Edgware Road Tube schemes covers a number of proposals to build an underground railway in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, UK at the end of the 19th century. Each scheme envisaged building some form of rail tunnel along the

Edgware Road Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...

in north-west London towards Victoria railway station. These proposals were made at a time of intensive railway construction, following projects such as

City and South London Railway The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...

. Like several other proposals at the time, such as the

City and Brixton Railway The City and Brixton Railway (C&BR) was an authorised underground railway line in London planned to run from King William Street in the City of London under the River Thames to Brixton via The Borough, Lambeth and The Oval. The company was un ...

, none of the Edgware Road schemes came to fruition.

Edgware Road and Victoria Railway

The Edgware Road and Victoria Railway (ER&VR) was an early scheme for an underground railway under the Edgware Road. The promoters sought to raise capital of £1.2 million (£ today) to cover the estimated railway construction costs of £920,000 and the cost of constructing a dedicated

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

for the railway at the

Paddington Basin Paddington Basin is the name given to a long canal basin, and its surrounding area, in Paddington, London. The basin commences 500 m south of the junction known as Little Venice, of the Regent's Canal and the Paddington Arm of the Grand U ...

. The ER&VR was planned to run on a north-west-to-south-east axis, more or less following the route of the Edgware Road. Beginning in the north, a surface-level depot was planned near the location of the present-day

Brondesbury Park Brondesbury Park is a suburb and electoral ward of the London Borough of Brent. It is the part of Brondesbury which is not interwoven with Kilburn, London, Kilburn due to the naming of a major tube station (Kilburn tube station, Kilburn) and is ...

. Trains were to run into a tunnel to the first station. Passing south-east, the stations planned were: Badsey-Ellis 2005, pp. 62-63. *

Brondesbury Brondesbury (), which includes Brondesbury Park, is an area in the London Borough of Brent, in London, England. The area is traditionally part of the Ancient Parish and subsequent Municipal Borough of Willesden, one of the areas that merged to ...

*Kilburn (close to

Kilburn High Road Kilburn is an area of north west London, England, which spans the boundary of three London Boroughs: Camden to the east, City of Westminster, Brent to the west. There is also an area in the City of Westminster, known as West Kilburn and someti ...

) *Hall Road (close to

Maida Vale Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district consisting of the northern part of Paddington in West London, west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. It is also the name of its main road, on the continuous Edgware Road. Maida Vale is p ...

) *Praed Street (close to

) *

Marble Arch The Marble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch in London, England. The structure was designed by John Nash (architect), John Nash in 1827 to be the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near th ...

Hyde Park Corner Hyde Park Corner is between Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair in London, England. It primarily refers to its major road junction at the southeastern corner of Hyde Park, that was designed by Decimus Burton. Six streets converge at the junc ...

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

to allow the project to go ahead was considered by the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system), a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues *Select or special committee (United States Congress) *Select ...

in March 1893. A number of petitions were made to the committee by property owners along the proposed route of the ER&VR, concerned by the construction of a tube railway under their properties. The construction of the

(C&SLR, part of today's

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...

) had given rise to a number of problems, such as building subsidence on top of brick-built station tunnels. As the C&SLR was the first deep-level tube railway to be built, there were still concerns about construction and ventilation issues with this type of tunnel. To address these concerns, the route of the railway tunnel was moved slightly west between Marble Arch and Victoria so it would run under

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

and avoid the affluent properties of

Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from May ...

. Despite this, the committee was still not confident about the proposal to build another tube tunnel under London, and the bill was rejected.

Cricklewood, Kilburn and Victoria Railway

In 1898, the Cricklewood, Kilburn and Victoria Railway Construction Syndicate was incorporated to promote a similar project to the failed ER&VR. Like the NWLR, the railway would have followed the Edgware Road route beginning further north at Cricklewood. The company was defeated by the passing of the NWLR's bill and the syndicate was dissolved in 1901.

