![Metro-Land (1921)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Metro-Land_%281921%29.png)
Metro-land (or Metroland) is a name given to the
suburban
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
areas that were built to the north-west of
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 ...
in the counties 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 ...
,
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 ...
and
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
in the early part of the 20th century that were served by 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 railway company was in the privileged position of being allowed to retain surplus land; from 1919 this was developed for housing by the nominally independent
Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE). The term "Metro-land" was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the ''Guide to the Extension Line'' became the ''Metro-land guide''. It promoted a dream of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London until the Met was absorbed into 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 ...
in 1933.
Metropolitan Railway
![Electric locomotive and train, Metropolitan Railway (CJ Allen, Steel Highway, 1928)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Electric_locomotive_and_train%2C_Metropolitan_Railway_%28CJ_Allen%2C_Steel_Highway%2C_1928%29.jpg)
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 ...
was a passenger and goods 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
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...
suburbs. Its first line connected the mainline railway termini at , and
King's Cross to the City, and 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. When, in 1871 plans were presented for an underground railway in Paris, it was called the ''
Métropolitain'' in imitation of the line in London. The modern word
metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
is a short form of the French word. The railway was soon extended from both ends and northwards via a branch 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 ...
. It reached
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
in 1864,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
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 in
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 ...
, more than from Baker Street and the centre of London. From the end of the 19th century, the railway shared tracks with the
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
route out of .
Electric traction was introduced in 1905 with
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
s operating services between Uxbridge, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Baker Street. To remove steam and smoke from the tunnels in central London, the Metropolitan Railway purchased
electric locomotives, and these were exchanged for steam locomotives on trains at Harrow from 1908. To improve services, more powerful electric and steam locomotives were purchased in the 1920s. A short branch opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925. The long Stanmore branch from Wembley Park was completed in 1932.
Metro-land
Unlike other railway companies, which were required to dispose of surplus land, the Met was in a privileged position with clauses in its acts allowing it to retain land that it believed was necessary for future railway use. Initially the surplus land was managed by the Land Committee, made up of Met directors. In the 1880s, at the same time as the railway was extending beyond Swiss Cottage and building the workers' estate at Neasden, roads and sewers were built at Willesden Park Estate, and the land was sold to builders. Similar developments followed at Cecil Park, near
Pinner
Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011.
Originally a med ...
and, after the failure of the tower at Wembley, plots were sold at Wembley Park.
Robert Selbie, then General Manager, thought in 1912 that some professionalism was needed and suggested a company be formed to take over from the Surplus Lands Committee to develop estates near the railway. The First World War delayed these plans however, and it was 1919, with the expectation of a housing boom, before the MRCE was formed. Concerned that Parliament might reconsider the unique position the Met held, the railway company sought legal advice. The legal opinion was that although the Met had authority to hold land, it had none to develop it, so an independent company was created, although all but one of its directors were also directors of the railway company. The MRCE went on to develop estates at
Kingsbury Garden Village near
Neasden
Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...
,
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
, Cecil Park and Grange Estate at
Pinner
Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011.
Originally a med ...
and the Cedars Estate at
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...
and create places such as
Harrow Garden Village
Harrow Garden Village was a housing development in the 1930s around Rayners Lane Underground station in London, England, which until then had been a "country halt" on the Metropolitan line. This was Metro-land
Metro-land (or Metroland) is a ...
.
The term Metro-land was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the ''Guide to the Extension Line'' became the ''Metro-land'' guide, priced at 1
d. This promoted the land served by the Met for the walker, the visitor and later the house-hunter. Published annually until 1932, the last full year of independence for the Met, the guide extolled the benefits of "The good air of the Chilterns," using language such as "Each lover of Metroland may well have his own favourite wood beech and coppice – all tremulous green loveliness in Spring and russet and gold in October." The dream promoted was of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London.
From about 1914 the company had promoted itself as The Met, but after 1920 the commercial manager, John Wardle, ensured that timetables and other publicity material used the term Metro instead. Land development also occurred in central London when in 1929 a large, luxurious block of apartments called
Chiltern Court
Chiltern Court, Baker Street, London, is a large block of flats at the street's northern end, facing Regent's Park and Marylebone Road. It was built between 1927 and 1929 above the Baker Street tube station by the Metropolitan Railway. Original ...
opened at Baker Street, designed by the Met's architect Charles W. Clark, who was also responsible for the design of a number of station reconstructions in outer "Metro-land" at this time.
