The Cromwell Curve was a short section of railway line on the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
between
Gloucester Road and
High Street Kensington stations. The line was opened by the
District Railway
The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...
(DR) on 5 July 1871.
The tracks formed a triangle across the end of the ∨ connecting the District's existing routes from
Earl's Court station to Gloucester Road and High Street Kensington, and ran in a cutting parallel to 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).
The name derives from
Cromwell Road
Cromwell Road is a major London road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, designated as part of the A4. It was created in the 19th century and is said to be named after Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, who once owned a hous ...
which is immediately south of the site of the curve.
The track was opened without
Parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
authority in an attempt by the DR to increase its share of the revenues from the ''Inner Circle'' (now the
Circle line), which were divided on the basis of mileage of track owned by the DR and the MR.
[ Sir John Fowler arbitrated the dispute, ruling on 27 July that Inner Circle receipts were to be divided 67% to the Metropolitan and 33% to the District (revised to 50:50 in 1878, due to increased traffic from the District's western lines).][ Although the Cromwell Curve was used only occasionally, the dispute between the two companies continued until 1903, when the matter was finally decided in favour of the Metropolitan.][
The long curve was closed in 1956 and the tracks are no longer in place.]
References
External links
*
Article on the effects of the Cromwell Curve on the development of the Emperor's Gate neighbourhood in London
Closed London Underground lines
Metropolitan District Railway
{{London-tube-stub