Paddington.] THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY TERMINUS. 223 bourn," one of Cromwell's peers and King Charles's to connect the seaport of Bristol and the great judges. towns of the south-west with London. The original estimate for the construction of the railway was £2,500,000, or about £39,000 a mile. The line was constructed on that known as the "broad gauge," and the engineer was Mr. I. K. Brunel, son of Isambard Brunel. This estimate, however, was largely exceeded, the directors accounting for it by stating "that it is accounted for by the intended Praed Street preserves the memory of a banker of that name, one of the first directors of the Grand Junction Canal Company. This street connects Edgware Road with the Great Western Railway Terminus and Hotel. The latter is a magnificent building, and was one of the first constructed on the "monster" principle in connection with the railway terminus, with which it has com- | junction with the Birmingham line at Acton." In munication by a covered passage. The edifice in itself comprises five separate floors, containing in all upwards of one hundred and fifty rooms, the chief of which are large and lofty, and beautifully ornamented; the designs generally, in the Louis Quatorze style, were executed by Mr. Philip Hardwick, R.A., and the pediment upon the front is surmounted by a piece of allegorical sculpture. The Great Western Railway line, which communicates with the west and extreme south-west of England, is situated close to and below the level of the terminal wharf of the Paddington branch of the Grand Junction Canal. The Act of incorporation, under which this line was formed, was passed in the year 1835; and it was intended 1838 the railway was open only to Maidenhead; to Twyford in 1839; in the following year to Faringdon Road; and in 1841 it was completed to Bristol. It was at first proposed that this line should be connected with the London and Birmingham Railway at Kensal Green; but some obstacles having arisen to the satisfactory arrangement of this plan between the two companies, the intention was ultimately abandoned, and the Great Western Railway had an independent terminus erected here. To effect this it was necessary to construct about two and a-half miles of additional railway, while the total distance to be travelled would be lessened by about three miles. The Box Tunnel, on this line, is upwards of 3,000 yards in length. The various lines and branches now included in the Great Western system comprehend about 2,000 miles of railway. The station itself, which, with its numerous departure and arrival platforms, offices, engine-sheds, and workshops, covers several acres of ground, is built close up to the hotel. Its chief feature, from an architectural point of view, is its triple-spanned roof of glass and iron, which, having been erected shortly after the Great Exhibition of 1851, may be said to have been one of the first adaptations of that principle of construction upon a gigantic scale; and it is almost needless to add that it has since been copied, more or less exactly, at almost all the large railway stations of the metropolis. The length of this building of glass is 263 yards, its breadth is 93 yards, and the central span of the roof is no less than 70 feet in height. As an instance of the improvement made in travelling since the days of George I., we may mention that, whereas in 1725 the stage-coach journey from London to Exeter occupied four long summer days, the express train on the Great Western Railway now accomplishes the distance. in little more than four hours. In those good old days, as we learn from letters still preserved in families of the west country, the passengers were roused each morning at two o'clock, started at three, dined at ten, and finished their day's journey at three in the afternoon! CHAPTER XVIII. UNDERGROUND LONDON: ITS RAILWAYS, SUBWAYS, AND SEWERS. "Thus far into the bowels of the land Proposal of a Scheme for Underground Railways-Difficulties and Oppositions it had to encounter-Commencement of the UndertakingIrruption of the Fleet Ditch-Opening of the Metropolitan Railway-Influx of Bills to Parliament for the Formation of other Underground Lines--Adoption of the " Inner Circle" Plan-Description of the Metropolitan Railway and its Stations-The "Nursery-maids' Walk "-A Great Triumph of Engineering Skill-Extension of the Line from Moorgate Street-The East London Railway-Engines and Carriages, and Mode of Lighting-Signalling-Ventilation of the Tunnel-Description of the Metropolitan District Railway-Workmen's Trains-The Water Supply and Drainage of London-Subways for Gas, Sewage, and other Purposes. As we are now at Paddington, which is the common centre of three railways, and, in a certain sense, was the birth-place of the Great Western and the Metropolitan lines, it may be well to descend the steps which lead to one of the platforms of the latter company, and to ask our readers to accompany us, mentally, of course, in a "journey underground." The overcrowding of the London streets, and the consequent difficulty and danger of locomotion, had been for many years a theme of constant agitation in the metropolis. Numberless plans were propounded for the relief of the over-gorged ways in connection with the vehicular circulation of the streets. New lines of streets were formed, and fresh channels of communication were opened; but all to little purpose. The crowd of omnibuses, cabs, and vehicles of all descriptions in our main thoroughfares remained as dense and impassable as ever. At length it was proposed to relieve the traffic of the streets by subterranean means; and in the end a scheme was propounded "to encircle the metropolis with a tunnel, which was to be in communication