A few large houses had been built on parts of
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
, south-west of the Metropolitan station, as early as the 1890s. In 1906, when
Watkin’s Tower closed, the Tower Company had become the Wembley Park Estate Company (later Wembley Ltd.), with the aim of developing
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
as a residential suburb.
Unlike other railways, from an early date the Metropolitan Railway had bought land alongside its line and then developed housing on it. In the 1880s and 1890s it had done so with the Willesden Park Estate near Willesden Green station, and in the early 1900s it developed on land in Pinner, as well as planning the expansion of
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
.
In 1915 by the Metropolitan Railway's publicity department had created the term Metro-land. It was used as the new name for the company's annual guide to the places it served (known as Guide to the Extension Line prior to 1915). The ''Metro-land'' guide, although partly written to attract walkers and day trippers, was clearly primarily intended to encourage the building of suburban homes and create middle-class commuters who would use the Metropolitan Railway's trains for all their needs. It was published annually until 1932, but when the Metropolitan became part of London Transport in 1933 the term and guide were abandoned. By then North-West London was well on the road to its reputation for suburbanisation.
The 1924 ''Metro-land'' guide describes
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
as "rapidly developed of recent years as a residential district", pointing out that there are several golf courses within a few minutes journey of it.
Over the years during which the guide was published, large numbers of Londoners moved out to the new estates in north-west London. Some of these estates were developed by MRCE, a company that Robert H. Selbie, the Metropolitan Railway's General Manager, set up in 1919. It would eventually build houses along the line, from Neasden reaching far out as Amersham.
One of the earliest of these MRCE developments was a 123-acre one at Chalkhill, within the bounds of what was
Repton
Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...
’s
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
. MRCE acquired the land shortly after it was created and began selling plots in 1921. The railway even put in a siding to bring building materials to the estate.
The term ‘Metroland’ (usually seen now without the hyphen) has become shorthand for the suburban areas that were built in north-west London and in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex following the Metropolitan branches. It had become immortalised well before the guide stopped being published. A song called "My Little Metro-land Home" had been published in 1920, and
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...
’s novel ''
Decline and Fall
''Decline and Fall'' is a novel by the English author Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1928. It was Waugh's first published novel; an earlier attempt, titled '' The Temple at Thatch'', was destroyed by Waugh while still in manuscript form. '' ...
'' (1928) has a character marrying a Viscount Metroland. She reappears, with the title Lady Metroland, in two more of Waugh's novels; ''Vile Bodies'' (1930) and ''A Handful of Dust'' (1934).
The
British Empire Exhibition
The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925.
Background
In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibi ...
further encouraged the new phenomenon of suburban development. Wembley's sewerage was improved, many roads in the area were straightened and widened and new bus services began operating. Visitors were steadily introduced to Wembley and some later moved to the area when houses had been built to accommodate them.
Between 1921 and 1928 season ticket sales at
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
and neighbouring Metropolitan stations rose by over 700%. Like the rest of West London, most of
Wembley Park
Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross.
The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broade ...
and its environs was fully developed, largely with relatively low-density suburban housing, by 1939.
Absorption of the Met
On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form 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), and the railway became the
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
of London Transport. The LPTB was not interested in running goods and freight services and the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) took over all freight traffic. At the same time the LNER became responsible for hauling passenger trains with steam locomotives north of Rickmansworth. The lines north of Aylesbury to Verney Junction and Brill were closed; last train to Brill ran on 30 November 1935 and to Quainton Road and Verney Junction on 2 April 1936. Quainton Road continued to be served by the LNER. For a time, the LPTB used the "Metro-land" tag: "Cheap fares to Metro-land and the sea" were advertised in 1934 but the "Metro-land" brand was rapidly dropped. London Transport introduced new slogans such as "Away by Metropolitan" and "Good spot, the Chilterns".
Steam traction continued to be used on the outer sections of what had become the "
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
" until 1961. From that date Metropolitan trains ran only as far as
Amersham
Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt.
