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The Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (EH&LR) was a railway in north London constructed in the 1860s to connect Finsbury Park and Edgware, running via Highgate and Mill Hill. Later branches were extended to High Barnet and Alexandra Palace. The railway was owned and operated by the Great Northern Railway and primarily carried commuters to Moorgate via King's Cross and the Widened Lines.
The railway was a precursor of parts of the London Underground's Northern line through its 1930s inclusion in the core of an ambitious expansion plan for that line. The EH&LR was to be transferred to the London Underground and electrified. Connections were to be constructed to the Northern line at Highgate and Edgware and to the Northern City Line, with an extension from Edgware to Bushey Heath. Works were stopped by the outbreak of the Second World War and only the work on the sections from Highgate to High Barnet and from Finchley Central to Mill Hill East were completed. The remainder of the line was closed in by British Railways the 1950s and is now disused. (Full article...)
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Selected biography
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Charles Pearson (4 October 1793 – 14 September 1862) was a solicitor to the City of London, a reforming campaigner and briefly a Member of Parliament for Lambeth constituency. He was involved in many campaigns and reformations including overturning the ban on Jews from being stockbrokers. He also fully supported universal suffrage and electoral reform to balance the sizes of parliamentary constituencies.
Recognising the growth in the outer suburbs of London and inner city congestion, he proposed the construction of an underground railway through the Fleet valley to Farringdon. His first proposal was that of an atmospheric railway, which was ridiculed, but he continued to campaign throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Various other schemes included a rejected plan for a central railway station to be shared by multiple railway companies. In 1854, a private bill for the Metropolitan Railway between Paddington and Farringdon received assent. Although not a director or shareholder, Pearson's publishing of a pamphlet and continued support eventually convinced the City of London to support for the project.
Pearson died of dropsy on 14 September 1862 at his home at West Hill, Wandsworth, and so was not alive to see the opening of the Metropolitan Railway on 10 January 1863. Pearson had refused the offer of a reward from the railway company, but, shortly after the railway's opening, his widow was granted an annuity of £250 per year. (Full article...)
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- ...that sculptor Henry Moore's first public commission in 1928-29 was a relief sculpture West Wind for the Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway?
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Image 2Qantas Boeing 747-400 about to land at Heathrow Airport, seen beyond the roofs of Myrtle Avenue, Hounslow.
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Image 3Southern approach to the Rotherhithe Tunnel that runs under the River Thames in east London between Rotherhithe and Limehouse.
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Image 4Helicopter landing at London Heliport, a jetty constructed in the River Thames in Battersea.
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Image 5Vauxhall Bridge across the River Thames opened in 1906 and features sculptures by F. W. Pomeroy.
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Image 7View of Old London Bridge, circa 1632 by Claude de Jongh.
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Image 8Early style tube roundel in mosaic at Maida Vale Underground station.
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Image 9Clapham Common Underground station north and south-bound platforms on the Northern line.
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Image 10TX4 London Taxi at Heathrow Airport.
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Image 1155 Broadway, headquarters of the UERL and its successors, is a Grade I listed building in Westminster designed by Charles Holden.
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Image 13Planes waiting at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 4.
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Image 16Ruislip Lido Railway's 12-inch (300 mm) gauge locomotive "Mad Bess" hauling a passenger train.
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Image 17London Underground Battery-electric locomotive L16 designed to operate over tracks where the traction current is turned off for maintenance work.
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Image 18Day (left) and Night (right) sculptures by Sir Jacob Epstein on the London Underground's headquarters at 55 Broadway.
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Image 19Escalators at Westminster Underground station descend between beams and columns of the station box to reach the deep-level Jubilee line platforms.
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Image 20The newly constructed junction of the Westway ( A40) and the West Cross Route ( A3220) at White City, circa 1970. Continuation of the West Cross Route northwards under the roundabout was cancelled leaving two short unused stubs for the slip roads that would have been provided for traffic joining or leaving the northern section.
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Image 21Central London Railway poster, published in 1905.
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Image 22The Circle routes of Victorian London, comprising the Inner Circle, Middle Circle, Outer Circle and Super Outer Circle.
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Image 23Rail, road and river traffic, seen from the London Eye.
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Image 25Archer statue by Eric Aumonier at East Finchley Underground station.
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Image 27Preserved AEC Routemaster coaches in London Transport Green Line livery.
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Image 28Sailing ships at West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs in 1810. The docks opened in 1802 and closed in 1980 and have since been redeveloped as the Canary Wharf development.
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Image 29Hornsey Lane Bridge, Archway, more commonly known as "Suicide Bridge".
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Image 30"Boris Bikes" from the Santander Cycles hire scheme waiting for use at a docking station in Victoria.
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Image 32The New Routemaster built by Wrightbus has three entrances, two staircases and is designed to be reminiscent of the Routemaster.
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Image 33Original stations on the Metropolitan Railway from The Illustrated London News, 27 December 1862.
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Image 34Tram 2548 calls at Arena tram stop. This is one of the trams on the Tramlink network centred on Croydon in south London.
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Image 35The original Hampton Court Bridge in 1753, the first of four on the site.
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Image 37The western departures concourse of King's Cross railway station.
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Image 38Albert Bridge, opened in 1873, crosses the River Thames between Chelsea and Battersea.
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Image 39Woolwich Ferry boats "John Burns" and "James Newman" on the River Thames, 2012.
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Image 40The multi-level junction between the M23 and M25 motorways near Merstham in Surrey. The M23 passes over the M25 with bridges carrying interchange slip roads for the two motorways in between.
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Image 41London Underground A60 Stock (left) and 1938 Stock (right) trains showing the difference in the sizes of the two types of rolling stock operated on the system. A60 stock trains operated on the surface and sub-surface sections of the Metropolitan line from 1961 to 2012 and 1938 Stock operated on various deep level tube lines from 1938 to 1988.
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Image 43The south façade of King's Cross railway station London terminus of the East Coast Main Line.
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Image 44London General Omnibus Company B-type bus B340 built in 1911 by AEC. One of a number of London buses purchased by the British military during World War I, this vehicle was operated on the Western Front.
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Image 45A tram of the London United Tramways at Boston Road, Hanwell, circa 1910.
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Image 46Arguably the best-preserved disused station building in London, this is the former Alexandra Palace station on the GNR Highgate branch (closed in 1954). It is now in use as a community centre (CUFOS).
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Image 47Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1887, crosses the River Thames in west London.
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