with all the railway termini --whether northern, or eastern, or western, northwestern, or south-western-and SO be able to convey passengers from whatever part of the country they might come to whatever quarter of the town they might desire to visit, without forcing them to traverse the streets in order to arrive there." "Such a scheme," writes a well-known author, "though it has proved one of the most successful of modern times, met with the same difficulties and oppositions that every new project has to encounter. Hosts of objections were raised; all manner of imaginary evils were prophesied; and Mr. Charles Pearson, like George Stephenson before him, had to stand in that pillory to which all public men are condemned, and to be pelted with the missiles which ignorance and prejudice can always find ready to their hands. The project was regarded with the same contempt as the first proposal to light our streets with gas; it was the scheme of a 'wild visionary:' and as Sir Humphrey Davy had said that it would require a mound of earth as large as Primrose Hill to weigh down the gasometers of the proposed new gas-works, before London could be safely illuminated by the destructive distillation of coal, so learned engineers were not wanting to foretell how the projected tunnel must necessarily fall in from the mere weight of the traffic in the streets above; and how the Underground London.] OPENING OF THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY. adjacent houses would be not only shaken to their foundation by the vibration caused by the engines, but the families residing in them would be one and all poisoned by the sulphurous exhalations from the fuel with which the boilers were heated." After years of hard work and agitation, confidence in the undertaking at length gained ground, and the scheme was set on foot about the year 1860. The Great Western Railway, with the view of obtaining access for their traffic to the City, came forward with £200,000 as a subscription to the enterprise; while the Corporation of the City of London, finding that the new lines of streets were comparatively useless as a means of draining off the vehicles from the main thoroughfares, also agreed to subscribe a similar sum to ensure the accomplishment of the object. Up to this time the shares in the undertaking had been at a low discount; and the low price, indeed, continued even after both the City and the Great Western Company had subscribed. The shares gradually attained higher prices as the prospects of opening the line increased; but after the opening they rose so rapidly as to promise an enormous return to the promoters. 225 In past midday it was impossible to obtain a place in the up or Cityward line at any of the mid-stations. In the evening the tide turned, and the crowd at the Farringdon Street station was as great as at the doors of a theatre on the first night of some popular performer. At first the directors of the Great Western undertook the management of the line, but such differences soon arose between the two companies that, some seven months afterwards, the Great Western directors gave notice that in two months they would cease to continue their carriages upon it, and on the 1st of August following they reduced the notice as to their secession from the management of the line to ten days. the short interval left to the Metropolitan Company to undertake the conduct of the traffic, engines and carriages had to be hired from what other railway companies were able and willing to supply them. Accordingly, on the 10th of August, 1863, the Metropolitan Company commenced working the line themselves, and have since continued to do so. "The traffic, indeed, by the Underground Railway," says the writer of the abovementioned work, "is of so special and peculiar a character as to cause it to differ totally from all other railways, and to make it require a distinct management. The attention of the authorities in connection with large systems of railways is devoted chiefly to what is called the 'long-traffic' element; whereas, the Metropolitan - being essentially a Bell-short-traffic' line, and the numbers carried upon it being so great, as well as the trains so numerous throughout the day-needs an amount of care and continual supervision in its working, which could not possibly be given by the officers of those lines where trains are in the habit of succeeding one another at comparatively lengthened intervals. It is, therefore, much to the public advantage that the Underground Railway should be worked by the company itself, and that an organised staff of officials should be specially trained and maintained for the duty." From a brochure, entitled "The Metropolitan Railway," published in 1865, we learn that "during the construction of the Underground line, the meandering stream of the Fleet ditch had to be crossed at least three times, before its cloacinal flood was diverted from its previous course. mouthed tunnels had to be made, so as to bring two subterranean borings into one; and stations, which were merely enormous cellars built deep underground, had to be illuminated by the light of day. Moreover, new forms of engines and carriages had to be designed-engines which would evolve neither smoke nor steam, and carriages which could be lighted by gas, so that the usual unpleasant atmosphere and obscurity of railway tunnels might be avoided. Further, it was necessary to devise a special system of signals in connection with the line, upon which it was intended that train after train should succeed one another, with but a few minutes' intervals, throughout the day." In spite of a variety of difficulties, including an irruption of the Fleet ditch in the neighbourhood of King's Cross, the permanent way was opened