...
, with main line services from
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
covering stations between
Great Missenden
Great Missenden is an affluent village with approximately 2,000 residents in the Misbourne Valley in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England, situated between the towns of Amersham and Wendover, with direct rail connections to London Mar ...
and Aylesbury.
Defining Metro-land
![HarrowPanorama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/HarrowPanorama.jpg)
The term Metro-land is applied to suburban areas around the route of the Metropolitan Railway, areas which urbanised under the influence of the railway in the 20th century. It applies to land in Middlesex, west Hertfordshire and south Buckinghamshire. The Middlesex area in now administered as the London Boroughs of
Brent and
Harrow, together with part of the
London Borough of Hillingdon
The London Borough of Hillingdon () is the largest and westernmost borough in West London, England. It was formed from the districts of Hayes and Harlington, Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, and Yiewsley and West Drayton in the ceremonial county ...
.
The architect
Hugh Casson
Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect. He was also active as an interior designer, as an artist, and as a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for t ...
regarded
Harrow as the "capital city" of Metro-land,
[Stephen Halliday (2001) ''Underground to Everywhere''] while
Arthur Mee
Arthur Henry Mee (21 July 187527 May 1943) was an English writer, journalist and educator. He is best known for ''The Harmsworth Self-Educator'', ''The Children's Encyclopædia'', ''The Children's Newspaper'', and ''The King's England''. The ...
's ''King's England'' described
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
as its "epitome".
The ''Metro-land'' guide insisted that Metro-land was "a country with elastic borders that each visitor can draw for himself". Even so, ''Metro-land'' was quite firm that, so far as the Buckinghamshire Chilterns were concerned, its "Grand Duchy" was confined to the
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
of
Burnham: "the Chilterns round
Marlow and the
Wycombes are not in Metro-land".
The usefulness of the term ''Metro-land'', has occasionally led journalists to use the term for the suburban catchment of other underground lines.
Slogans and references
The Metropolitan's terminus at Baker Street was "the gateway to Metro-land" and Chiltern Court, which opened over the station in 1929 and was headquarters during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
of the
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...
, was "''at'' the gateway to Metro-land". In similar vein,
Chorleywood and
Chenies
Chenies is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the border with Hertfordshire, east of Amersham and north of Chorleywood.
History
Until the 13th century, the village name was Isenhampstead. There were two ...
, later described by
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
as "the essential Metro-land", were "at the gateway" of the Chiltern Hills (of which
Wendover
Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...
was the "pearl").
Literature and songs
![Croxley Tube Station - exterior](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Croxley_Tube_Station_-_exterior.JPG)
Before the end of the First World War
George R. Sims
George Robert Sims (2 September 1847 – 4 September 1922) was an English journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist and ''bon vivant''.
Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for ''Fun'' magazine and ''The Referee'', but he was soon co ...
had incorporated the term in verse: "I know a land where the wild flowers grow/Near, near at hand if by train you go,/Metroland, Metroland".
By the 1920s, the word was so ingrained in the consciousness that, in
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...
’s novel, ''
Decline and Fall
''Decline and Fall'' is a novel by the English author Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1928. It was Waugh's first published novel; an earlier attempt, titled '' The Temple at Thatch'', was destroyed by Waugh while still in manuscript form. '' ...
'' (1928), the Hon Margot Beste-Chetwynde took Viscount Metroland as her second husband. Lady Metroland's second appearance in ''
Vile Bodies
Vile may refer to:
Characters
* Vile (Mega Man X), a character from the Mega Man X game series
* Doctor Vile (Dr. Weil), a character from the Mega Man Zero game series
* V.I.L.E., a fictional villain group in the ''Carmen Sandiego'' franchise ...
'' in 1930 and ''
A Handful of Dust
''A Handful of Dust'' is a novel by the British writer Evelyn Waugh. First published in 1934, it is often grouped with the author's early, satirical comic novels for which he became famous in the pre– World War II years. Commentators have, ...
'' in 1934 further reinforces this.