North West London Railway

The proposal to build a railway under the Edgware Road was revived in 1899 when a group of engineers began to promote the ''North West London Railway (NWLR)''. The railway would have followed a similar route to the ill-fated ER&VR, but was to begin further north at

Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north- ...

and would only run as far as Marble Arch. Its promoters included Sir Benjamin Baker, Sir Douglas Fox and

Sir Francis Fox Sir Francis Fox (29 June 1844 – 7 January 1927) was an English civil engineer, who was responsible for the bridges over the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi and Sydney Harbour, the Mersey Railway Tunnel and the Liverpool Overhead Railway, and ...

, and they had £1.5 million capital and sought to borrow a further £500,000. Although the bill to grant construction powers passed successfully through Parliament in 1899, there were difficulties raising the necessary funds. The only proven tube railway at the time, the C&SLR, was not delivering a great return on investment, and investors were hesitant. The outbreak of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

in 1899 destabilised the money markets and construction on the NWLR project never commenced. Badsey-Ellis 2005, pp. 79-83. In 1902, the scheme was allowed an extension of time to begin construction, and an increase in tunnel size from 12' 6" to 13' 0". The next year a bill was presented proposing an extension to Victoria Station, under Hyde Park and Grosvenor Place. However the bill was withdrawn following its postponement due to the

Royal Commission on London Traffic The Royal Commission on London Traffic was a Royal commission established in 1903 with a remit to review and report on how transport systems should be developed for London and the surrounding area. It produced a report in eight volumes published ...

. It was to transpire that the Commissions' only recommended new 'tube' would be an extension of the North West London from Marble Arch to Victoria. In 1906, the NWLR reintroduced its Victoria extension along with a reduction in tunnel size to 11' 8¼", receiving Royal Assent in August. However the financial conditions imposed on the Bill made the extension unattractive.

Baker Street and Waterloo Railway

When the NWLR's tube project became financially unviable, the company's plans were adopted in 1908 by a more successful underground railway company, the

Baker Street and Waterloo Railway The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that built a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The company struggled to fund the work, and construction di ...

(BS&WR). The BS&WR had already opened an underground line in 1906 from

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

to Waterloo and

Elephant and Castle The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station ...

(the "Bakerloo" Tube), and had already extended its line to Edgware Road. The company was keen to extend further into north-west London and hoped to make use of the powers acquired by the (NWLR) to build the Edgware Road tube line. Badsey-Ellis 2005, pp. 264-267. Abandoning the Marble Arch-Victoria section of the NWLR route, the BS&WR instead proposed building the Edgware Road tube line only as far south as its

Edgware Road station Edgware Road is the name of two London Underground stations near the junction of Edgware Road and Marylebone Road in Central London: * Edgware Road tube station (Bakerloo line) * Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City li ...

, which was close to the NWLR's planned route. The NWLR announced a bill in November 1908 seeking to construct a connection between its unbuilt route beneath the

and the Bakerloo Tube's Edgware Road station. The Bakerloo Tube was to construct the extension and operate the service over the combined route, which was to have stations at St John's Wood Road, Abercorn Place, Belsize Road, (close to the LNWR station),

(to interchange with the North London Railway's station and close to the MR's Kilburn station), Minster Road and

. Badsey-Ellis 2005, pp. 80-81. The Bakerloo Tube announced its own bill to make the necessary changes to its existing plans. At the same time, the BS&WR also had aspirations to extend its services to . The company planned to make the Edgware Road route it main service, with a shuttle line running from Edgware Road to Paddington. Two additional platforms were planned at Edgware Road tube station for shuttle use. The BS&WR/NWLR joint scheme faced opposition from other railway companies; the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

(GWR) objected to the reduction of the Bakerloo Tube's Paddington connection to a shuttle; and the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

(MR) objected to the connection of the two lines which would be in competition with its line through Kilburn. Parliament rejected the proposed connection and the changes to the NWLR's route, and the company's permissions eventually expired without any construction work being carried out. The Bakerloo Tube bill was withdrawn. This was to be the first bill promoted by the NWLR that did not receive Royal Assent.

