THE CITY AND SOUTH LONDON RAILWAY OPENED IN 1890

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the City and South London Railway, the first successful deep-level underground tube railway in the world, that was opened on a day like today in 1890.

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 electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing to the bankruptcy of the cable contractor during construction, a system of electric traction using electric locomotives -an experimental technology at the time- was chosen instead.

When opened in 1890, the line had six stations and ran for 5.1 km in a pair of tunnels between the City of London and Stockwell, passing under the River Thames. The diameter of the tunnels restricted the size of the trains, and the small carriages with their high-backed seating were nicknamed padded cells. The railway was extended several times north and south, eventually serving 22 stations over a distance of 21.7 km from Camden Town in north London to Morden in south London.

Although the C&SLR was well used, low ticket prices and the construction cost of the extensions placed a strain on the company's finances.

In 1913, the C&SLR became part of the Underground Group of railways and, in the 1920s, it underwent major reconstruction works before its merger with another of the Group's railways, the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, forming a single London Underground line called the Morden-Edgware line.

In 1933, the C&SLR and the rest of the Underground Group was taken into public ownership. Today, its tunnels and stations form the Bank Branch of the Northern line from Camden Town to Kennington and the southern leg of the line from Kennington to Morden.

In November 1883, notice was given that a private bill was to be presented to Parliament for the construction of the City of London & Southwark Subway (CL&SS). The promoter of the bill, and engineer of the proposed railway, was James Henry Greathead, who had, in 1869–70, constructed the Tower Subway using the same tunnelling shield/segmented cast iron tube method proposed for the CL&SS. The railway was to run from Elephant and Castle, in Southwark, south London, under the River Thames to King William Street in the City of London. The tracks were to be in twin tunnels 3.1 metres in diameter, running for a distance of 2.01 km.

More information: London Transport Museum

The bill received royal assent as the City of London and Southwark Subway Act 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. clxvii) on 28 July 1884.

In 1886, a further bill was submitted to Parliament to extend the tunnels south from Elephant and Castle to Kennington and Stockwell.  This received assent on 12 July 1887 as the City of London and Southwark Subway (Kennington Extensions, &c.) Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. cv), allowing the construction of the extension to be added to the work on the original route, which had begun in 1886.

The tunnels on this section were of a slightly larger diameter -3.2 metres- and extended the line by a further 2.82 km. Before the railway opened, a further bill received assent, granting permission to continue the line south to Clapham Common. The act was given royal assent on 25 July 1890 as the City and South London Railway Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. cxiv), also effecting a change of the company's name.

The railway was officially opened by Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) on 4 November 1890, and was opened to the public on 18 December 1890. Initially, it had stations at: Stockwell, The Oval (now Oval), Kennington, Elephant & Castle, Borough and King William Street.

The original service was operated by trains composed of an engine and three carriages. Thirty-two passengers could be accommodated in each carriage, which had longitudinal bench seating and sliding doors at the ends, leading onto a platform for boarding and alighting. It was reasoned that there was nothing to look at in the tunnels, so the only windows were in a narrow band high up in the carriage sides.

Gate-men rode on the carriage platforms to operate the lattice gates and announce the station names to the passengers. Because of their claustrophobic interiors, the carriages soon became known as padded cells.

More information: Academic Accelerator

Unlike other railways, the C&SLR had no ticket classes or paper tickets; when the railway began operations, a flat fare of two pence, collected at a turnstile, was charged. Despite the cramped carriages and competition from bus and tram services, the railway attracted 5.1 million passengers in 1891, its first year of operation. To alleviate overcrowding, the fleet of rolling stock was enlarged.

The technologies of deep tube tunnelling and electric traction pioneered and proved by the C&SLR shaped the direction of subsequent underground railways built in London. 

The C&SLR demonstrated that an underground railway could be constructed without the need to purchase large and expensive tracts of land for the shallow cuttings of sub-surface steam operated railways. Instead, it became possible to construct a tunnel at deep level without adversely affecting conditions on the surface.

The C&SLR thus encouraged the construction of a network of underground railways in London far larger than might have been the case otherwise. The size and depth of the tunnels used on the deep tube lines, including the Northern line, does have drawbacks: the tunnels have a limited loading gauge and the lines suffer from overheating in the summer.

During World War II, the disused tunnels between Borough and King William Street stations were converted for use as an air-raid shelter, with entrances to the shelter at King William Street and at six sites south of the Thames (of nine planned).

In the 1960s the disused tunnels were used to assist the ventilation of London Bridge station and all the entrances bar that at 9 London Bridge Street were infilled with concrete. It is now only possible to access the tunnels from Three Castles House or a passage from the Jubilee line at London Bridge.

Most of the C&SLR's six original station buildings were rebuilt or modified during the improvements to the line in the 1920s or during more recent modernisations. Only the building at Kennington retains its original exterior and the dome over the lift shaft, a feature of all the original stations.

More information: Eurogunzel

There's something about the sound of a train
that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.

Paul Simon