Metro-land further entered the public psyche with the song ''My Little Metro-land Home'' (lyrics by Boyle Lawrence and music by Henry Thraile, 1920), while another ditty extolled the virtues of the Poplars estate at
Ruislip
Ruislip ( ) is an area in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London, and in the historic county of Middlesex. Ruislip lies west-north-west of Charing Cross, London.
The manor of Ruislip appears in the Domesday Book, and some of the ear ...
with the assertion that "It's a very short distance by rail on the Met/And at the gate you'll find waiting, sweet Violet".
Queensbury and its local surroundings and characters were cited in the song "Queensbury Station" by the Berlin-based punk-jazz band
The Magoo Brothers on their album "Beyond Believable", released on the Bouncing Corporation label in 1988. The song was written by
Paul Bonin
Paul Bonin is a singer and musician (electric bass, guitar) and a songwriter/composer. His body of published recorded work spans from 1980 to the present day.
Bonin was born in Hammersmith, London and grew up in north London. He began playing b ...
and Melanie Hickford, who both grew up and lived in the area.
In 1997, ''
Metroland'' was the title and setting for a movie starring
Christian Bale
Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. He has received various accolades, including ...
about the development of the relationship between a husband and wife living in the area. The movie was based on the novel of the same name written by Julian Barnes.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboar ...
recorded a song ''Metroland'' on the
English Electric
N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail)
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...
album. It was released as a single, with the video showing the singer dreamily gazing out from a train at an idealised suburban landscape.
"Live in Metro-land"
In 1903 the Metropolitan developed a housing estate at Cecil Park,
Pinner
Pinner is a London suburb in the London borough of Harrow, Greater London, England, northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 31,130 in 2011.
Originally a med ...
, the first of many such enterprises over the next thirty years. Overseen by the Metropolitan's general manager from 1908 to 1930, Robert H Selbie, the railway formed its own Country Estates Company in 1919. The slogan, "Live in Metro-land", was even etched on the door handles of Metropolitan carriages.
Some stations, such as
Hillingdon
Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civil pari ...
(1923), were built specifically to serve the company's suburban developments. A number, including Wembley Park,
Croxley Green
Croxley Green is both a village and a suburb of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is also a civil parish. Located on the A412 between Watford to the northeast and Rickmansworth to the southwest, it is approximately northwest of central ...
(1925) and Stanmore (1932), were designed by Charles W. Clark (who was responsible also for Chiltern Court) in an
Arts and crafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
"villa" style. These were intended to blend with their surroundings, though, in retrospect, they arguably lacked the panache and vision of
Charles Holden
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
's striking, modern designs for the
Underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
group in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Imitators
Nearly 70 years later the Chilterns Conservation Board was advertising "Chilterns Country – countryside walks from rail stations" (2004). Drawing no doubt on "Metro-land, a guide for ramblers", published by British Railways Southern Region shortly after the Second World War, it referred to the "Rambleland" stations of Surrey and Sussex.
Spirit of Metro-land
The sentimental and somewhat archaic prose of the ''Metro-land'' guide ("the Roman road aslant the eastern border ... the innumerable field-paths which mark the labourer's daily route from hamlet to farm")
[''Metro-land'', 1932 edition] conjured up a rustic
Eden – a
Middle England
The phrase "Middle England" is a socio-political term which generally refers to middle class or lower-middle class people in England who hold traditional conservative or right-wing views.
Origins
The origins of the term "Middle England" are ...
, perhaps – similar to that invoked by
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...
(Prime Minister three times between 1923 and 1937) who, though of manufacturing stock, famously donned the mantle of countryman ("the tinkle of the hammer on the anvil in the country smithy, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone"). As one historian of the London Underground put it wryly, "the world of Metroland is not cluttered with people: its suburban streets are empty ... There are, it seems, more farm animals than people."
A more cynical view, that sought to contrast illusion with changing times, was offered in 1934 by the composer and conductor
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...
who "conjure
up the hideous faux bonhomie of the
hiker
Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...
, noisily wading his way through the petrol pumps of Metroland, singing obsolete
sea chanties
A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a specific st ...
''
ic' with the aid of the Week-End Book, imbibing chemically flavoured synthetic beer under the impression that he is tossing off a tankard of 'jolly good
ale
Ale is a Type of beer, type of beer brewed using a Warm fermentation, warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typicall ...
and old' ... and astonishing the local garage proprietor by slapping him on the back and offering him a pint of 'four 'alf'".
