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The Metropolitan Railway was a railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its mainline heading north from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex suburbs. Its first line connected the mainline railway termini at Paddington, Euston and King's Cross to the City. This was built beneath the New Road using the "cut-and-cover" method between Paddington and King's Cross and in tunnel and cuttings beside Farringdon Road from King's Cross to Smithfield, near the City. When, on 10 January 1863, this line opened with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, it was the world's first underground railway.
The railway was soon extended from both ends and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. It reached Hammersmith in 1864, Richmond in 1877 and completed the Inner Circle in 1884, but the most important route became the line north into the Middlesex countryside, where it stimulated the development of new suburbs. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line eventually extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) from Baker Street and the centre of London.
Electric traction was introduced in 1905 and by 1907 electric multiple units operated most of the services, though electrification of outlying sections did not occur until decades later. Unlike other railway companies in the London area, the Met developed land for housing and after World War I promoted housing estates near the railway with the "Metro-land" brand. On 1 July 1933, the Metropolitan Railway was amalgamated with the underground railways of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London and the capital's tramway and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board.
Today, former Metropolitan Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Underground's Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines, and by Chiltern Railways. (Full article...)
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Selected biography
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Henry Charles Beck (4 June 1902 – 18 September 1974), known as Harry Beck, was an English technical draughtsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office. London Underground was initially sceptical of Beck's radical proposal, an uncommissioned spare-time project, but tentatively introduced it to the public in a small pamphlet in 1933.
Beck's approach to the map was to remove all geographical content except the River Thames so that the focus could be on the arrangement of lines and stations and to enable the central area to be expanded map. Beck first submitted his idea to Frank Pick in 1931 but it was considered too radical because it didn't show relative distances between stations. After a successful trial of 500 copies in 1932, distributed via a select few stations, the map was given its first full publication in 1933 (700,000 copies). It was immediately popular, and the Underground has used topological maps to illustrate the network ever since.
Beck's contribution to the visual style of London Underground is recognised with a plaque at what was his local Underground station, Finchley Central; with a blue plaque at his birth place in Leyton and the Beck Gallery at the London Transport Museum. (Full article...)
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Did you know...
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- ...that an estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system, and can often be seen running around the tracks?
- ...that the longest continuous tunnel on the London Underground is 27.8 km (17.25 miles) long, between Morden and East Finchley stations?
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Image 1London Underground Battery-electric locomotive L16 designed to operate over tracks where the traction current is turned off for maintenance work.
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Image 2TX4 London Taxi at Heathrow Airport.
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Image 4Qantas Boeing 747-400 about to land at Heathrow Airport, seen beyond the roofs of Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow.
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Image 6Rail, road and river traffic, seen from the London Eye.
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Image 7The original Hampton Court Bridge in 1753, the first of four on the site.
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Image 8The New Routemaster built by Wrightbus has three entrances, two staircases and is designed to be reminiscent of the Routemaster.
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Image 9London General Omnibus Company B-type bus B340 built in 1911 by AEC. One of a number of London buses purchased by the British military during World War I, this vehicle was operated on the Western Front.
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Image 10London Underground A60 Stock (left) and 1938 Stock (right) trains showing the difference in the sizes of the two types of rolling stock operated on the system. A60 stock trains operated on the surface and sub-surface sections of the Metropolitan line from 1961 to 2012 and 1938 Stock operated on various deep level tube lines from 1938 to 1988.
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Image 11Tram 2548 calls at Arena tram stop. This is one of the trams on the Tramlink network centred on Croydon in south London.
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Image 12Albert Bridge, opened in 1873, crosses the River Thames between Chelsea and Battersea.
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Image 13Woolwich Ferry boats "John Burns" and "James Newman" on the River Thames, 2012.
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Image 14Central London Railway poster, published in 1905.
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Image 18The western departures concourse of King's Cross railway station.
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Image 19A tram of the London United Tramways at Boston Road, Hanwell, circa 1910.
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Image 20View of Old London Bridge, circa 1632 by Claude de Jongh.
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Image 22Helicopter landing at London Heliport, a jetty constructed in the River Thames in Battersea.
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Image 24The Circle routes of Victorian London, comprising the Inner Circle, Middle Circle, Outer Circle and Super Outer Circle.
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Image 25Original stations on the Metropolitan Railway from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.
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Image 2655 Broadway, headquarters of the UERL and its successors, is a Grade I listed building in Westminster designed by Charles Holden.
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Image 28The south façade of King's Cross railway station London terminus of the East Coast Main Line.
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Image 29Early style tube roundel in mosaic at Maida Vale Underground station.
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Image 30Ruislip Lido Railway's 12-inch (300 mm) gauge locomotive "Mad Bess" hauling a passenger train.
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Image 32Archer statue by Eric Aumonier at East Finchley Underground station.
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Image 34The multi-level junction between the M23 and M25 motorways near Merstham in Surrey. The M23 passes over the M25 with bridges carrying interchange slip roads for the two motorways in between.
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Image 35The newly constructed junction of the Westway ( A40) and the West Cross Route ( A3220) at White City, circa 1970. Continuation of the West Cross Route northwards under the roundabout was cancelled leaving two short unused stubs for the slip roads that would have been provided for traffic joining or leaving the northern section.
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Image 38Day (left) and Night (right) sculptures by Sir Jacob Epstein on the London Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway.
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Image 39Preserved AEC Routemaster coaches in London Transport Green Line livery.
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Image 40"Boris Bikes" from the Santander Cycles hire scheme waiting for use at a docking station in Victoria.
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Image 41Vauxhall Bridge across the River Thames opened in 1906 and features sculptures by F. W. Pomeroy.
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Image 42Arguably the best-preserved disused station building in London, this is the former Alexandra Palace station on the GNR Highgate branch (closed in 1954). It is now in use as a community centre (CUFOS).
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Image 43Hornsey Lane Bridge, Archway, more commonly known as "Suicide Bridge".
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Image 44Planes waiting at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4.
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Image 45Southern approach to the Rotherhithe Tunnel that runs under the River Thames in east London between Rotherhithe and Limehouse.
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Image 46Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1887, crosses the River Thames in west London.
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Image 47Clapham Common Underground station north and south-bound platforms on the Northern line.
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Image 48Sailing ships at West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs in 1810. The docks opened in 1802 and closed in 1980 and have since been redeveloped as the Canary Wharf development.
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Image 49Escalators at Westminster Underground station descend between beams and columns of the station box to reach the deep-level Jubilee line platforms.
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