“used as a sanatorium for men who had been afflicted with asthma and bronchial complaints.” Acid gas was said to cure tonsillitis.
It was also reported that an anorexic suddenly developed a ravenous appetite after a single journey on the Twopenny Tube. It was something to do with the temperature of the tunnels.
The effect of the smoke, however, was to accelerate demands for electric traction that had proved so successful on the Stockwell Line. In 1905 theInner Circle was converted for the use of electrical trains, and soon enough other lines were electrified. The days of the underground steam engine were over. Comfort could be purchased at a price. By 1910 a sixpenny ticket allowedthe traveller access to the first-class
carriages of the Metropolitan Railway’s Pullman cars; the carriages contained morocco armchairs set in the replica of a drawing room with mahogany walls. Electric lamps were placed on side-tables, and blinds of green silk covered the windows. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served.
In 1911 the first escalator was introduced at Earls Court station, to unite the platforms of the District andPiccadilly Lines. The promotional literature promised that the passenger “can step on to the stairlift at once, and be gently carried to his train. A boon that the mere man will also appreciate is the fact that he will not be prohibited from smoking, as in the lift, for the stairlift is made entirely of fireproof
material.”
A porter was employed to shout out, through a device known as a stentorphone, “This way to the moving staircase! The only one of its kind in London! NOW running! The world’s wonder!” Some travellers screamed at the prospect of alighting from the moving steps, and placards invited them to “step off with the left foot.” A man with a wooden leg was employed to ride up and down the escalator to instil confidence in the nervous passengers.
It was, according to a contemporary report, “as good as a joy-wheel.” An experimental spiral escalator was installed atHolloway Road tube station by an American company, but it was never used. Yet this was an extraordinary new world beneath the surface of the capital.
So the lines grew and grew. TheInner Circle was complete, and in the first years of the twentieth century it took seventy minutes to journey around the circuit by steam train; a hundred years later, the trains are only twenty minutes faster. By 1907 the Baker Street and Waterloo Line had reachedEdgware Road, and was known as the “Bakerloo”; thename was considered to be vulgar and a “gutter title.” The line betweenHolborn tothe Strand was opened in the same year, and was eventually named thePiccadilly Line; the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead railways were merged into one large company called theMetropolitan District Electric Traction Company.
This conglomerate had already begun to build its own power station at Lots Road, by the Thames at Chelsea, in order to provide power for the newly electrified service.
Like the city above, the Underground grew haphazardly and pragmatically; it was not planned logically or as a whole. Many levels were in place, many lines converging and diverging, with corridors and stairways, lifts andescalators comprising the pieces of an infernal or divine machine. Tunnels were built ever deeper. New stations were erected, and older stations abandoned. It was guided by the imperatives of money and of power, rather
than the interests of the citizens. In the first instance it was administered by capitalist financiers of dubious reputation. That is the London story.
In 1908 a meeting of the various subterranean companieswas convened to find a common name for their enterprise. The choice was between “Tube” and “Electric” and “Underground”; the last was chosen. This was the time when the “bull’s-eye” device was first used as a symbol for the service.
At work in the “Shield,”Great Northern and City Railway, 1920s
It was also reported that an anorexic suddenly developed a ravenous appetite after a single journey on the Twopenny Tube. It was something to do with the temperature of the tunnels.
The effect of the smoke, however, was to accelerate demands for electric traction that had proved so successful on the Stockwell Line. In 1905 theInner Circle was converted for the use of electrical trains, and soon enough other lines were electrified. The days of the underground steam engine were over. Comfort could be purchased at a price. By 1910 a sixpenny ticket allowedthe traveller access to the first-class
carriages of the Metropolitan Railway’s Pullman cars; the carriages contained morocco armchairs set in the replica of a drawing room with mahogany walls. Electric lamps were placed on side-tables, and blinds of green silk covered the windows. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served.
In 1911 the first escalator was introduced at Earls Court station, to unite the platforms of the District andPiccadilly Lines. The promotional literature promised that the passenger “can step on to the stairlift at once, and be gently carried to his train. A boon that the mere man will also appreciate is the fact that he will not be prohibited from smoking, as in the lift, for the stairlift is made entirely of fireproof
material.”
A porter was employed to shout out, through a device known as a stentorphone, “This way to the moving staircase! The only one of its kind in London! NOW running! The world’s wonder!” Some travellers screamed at the prospect of alighting from the moving steps, and placards invited them to “step off with the left foot.” A man with a wooden leg was employed to ride up and down the escalator to instil confidence in the nervous passengers.
It was, according to a contemporary report, “as good as a joy-wheel.” An experimental spiral escalator was installed atHolloway Road tube station by an American company, but it was never used. Yet this was an extraordinary new world beneath the surface of the capital.
So the lines grew and grew. TheInner Circle was complete, and in the first years of the twentieth century it took seventy minutes to journey around the circuit by steam train; a hundred years later, the trains are only twenty minutes faster. By 1907 the Baker Street and Waterloo Line had reachedEdgware Road, and was known as the “Bakerloo”; thename was considered to be vulgar and a “gutter title.” The line betweenHolborn tothe Strand was opened in the same year, and was eventually named thePiccadilly Line; the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead railways were merged into one large company called theMetropolitan District Electric Traction Company.
This conglomerate had already begun to build its own power station at Lots Road, by the Thames at Chelsea, in order to provide power for the newly electrified service.
Like the city above, the Underground grew haphazardly and pragmatically; it was not planned logically or as a whole. Many levels were in place, many lines converging and diverging, with corridors and stairways, lifts andescalators comprising the pieces of an infernal or divine machine. Tunnels were built ever deeper. New stations were erected, and older stations abandoned. It was guided by the imperatives of money and of power, rather
than the interests of the citizens. In the first instance it was administered by capitalist financiers of dubious reputation. That is the London story.
In 1908 a meeting of the various subterranean companieswas convened to find a common name for their enterprise. The choice was between “Tube” and “Electric” and “Underground”; the last was chosen. This was the time when the “bull’s-eye” device was first used as a symbol for the service.
At work in the “Shield,”Great Northern and City Railway, 1920s
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