[Constant Lambert (1934) ''Music Ho!''.]
Town ''v.'' country
With similar ambiguity, ''Metro-land'' combined idyllic photographs of rural tranquillity with advertising spreads for new, though leafy, housing developments. Herein lay the contradictions well captured by
Leslie Thomas in his novel, ''The Tropic of Ruislip'' (1974): "in the country but not of it. The fields seemed touchable and yet remote". Writer and historian
A. N. Wilson reflected how suburban developments of the early 20th century that had been brought within easy reach of London by the railways, "merely ended up creating an endless
ribbon
A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mater ...
... not perhaps either town or country".
[A.N.Wilson (2005) ''After the Victorians''] In the process, despite ''Metro-lands promotion of rusticity, a number of outlying towns and villages were "swallowed up and lost their identity".
Influence of ''Country Life''
Wilson noted that the magazine ''
Country Life'', which had been founded by
Edward Hudson as ''Country Life Illustrated'' in 1897, had influenced this pattern with its advertisements for country houses: "If you were a stockbroker or a lawyer's wife ... you could perhaps afford a new
Tudorbethan
Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...
mansion, with an oak staircase and mullioned windows and half-timbered gables, in Godalming or Esher, or
Amersham
Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt.
...
or Penn".
Of the surrounding landscape, ''Country Life'' itself has observed that, in its early days, it offered
Growth of Metro-land
By the 1930s the availability of mortgages with an average rate of interest of 4 per cent meant that private housing was well within the range of most middle class and many working-class pockets. This was a potent factor in the growth of Metro-land: for example, in the first three decades of the 20th century the population of
Harrow Weald
Harrow Weald is a suburban district in Greater London, England. Located about north of Harrow, Harrow Weald is formed from a leafy 1930s suburban development along with ancient woodland of Harrow Weald Common. It forms part of the London Boro ...
rose from 1,500 to 11,000 and that of Pinner from 3,000 to 23,000. In 1932 Northwick Park was said to have grown over the previous five years at the rate of 1,000 houses annually and
Rayners Lane
Rayners Lane is a suburban district in the London Borough of Harrow that forms the western part of Harrow. Located between Pinner and West Harrow, it takes its name from a road in the area, also called Rayners Lane (formerly also spelt ''Rayner ...
to "repay a visit at short intervals to see it grow".
Sir John Betjeman
In the mid-20th century the spirit of Metro-land was evoked in three "late chrysanthemums" by Sir
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
(1906–1984), Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death: "Harrow-on-the-Hill" ("When melancholy autumn comes to Wembley / And electric trains are lighted after tea"), "Middlesex" ("Gaily into Ruislip Gardens / Runs the red electric train") and "The Metropolitan Railway" ("Early Electric! With what radiant hope / Men formed this many-branched electrolier"). In his autobiographical ''
Summoned by Bells
''Summoned by Bells'', the blank verse autobiography by John Betjeman, describes his life from his early memories of a middle-class home in Edwardian Hampstead, London, to his premature departure from Magdalen College, Oxford.
The book was firs ...
'' (1960) Betjeman recalled that "Metroland / Beckoned us out to lanes in beechy Bucks".
![JB Plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/JB_Plaque.JPG)
Described much later by ''The Times'' as the "hymnologist of Metroland", Betjeman reached a wider audience with his celebrated documentary for BBC Television, ''
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 Metropo ...
'', directed by
Edward Mirzoeff
Edward Mirzoeff CVO, CBE (born 11 April 1936) is a prominent British television producer and documentary filmmaker.
Early life
Mirzoeff won an Open Scholarship in Modern History to The Queen's College, Oxford in 1953, obtaining a BA (Oxon) in 1 ...
, which was first broadcast on 26 February 1973 and was released as a
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
33 years later. The critic
Clive James
Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.[Candida Lycett Green
Candida Rose Lycett Green (née Betjeman; 22 September 194219 August 2014) was a British author who wrote sixteen books including ''English Cottages'', ''Goodbye London'', ''The Perfect English House'', ''Over the Hills and Far Away'' and ''The ...]