Kearney High-Speed Tubes

In 1905–08, the Australian-born engineer

Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney Elfric Wells Chalmers Kearney (3 February 1881 – 15 April 1966) was an Australian inventor, engineer and author. Born in Geelong, Victoria in 1881, he spent most of his life in the United Kingdom. He was educated briefly at Ellesmere Co ...

put forward a plan to build two tube lines from Crystal Palace to Strand and Cricklewood. The scheme was promoted by the Kearney High-Speed Tube Railway Company Ltd. and proposed the construction of an underground railway operated on an unusual

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, ...

system patented by Kearney. Trains would run on a single rail with four double-flanged wheels under each carriage; wheels mounted on the roof would run along an upper guide rail above the train. The trains, which were to be designed in a

streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the framework of ...

style similar to the

London Underground 1935 Stock The London Underground 1935 Stock was an experimental train design by Metropolitan Cammell in London. Twelve two-car units, marshalled into four six-car trains, were built. They served as the prototypes for the later 1938 Stock. Three of these ...

, would have a low

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

, which, along with the gyroscopic effect of motion, would stabilise the train on the lower rail and reduce the side-to-side

hunting oscillation Hunting oscillation is a self-oscillation, usually unwanted, about an equilibrium. The expression came into use in the 19th century and describes how a system "hunts" for equilibrium. The expression is used to describe phenomena in such diverse ...

. The stations were to be located just below the surface, connected by deep-level tube tunnels which would drop down steeply from each station; it was intended that the 1 in 7 track incline would enhance acceleration and deceleration between stations with the effects of gravity, with trains reaching before decelerating. This "

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

" system was promoted for its low power consumption. Badsey-Ellis 2005, pp. 257-263. Kearney promoted his system by publishing leaflets, writing a book, giving lectures and he displayed a model of a Kearney train in 1905 for the press. The proposed route comprised two lines across London: one aligned along the Edgware Road route from Cricklewood via Victoria to Oval; and another from Strand to Crystal Palace, connecting with the Cricklewood line at Oval: Main route *

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

Herne Hill Herne Hill is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the boroughs ...

* East Brixton *North Brixton *

Oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

*Pimlico (not to be confused with the current station) *

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

*Lord's (separate; not to be confused with the Metropolitan station) *Carlton Hill *Quex Road *Brondesbury *Cricklewood Branch from Oval *

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

* Waterloo *

Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...

(later Aldwych) The Kearney Tube system was promoted in other unsuccessful schemes around the world, including

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Metropolitan Railway

By the 1920s the Metropolitan Railway (MR) had expanded its lines deep into the countryside of

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

and

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, successfully promoting its commuter services with the ''

Metro-land Metro-land (or Metroland) is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century that were served by the Metropolita ...

'' advertising campaign. A high volume of traffic was running through its lines into central London via and a bottleneck had developed at where the fast and slow tracks converged into one pair. In 1925, the MR drew up plans to construct a relief line by digging new twin-bore tube tunnels under the Edgware Road, large enough to accommodate Met rolling stock. At a proposed junction north of Kilburn & Brondesbury station, Metropolitan trains would run down a tunnel into the extension line and run beneath Kilburn High Street, Maida Vale and Edgware Road; the line would then rise up to join the Inner Circle just to the west of Edgware Road Met station, and trains would continue to Baker Street. The plan included three new stations, at Quex Road, Kilburn Park Road and Clifton Road. In preparation for this new line, Edgware Road Met station was rebuilt with four platforms and was equipped with platform indicators which could display 'Aylesbury Line' and destinations such as and . However, the scheme was halted after new safety requirements were issued by the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government age ...

— deep-level tube trains were now required to have an emergency exit at each end and the compartment stock used by the MR north of Harrow did not comply with this requirement. The capacity problem was later addressed after the MR had been taken over by the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

(LPTB). In 1936 the LPTB constructed a new tunnel to link the Metropolitan line to the Bakerloo line, enabling local Met services to be taken over by the Bakerloo line (later becoming the

Jubilee line The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between in east London and in the suburban north-west, via the Docklands, South Bank and West End. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the Underground network, although some secti ...

) and relieving congestion on the Inner Circle line.

Notes

References

* * * * *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgware Road And Victoria Railway Transport in the London Borough of Camden Transport in the City of Westminster Abandoned underground railway projects in London