The Outer Circle was a

London & 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 ...

service in London that operated from 1872 to 1908. The route was from 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 ...

station at Mansion House to Earl's Court, then via the

West London Railway The West London Railway was conceived to link the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway with the Kensington Basin of the Kensington Canal, enabling access to and from London docks for the carriage of goods. It opened in 18 ...

to Willesden Junction and then via the

North London Railway The North London Railway (NLR) company had lines connecting the northern suburbs of London with the East and West India Docks further east. The main east to west route is now part of London Overground's North London Line. Other NLR lines fell i ...

to . Although not a complete circuit, it was one of several 'circle' routes around London that opened at the same time, such as the 'inner circle' that is today's Circle line. Trains would run once every 30 minutes. In 1908 the service was cut back to run from Earl's Court to Broad Street. 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 ama ...

operated a kind of ''Super'' Outer Circle from to Earl's Court for two years from 1878 to 1880, via the Dudding Hill freight line.

Outer Circle

History

On 1 February 1872 the

(L&NWR) began a railway service between and the

station at

Mansion House A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property la ...

via the

, , the

and

Earl's Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

, replacing a service that had run along much of the same route to London Victoria. This service became known as the 'outer circle' and was worked with L&NWR locomotives and carriages and there was a train every thirty minutes. When the District electrified in 1905, it built electric locomotives to haul the carriages between Earl's Court and Mansion House. The service appears on the 1908 'London Underground' map between Earl's Court and Uxbridge Road as a District Railway service. The service ceased to run east of Earl's Court from 1 January 1909. The L&NWR electrified the West London Railway and an electric service between Willesden Junction and Earl's Court on started 1 May 1914. This was initially with

electric multiple units 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 ...

provided by the District Railway until 24 November 1914 when LNWR electric units took over. Passenger services on the West London Railway ended on 19 October 1940 following bomb damage to the line Uxbridge Road station closed with the line in 1940 and opened on the same site in 2008. The line is currently served by the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...

between Mansion House and Kensington (Olympia) and then the

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...

to Haggerston.

List of stations

The following stations, listed anti-clockwise, were served by the Outer Circle:

Super Outer Circle

The

operated a kind of ''Super'' Outer Circle from 1878 to 1880. In 1876 the Midland had negotiated running rights over the Metropolitan District Railway from the London & South Western Railway at

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. ...

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with t ...

. The Midland's main interest was supplying coal to Kensington, and in 1878 it opened coal depots at

Kensington High Street Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, London, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Kensington High Street is the continuation of Kensington Road and pa ...

and

West Kensington West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...

. From 1 May 1878 it also ran a passenger service from

to St Pancras via

, and the Dudding Hill freight line to . Two trains an hour ran until 30 September 1880. The coal depots closed in the 1960s.

References

Notes

Sources

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External links

Clive's Underground Line Guides - Circle Line
{{Circle line navbox Transport in the London Borough of Brent Transport in the London Borough of Camden Transport in the City of London Transport in the London Borough of Hackney Transport in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Transport in the London Borough of Islington Transport in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Transport in the City of Westminster London and North Western Railway