There were a number of proposals to build an underground railway 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 in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes sever ...

in north-west

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, at the end of the 19th century. Each scheme envisaged building some form of rail tunnel under Edgware Road 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 Railway electrification in Great Britain, electric traction. The railway was originally i ...

. Like several other proposals at the time, such as the City and Brixton Railway, 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 electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

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 ...

. 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 in the London Borough of Brent, centred on Brondesbury Park railway station and the street, an avenue, which shares its name. The area has a number of open spaces, primarily Queen's Park and Tiv ...

. 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 of Kilburn in the London Boroughs of Brent and Camden, in north London, England. The area is traditionally part of the ancient parish and subsequent municipal borough of Willesden, o ...

*Kilburn (close to

Kilburn High Road Kilburn is an area in North West London, in the London Boroughs of Camden, Brent and the City of Westminster. Kilburn High Road railway station lies 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-west of Charing Cross. Kilburn developed from a linear hamle ...

) *Hall Road (close to

Maida Vale Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district in North West London, England, north of Paddington, southwest of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn, on Edgware Road. It is part of the City of Westminster and is northwest of Charing C ...

) *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 in 1827 as the state entrance to the cour d'honneur of Buckingham Palace; it stood near the site of what is today th ...

Hyde Park Corner Hyde Park Corner is between Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair in London, England. It primarily refers to a major road junction at the southeastern corner of Hyde Park, that was originally planned by architect Decimus Burton. The juncti ...

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named afte ...

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 Pl ...

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 Bicameralism, 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 ...

Select committee 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 between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...

) 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 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, London, Hyde Park to ...

. 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 a town in North London, England, in the London Boroughs of Camden, Barnet, and Brent. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north-west of Charing Cross. Cricklewood was a small rural hamlet ...

and would only run as far as Marble Arch. Its promoters included

Sir Benjamin Baker Sir Benjamin Baker (31 March 1840 – 19 May 1907) was an English civil engineer who worked in mid to late Victorian era. He helped develop the early underground railways in London with Sir John Fowler, but he is best known for his work on th ...

, 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 e ...

, 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 as the , 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 (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

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 by the ( 2 Edw. 7. c. cclviii), 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. 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 as the (

6 Edw. 7 This is a complete list of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the year 1906. Note that the first parliament of the United Kingdom was held in 1801; parliaments between 1707 and 1800 were either Parliament of Great Britain, parliam ...

. c. cxciv). 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 constructio ...

(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 James Baker. The area was originally high class residential, but now is mainly occupied by commercial premises. The street is ...

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

and

Elephant and Castle Elephant and Castle is an area of South 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 of the same name. The n ...

(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, 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 Abercorn Place is a street in St John's Wood in London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs west to east from the Edgware Road at Maida Vale until it joins Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road not far from the Abbey Road Studios to the south. ...

Belsize Road Belsize Road is a street in the London Borough of Camden. It runs west to east from Kilburn High Road to close to Finchley Road in the Swiss Cottage area of Hampstead. It is part of the B509 route which continues eastwards as Adelaide Road to Cha ...

, (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 History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

(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 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 is a Rail transport, railway in which the track consists of a single rail or beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately, the term refers to the style ...

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 flow, steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the f ...

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 thes ...

, 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 barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For a ...

, 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 Mechanical equilibrium, equilibrium. The expression came into use in the 19th century and describes how a system "hunts" for equilibrium. The expression is used to describe phe ...

. 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 is a type of list of amusement rides, amusement ride employing a form of elevated Railway track, railroad track that carries passengers on a roller coaster train, train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements, usua ...

" 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 buildin ...

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 London ...

* 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 of mathematics (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.), it is given a more precise definition, which may inc ...

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

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

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

*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 th ...

Strand Strand or The 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 * ...

(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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

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 counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

and

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, successfully promoting its commuter services with the ''

Metro-land Metro-land (or Metroland – see note on spelling, below) 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 th ...

'' 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 a ...

— 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 Londo ...

(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 suburban north-west London and in east London, via the West End of London, West End, South Bank and London Docklands, Docklands. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the ...

) 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