The North Western and Charing Cross Railway (NW&CCR) was a railway company established in 1864 to construct an underground railway in London. The NW&CCR was one of many underground railway schemes proposed for London following the opening in 1863 of 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 ...

, the world's first underground railway, but was one of only a few to be authorised by Parliament. The company struggled to raise funding for the construction of its line and was twice renamed, to the Euston, St Pancras and Charing Cross Railway and the London Central Railway, before the proposals were abandoned in 1874.

North Western and Charing Cross Railway

The Metropolitan Railway opened to the public on 10 January 1863 and was quickly seen as being a great success, carrying 9.5 million passengers in its first year. On 27 November 1863, the NW&CCR's private bill was announced, one of many speculative underground railways being promoted that hoped to emulate the MR's success. The NW&CCR's act received

Royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on 29 July 1864, but most of the others were unsuccessful. The NW&CCR's proposed line was to run between the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

's (L&NWR's) terminus at Euston and the South Eastern Railway's (SER's) terminus at

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

(then still under construction), with both mainline companies supporting the proposals. Like the MR, the NW&CCR was to be constructed as a cut and cover tunnel running beneath roads and a new road south of Oxford Street was to be constructed along the proposed route. At the northern end, branches were proposed to connect to the MR near Portland Road (now Great Portland Street) and Gower Street (now Euston Square) stations and to the L&NWR and the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...

north of Euston station. At the southern end, the line was to come to the surface to connect to the SER's tracks on

Hungerford Bridge The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. Owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (who use its official name of Charing Cross Bridge) it is a steel truss railway bridge ...

. In 1866, a further act gave permission for the NW&CCR to make agreements with the L&NWR and the SER to operate trains over its line and to agree fares. The mainline companies were each to be offered half of the NW&CCR's shares. To fund construction of the railway, The NW&CCR intended to pay the contractors constructing the line in its shares, which, it was expected, would increase in value and pay dividends once the railway was operational. This was a common method of payment for capital-intensive railway projects. To pay for the actual works during construction period, contractors were financed by banks; however, before work could start on the NW&CCR a number of contractors and banks failed in the

Panic of 1866 The Panic of 1866 was an international financial downturn that accompanied the failure of Overend, Gurney and Company in London, and the ''corso forzoso'' abandonment of the silver standard in Italy. In Britain, the economic impacts are held pa ...

, a major crash in the London and international

stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange, as ...

s, after which the NW&CCR found it impossible to raise the funding it needed to begin construction and the proposals were abandoned in 1869.

Euston, St Pancras and Charing Cross Railway and London Central Railway

In November 1870, the NW&CCR's proposals were revived under a new name. The Euston, St Pancras and Charing Cross Railway (EStP&CCR) proposals were similar to those of the NW&CCR. A station was to be provided at Gower Street parallel and adjacent to the MR's station there to provide an interchange between the lines. Additional to the NW&CCR's proposals, two additional tunnels would have extended eastwards from the Gower Street station to connect to Euston station and the Midland Railway's recently opened St Pancras station. After the EStP&CCR tunnel had passed under the MR's tunnel near the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Euston Road, the line would have run roughly south by south-east on the west side of Whitfield Street to the next station at Goodge Street and then a station at Oxford Street. South of Oxford Street, the line continued on a more southerly route to

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...

where a station was to be built on the north side of the square. The route would then have turned south-west to pass north of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields before reaching the final station on the north side of Strand opposite the mainline station. Beyond the station the EStP&CCR continued under Strand before rising to the surface between the mainline station and Villiers Street on a viaduct which would have connected to the SER's bridge over the River Thames as planned by the NW&CCR. The tunnels were to be wide and high for use by the mainline companies' trains. Vents were to be provided along the route to allow smoke and steam to escape from the tunnels. Between Oxford Street and Chandos Street, a new road was to be constructed over the railway to which the

Metropolitan Board of Works The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of local government in a wide area of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, defined by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, from December 1855 until the establishment of the London County ...

agreed to contribute £200,000. The estimated costs of constructing the tunnels and new road were £1.4 million and £280,000 respectively. The EStP&CCR act received Royal assent on 14 August 1871. Following this, the company changed its name to the London Central Railway (LCR), but, again, the company struggled to raise funding for the construction. In 1873, an extension of time was obtained to grant the LCR additional time to construct the railway, but proposals for an additional connection to King's Cross station and to the MR at St Pancras were rejected. The LCR's financial situation failed to improve and the proposal was abandoned again in 1874.

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