road; build the railway; fill in what remains of the trench. Later lines swiftly followed, most of them being the ‘Tubes’ constructed far beneath the streets using tunnelling shields. The first of these, the City and South London Railway, opened in 1890 between Stockwell and the City. It is now the southern part of the Northern Line. It was the first to use electric locomotives.

An electric locomotive

Marc Brunels tunnel shield

The original map icon

Under the guidance of Frank Pick (1878-1941) the Underground also became known for modern, innovative design. Many of the stations on the system, notably the northern section of the Piccadilly Line, are listed buildings. Posters promoting travel were commissioned from artists who later became famous like Paul Nash and Mabel Lucie Attwell. A new typeface for station signs was commissioned from the artist Edward Johnston, sculpture from Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein and, of course, the famous Underground Map. Devised by electrical draughtsman Harry Beck (1901-74) during a period of unemployment, it was at first rejected as too revolutionary but is now an icon of industrial design, often imitated but never equalled.

Arnos Grove station

T
he Underground railway was not, of course, London’s first public transport. That was the brainchild of a retired sailor called Captain Baily who, from about 1640, was hiring out from the Maypole Inn in the Strand
coches haquenée
, a French term for a coach pulled by an ambling horse (abbreviated to ‘hack’ in English). The service was so successful that the coaches were soon blocking London’s narrow streets but in 1654 Oliver Cromwell licensed the Fellowship of Master Hackney Coachmen. In return for an annual licence fee of £5 the Hackneys enjoyed a monopoly of four-wheeled transport north of the Thames as far as the New Road, which is now the line of the Marylebone Road-Euston Road-Pentonville Road. Is this, perhaps, the origin of the legendary London cabbie’s claim ‘I don’t go south of the river’? In 1694 some ladies hired a Hackney coach and took it to Hyde Park where they ‘behaved disgracefully and insulted some very distinguished people driving in their private coaches’. As a result Hackneys (and their successors) were banned from Hyde Park until 1924.

In 1823 David Davis, a resident of Mount Street, Mayfair, introduced a cabriolet: a one-horse, two-seater design from France. Painted a distinctive yellow and black they were soon known as cabs. In 1850 the Metropolitan Police assumed responsibility for the Hackneys, issuing licences and administering the fearsome Knowledge test which has survived the advent of sat-navs. Aspiring taxi drivers may be seen in London at weekends, usually on bicycles, travelling slowly around the capital memorising street names from lists mounted on handlebars. Taximeters (a French word meaning ‘tariff meter’) were introduced in 1907. There are now about 16,000 licensed taxis and although they are often referred to as ‘black cabs’ they now come in all colours.

Cabbies’ cabins

Cabmen’s shelters are also a distinctive feature of the capital. Made of wood, usually painted green and emitting a distinctive smell of coffee they provide refreshment stops for taxi drivers. They owe their origins to the Earl of Shaftesbury who in 1875 created the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund which constructed 61 shelters, all within six miles of Charing Cross and in places frequently used by taxis. Thirteen of these survive in locations such as Russell Square, Temple Place and Hanover Square. They are all listed buildings.

L
ondon’s first bus service opened on 4th July 1829 from Paddington Green to the Bank of England. It was the brainchild of George Shillibeer (1797-1866), a coachbuilder who had visited Paris and seen the Omnibus (Latin ‘for all’) service introduced by Stanislas Baudry. Baudry drowned himself in the Seine when his enterprise failed, an event which foreshadowed the fate of Shillibeer’s own service. The novelty of shared urban transport, together with the fearful congestion of London’s streets, meant that few were attracted by the service which charged the considerable fare of a shilling (5p) for ‘outside’ passengers and one shilling and sixpence (7.5p) for ‘inside’ passengers. Shillibeer went bankrupt, fled to Boulogne to escape his creditors and, after a short spell in a debtors’ gaol, finally achieved prosperity by redesigning the vehicle as a hearse.