for passenger traffic from Paddington to Farringdon Street on the 10th of January, 1863. It was calculated that over 30,000 persons were carried over the line in the course of the day. Indeed, the desire to travel by this line on the opening day was more than the directors had provided for, and from nine o'clock in the morning till So great was the success of the Metropolitan Railway, from the very day of its inauguration, that in the next session of Parliament there was such an influx of bills for the proposed formation of railway lines in connection with the new form of transit in the metropolis, that it was found that "nearly one-half of the City itself would have to be demolished if the majority of the plans were carried out, and that almost every open space of ground or square in the heart of the metropolis would have to be given up for the erection of some terminus, with its screaming and hissing locomotives. The consequence was that a Com mittee of the two Houses was formed to take the whole of the metropolitan schemes into consideration, as well as to determine what general plan should be adopted, in order to unite together the various threads of the railway lines converging towards the capital, and forming the principal fibres of that great web of iron highways which had been spun over the country since the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1830. Accordingly, after deliberating for some time upon the matter, the Legislature came to the determination to adopt what is now known as the 'inner circle' plan of Mr. Fowler (the engineer of the line of which we are treating), and to recommend the carrying out of an 'outer circle' also." forms; this part of the station, with the line itself, being immediately under the roadway. Great ingenuity is displayed in the construction of this station, for although so deep underground, it enjoys the advantage of daylight, which is made to glance down from the roadway above through long shafts lined with white glazed tiles. From Baker Street a branch line of the Underground Railway conveys passengers northward, by St. John's Wood, Marlborough Road, and the Swiss Cottage Stations, within a few minutes' walk of the breezy heights of Hampstead, and so on by Kilburn and Brondesbury to Harrow. Resuming our course towards the City, the next station from Baker Street, which is reached through On the first opening of the Underground Railway another tunnel about half a mile long, is at Portthe line extended only from Bishop's Road, Pad-land Road, near the top of Portland Place. This dington, to Farringdon Street; and in the course is at what is called the "summit-level" of the line, of a twelvemonth the number of passengers by it and two large circular openings have been conamounted to nearly 9,500,000, or, in round num-structed over the line for the purpose of ventilabers, more than three times the entire population tion. Smaller openings for the ventilation of the of the capital; but this number was almost doubled in the course of two years. Since the extension of the line, which we shall presently notice, the number of passengers who have availed themselves of this means of transit has amounted to nearly fifty millions annually. tunnel have been made between other stations. Large numbers are conveyed to this station, on their way to the Regent's Park and the Zoological Gardens. "It is a peculiarity of this district," says the author above quoted, "that, between the semi-circular enclosure of Park Crescent and the quadrangular space within Park Square, a tunnel under the New Road has been for a long time in existence, as a means of uniting the two enclosures. This was familiarly known as the Nursery-maids' The number of trains running upon this line is about 350 on week days, and 200 on Sundays; and they travel at intervals of five to ten minutes, between the hours of 5.15 a.m. up to midnight. The original terminal point of this railway, as we | Walk,' and was the means by which the children have stated above, was at Bishop's Road. The station here adjoins the terminus of the Great Western line, and there is a covered way for passengers leading from the one station to the other. Between Bishop's Road and Edgware Road the Underground Line, being extended westward, now takes a semi-circular sweep round the western extremity of London, by way of Notting Hill Gate, Kensington, Sloane Square, and Westminster, and so on by a tunnel along the Victoria Embankment to Blackfriars and the Mansion House Station in Cannon Street. Passing eastward from Bishop's Road, the line, in the course of half a mile, reaches the Edgware Road Station, where are workshops for the repair of the company's engines and carriages. Unlike most of the stations on this route, that at Edgware Road has the advantage of being open and above ground. From Edgware Road another half-mile or so of tunnel eastward brings the passenger to the Baker Street Station. The entrances to this station are in Baker Street, on either side of the Marylebone Road, broad flights of stairs leading down to the plat of the residents in Park Crescent could avail themselves of the extra accommodation afforded them by the enclosure of Park Square; and such was the resistance offered by the inhabitants of this part to the progress of the railway, that ascending and descending gradients, to the extent of 1 in 100, had to be introduced, so as to carry the line under this subterranean thoroughfare, for the benefit of the nursery-maids and children of this highlygenteel neighbourhood." From Portland Road the line is continued, by a tunnel rather under half a mile long, to Gower Street. The station here is very similar in construction to that of Baker Street, being originally lighted by the reflection afforded by white glazed tiles from the roadway above. Since its construction, however, it has been opened up very much to the upper air with very decided advantage both to its light and ventilation. This is a convenient outlet for the country immigrants arriving at the Euston Square Station of the London and North-Western Railway; and it is also available for those residing in the densely-populated district Underground London.] A GREAT ENGINEERING TRIUMPH. 