(born 1942) spearheaded a series of celebratory railway events, including an excursion on 2 September 2006 from Marylebone to Quainton Road, now home of the
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Lycett Green noted of the planning of this trip that among the fine details considered were which filling to have in the baguettes on the train through Metro-land and how long it would stop on the track so that the poem "Middlesex" could be read over the tannoy. The event was in the tradition of earlier commemorations of "Metro-land", such as a centenary parade of rolling stock at
Neasden
Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...
in 1963 and celebrations in 2004 to mark the centenary of the Uxbridge branch.
''Avenger''land
Metro-land (notably west Hertfordshire) formed the backdrop for the 1960s ABC TV series ''
The Avengers'', whose popular imagery was deployed with a twist of fantasy. The archetypal Metro-land subjects (such as the railway station and the quiet suburb) became the settings for fiendish plots and treachery in this series and others, such as ''
The Saint
The Saint may refer to:
Fiction
* Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations:
** ''The Saint'' (film series) (1938–43), starring Louis Hayward, George Sanders an ...
'', ''
The Baron'' and ''
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and p ...
'', all of which made regular use of locations within easy reach of film studios at
Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...
and
Pinewood.
Escaping Metro-land
Some abhorred Metro-land for its predictability and sameness. A. N. Wilson observed that, although semi-detached dwellings of the kind built in the inner Metro-land suburbs in the 1930s "aped larger houses, the stockbroker Tudorbethan of Edwardian Surrey and Middlesex", they were in fact "pokey". He reflected that
Post-war attitudes
By the end of the Second World War architects in general were turning their backs on suburbia; the very word tended to be used pejoratively, even contemptuously. In 1951
Michael Young, one of the architects of the Labour Party's electoral victory in 1945, observed that "one suburb is much like another in an atomised society. Rarely does community flourish", while the American
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
, wrote in the ''New Yorker'' in 1953 that "monotony and suburbanism" were the result of the "unimaginative" design of Britain's post-war
New Towns
A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
. When the editor of the ''Architectural Review'',
J. M. Richards, wrote in ''The Castles on the Ground'' (1946) that "for all the alleged deficiencies of suburban taste ... it holds for ninety out of a hundred Englishmen an appeal which cannot be explained away as some strange instance of mass aberration", he was, in his own words, "scorned by my contemporaries as either an irrelevant eccentricity or a betrayal of the forward looking views of the
Modern
Modern may refer to:
History
* Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Phil ...
Movement".
John Betjeman admired
John Piper's illustrations for ''Castles on the Ground'', describing the "fake half-timber, the leaded lights and bow windows of the Englishman's castle" as "the beauty of the despised, patronised suburb". However, as the historian
David Kynaston
David Thomas Anthony Kynaston (; born 30 July 1951 in Aldershot) is an English historian specialising in the social history of England.
Early life and education
Kynaston was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and New College, Oxford, ...
observed sixty years later, "the time was far from ripe for Metroland nostalgia".
Julian Barnes: ''Metroland''
Valerie Grove
Valerie Grove (née Smith, born 11 May 1946) is a British journalist and author, who for many years worked as a feature writer, interviewer and columnist for ''The Times'' newspaper.
Grove was born in South Shields. Her father, William Douglas "D ...
, who conceded that Metro-land was "a kinder word than 'suburbia'" and referred to the less spoilt areas beyond Rickmansworth as "Outer Metro-land", maintained that "suburbia had no visible history. Anyone with any spirit ... had to get out of Metro-land to make their mark".
Thus, the central character of ''
Metroland'' (1980), a novel by
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with '' The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', ''England, England'', and '' A ...
(born 1946) that was
filmed in 1997, ended up in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
during the disturbances of May 1968 – though, by the late 1970s, having thrown off the yearnings of his youth, he was back in Metro-land. ''Metroland'' recounted the essence of suburbia in the early 1960s and the features of daily travel by a schoolboy, Christopher Lloyd, on the Metropolitan line to and from London. During a French lesson, Christopher declared, "''J’habite Metroland''"
I live in Metroland" because it "sounds better than Eastwick
he fictional location of his home stranger than Middlesex".
In real life, some schoolboys had made similar journeys for more
hedonistic
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decre ...
reasons. Betjeman recalled that, between the wars, boys from
Harrow School
(The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God)
, established = (Royal Charter)
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school
, religion = Church of E ...
had used the Metropolitan for illicit excursions to
night clubs
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
in London: "Whenever the police raided the
Hypocrites' Club
The Hypocrites' Club was one of the student clubs at Oxford University in England. Its motto in Greek, from an Olympian Ode by Pindar, was ''Water is best''. This led to the members being called ''Hypocrites'', due to the fact that beer, wine an ...
or the Coconut Club, the '43 or the Blue Lantern there would always be Harrovians there".
Social mobility: ''Tropic of Ruislip''
Between Metro-land's heyday before the Second World War and the end of the 20th century, the proportion of
owner-occupied dwellings in England, already rising fast from the mid-1920s, doubled from a third to two-thirds.
[Proportion of dwellings by household tenure, 1938 and 1997: ''Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health'' (Chair, Sir Donald Acheson), 1998] In ''
Tropic of Ruislip
Tropic of Ruislip is a 1974 novel by British author Leslie Thomas. It explores the British class divide and themes such as wife swapping. The title refers to Ruislip, one of London's outer suburbs, but the book is set in another suburb, Carpe ...
'',
Leslie Thomas’s humorous account of suburban sexual and social
mores
Mores (, sometimes ; , plural form of singular , meaning "manner, custom, usage, or habit") are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture. Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable ...
in the mid-1970s (adapted for television as ''Tropic'', ATV 1979), the steady flow of families from council housing on one side of the railway to an executive estate on the other side served to illustrate what was becoming known as "
upward mobility
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...
". Another sign was that, by the end of the book, "half the neighbourhood" of Plummers Park (probably based on Carpenders Park, on the outskirts of
Watford
Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
) had moved south of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
to
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
or nearby
Southfields
Southfields is a district of inner London located within the London Borough of Wandsworth, England, 5.6 miles (9 km) south-west of Charing Cross. Southfields is mainly residential, historically a part of Wandsworth itself, and is divided b ...
. This was put down to the "attractions of
Victoriana
Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901). It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, phot ...
", which, like suburbia itself, championed at the time by Betjeman's ''Metro-land'', was coming back into fashion; however, it appeared to have just as much to do with couples following each other round in order to maintain extramarital affairs.
Another glimpse of Metro-land in the 1970s was provided by ''
The Good Life'', the BBC TV comedy series (1975-8) about suburban self sufficiency. Though set in
Surbiton
Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...
, the programme's location filming was carried out in
Northwood, an area reached by the Metropolitan in 1885. A less benign view of Metro-land was offered in the mid
noughties
The ''aughts'' (American English) or ''noughties'' (British English) are terms referring to the decade 2000 to 2009. These arise from the words ''aught'' and ''nought'' respectively, both meaning zero
0 (zero) is a number representing a ...
by the detective series, ''
Murder in Suburbia
''Murder in Suburbia'' is a British television drama series first broadcast on ITV on 13 March 2004. The series focuses on the work of DS Emma Scribbins (Lisa Faulkner) and DI Kate Ashurst (Caroline Catz), police detectives assigned to the m ...
'' (ITV 2004-6), which, though set in the fictional town of Middleford, was also filmed in Northwood and other parts of North West London.
Note on spelling
The form ''Metroland'' is now in common use, but the "brand" was hyphenated as ''Metro-land'' or ''METRO-LAND''. Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman (in "Summoned by Bells") and Julian Barnes all dispensed with the hyphen, though Betjeman's documentary of 1973 correctly used "Metro-land", as that was the form always employed by the Metropolitan Railway in its brochures and on the trains themselves.
See also
*
Streetcar suburb
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
The Metropolitan and Great Central Railway Joint Committee Survey of 1907Website for metroland.org.ukMetro-land from Southbank Publishingfrom Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides
AvengerlandMetroland magazine advert for houses in Ruislip
{{Metropolitan line navbox
History of Buckinghamshire
History of Hertfordshire
Amersham
Transport design in London
History of the London Underground
Social history of London
Rickmansworth
History of Watford
Transport in Watford