227 of Tottenham Court Road. A tunnel, three-lines is made to dive from north-east to south-west quarters of a mile in length, next brings the pas- under that of the Metropolitan, which here is some senger to King's Cross Station, which is one of the thirty feet below the surface, revealing the fact that finest in point of construction of any on the line; "even in the lowest depths there is a lower still,” the roof especially is worthy of notice, for the and displaying one of the greatest triumphs of the length and proportion of its span. Within the engineers' art to be seen in the neighbourhood of station itself, the up and down lines from the Great London. This gigantic "tunnel under another Northern and Midland Railway enter the King's tunnel" was carried into effect without the stoppage Cross Station, and thence to Farringdon Road of a single train on the Metropolitan Railway. pass through a separate tunnel running parallel with The illustration on page 229 represents the passage the Metropolitan line. In the formation of this of a Metropolitan train over the Great Northern second tunnel immense engineering difficulties had and Midland lines near Farringdon Road Station. to be met, and were successfully accomplished, the union of the two tunnels being effected upon the "bell-mouth" principle, similar to that between Edgware Road and Bishop's Road. The Midland Railway, as we shall hereafter see, when we come to Camden Town, was carried out by a triumph of engineering skill, under the Grand Junction Canal. Shortly before reaching King's Cross, the great Fleet sewer crosses both the junction lines; and during the construction of the aqueduct through which it was ultimately to pass, it was necessary that the sewage should not be interrupted for a moment; moreover, in addition to the difficulties connected with such a work, it may be stated that the whole of the sewage had to be conducted under the roadway; it now passes through an immense wrought-iron tube, some dozen feet in diameter, bedded in brickwork. The line, on leaving King's Cross, takes a curve in a southerly direction, and shortly afterwards passes under the Fleet ditch a second time, by a short piece of tunnelling, and then, after passing through an open cutting, and another tunnel about half a mile in length, the line passes under a bridge, which serves as a viaduct to Ray Street, Clerkenwell, and carries the traffic over the railway. Once more the line passes under the Fleet ditch; the contents of this, which is within the stationyard of Farringdon Road, are conveyed across the line in one span in a capacious wrought-iron tube, and in the formation of the line at this point considerable difficulty was experienced in consequence of the sewer on two or three different occasions bursting its bounds, and thereby greatly impeding the progress of the work. Close by this sewer is another bridge for carrying the traffic over the railway; it is constructed mainly of iron, and was built in 1875-6, in order to form part of the new direct thoroughfare which connects Oxford Street with Old Street, St. Luke's. It should be stated here that shortly before emerging into the light of day at Farringdon Street, the tunnel of the Midland and Great Northern Farringdon Road Station is very spacious, and, with the goods depôt of the Great Northern Railway, cover a large space of ground between the main road and Turnmill Street. This station was at first the utmost limit of the line Citywards; but by degrees the railway has been gradually extended eastward, the intention of the Metropolitan being ultimately to form a connection with the other end at the Mansion House Station. After leaving Farringdon Road the line passes, by means of a short tunnel, under the Metropolitan Meat Market at Smithfield, and then, after once more coming into daylight, enters the large and well-built station of Aldersgate Street, the lines being duplicated. Here there is a junction of the main line with that of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, which passes under Smithfield, then on under Holborn Viaduct, and so on to Ludgate Hill in its way southward. From Aldersgate Street, the Metropolitan Railway continues by a short tunnel and an open cutting on to Moorgate Street, which was for some time the farthest extent of the line in this direction. In 1875 the line was continued to Liverpool Street, where it forms a junction with the Great Eastern Railway. Since then it has been extended to Aldgate, and thence to the Tower. After passing under Finsbury Circus towards Bishopsgate Station in Liverpool Street, the railway tunnel is carried between the chapel of St. Mary's, Moorfields, and Finsbury Chapel, and in the construction of this portion of the line considerable engineering difficulties had to be surmounted. In the meantime, other subterranean works in connection with the modern system of locomotion had been going on farther eastward; and by this means the northern and south-eastern hemispheres of London, so to speak, have been banded together by the iron girdle of the East London Railway, which, passing on through Whitechapel and Shadwell, and then through the old Thames Tunnel to Rotherhithe and Deptford Road, terminates at New Cross, where it joins the Brighton line. Throughout the whole length of the various |